Second-gen Volkswagen Amarok to get Walkinshaw treatment, due next year
Aussie tuning house Walkinshaw will add spice to the current-gen VW Amarok, but details remain guarded ahead of an early 2026 launch.
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Australian tuning house Walkinshaw have confirmed their development partnership will continue into the second generation of the Amarok dual-cab ute.
Confirmed with a teaser image (pictured top-of-story) during a presentation to Australian media, design of the next-gen performance-tuned Amarok is “now locked in” according to Ryan Walkinshaw, CEO of Walkinshaw.
“We’ll move into testing throughout the rest of this year,” Mr Walkinshaw said. “The plan is to go even further than we went before.”
Exactly how far that is remains unclear, with both Walkinshaw and Volkswagen Australia remaining tight-lipped on price, range and specification.
Ruled out, however, is use of the 292kW/583Nm 3.0-litre turbo-petrol V6 seen in the Ford Ranger Raptor with which the Amarok now shares a platform.
Dubbed the ‘W-Series’, Walkinshaw was able to develop three trims – a road-tuned W580 and W580S, and an off-road-focused W580X grade – within the first-generation Amarok’s final two years of production.
Being brought on earlier in the Amarok’s life-cycle this time around (just two years after the current-gen launched) means the W-Series range could also likely be grown, according to Walkinshaw.
“There are opportunities there … potentially adding a few different variants than we maybe had the ambitions to be able to do last time,” Mr Walkinshaw explained.
“With a longer lifespan of the programme, you can invest more money because you've got a longer period to be able to get a return on investment.”
Taking clues from the official teaser image which seems to wear larger alloy wheels and road tyres suggests the first variants to leave Walkinshaw’s Melbourne-based facility will be road-tuned, with any off-road version(s) to come later on.
Confirmed with a teaser image (pictured top-of-story) during a presentation to Australian media, design of the next-gen performance-tuned Amarok is “now locked in” according to Ryan Walkinshaw, CEO of Walkinshaw.
“We’ll move into testing throughout the rest of this year,” Mr Walkinshaw said. “The plan is to go even further than we went before.”
Exactly how far that is remains unclear, with both Walkinshaw and Volkswagen Australia remaining tight-lipped on price, range and specification.
Ruled out, however, is use of the 292kW/583Nm 3.0-litre turbo-petrol V6 seen in the Ford Ranger Raptor with which the Amarok now shares a platform.
Dubbed the ‘W-Series’, Walkinshaw was able to develop three trims – a road-tuned W580 and W580S, and an off-road-focused W580X grade – within the first-generation Amarok’s final two years of production.
Being brought on earlier in the Amarok’s life-cycle this time around (just two years after the current-gen launched) means the W-Series range could also likely be grown, according to Walkinshaw.
“There are opportunities there … potentially adding a few different variants than we maybe had the ambitions to be able to do last time,” Mr Walkinshaw explained.
“With a longer lifespan of the programme, you can invest more money because you've got a longer period to be able to get a return on investment.”
Taking clues from the official teaser image which seems to wear larger alloy wheels and road tyres suggests the first variants to leave Walkinshaw’s Melbourne-based facility will be road-tuned, with any off-road version(s) to come later on.
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