16 May 07
Cart springs they're dubbed, and they're a big reason why pick-ups remain the preserve of the blue-collar self-employed. No matter how much leather you swaddle a double-cab Nissan Navara or Ford Ranger with, the archaic rear suspension will always intrude on your cabin contentment.
Unless you own a Mitsubishi L200. In a typically British leap of engineering imagination, the official importers have teamed up with famed race engineer Tom Walkinshaw to offer a completely new rear suspension. Out go the outmoded cart (or leaf) springs, and in come coil jobs with proper suspension arms.
The result should cure two pick-up evils: the snapaway rear end and the godawful jarring over broken-up roads.
Even better for the increasingly big-spending, glam-hungry pick-up customer, the conversion allows for (and includes) much bigger standard wheels - 20-inchers instead of 18s.
