Brute Force

This hulking piece of industrial machinery is actually a heavily reworked Force Motors Gurkha, built specifically to tackle one of the toughest off-road events in the world, the Rain Forest Challenge. The RFC Gurkha uses the same chassis as the standard car, but otherwise there’s very little that’s common. With 37-inch Maxxis Trepador tyres, long-travel coil-over suspension and approach angle of 88 degrees, it looks like it could climb clean up a wall.

Getting in here is a lot of hardwork.

But first, there’s the matter of climbing into its high cabin; maybe a second winch should have been fitted to the cabin for shorter drivers. Inside, the closest thing you’ll find to a creature comfort is a 12-volt socket. There’s a motorsport-spec roll cage, racing seats and four-point harnesses. Interior design? Well, the steering wheel slopes away from you (like in a truck), and the centre console is festooned with an engine start/stop button and switches to control the mechanical front and rear diff locks. There’s also a switch for the ‘high idle’ button, which raises the idling speed up to 2,000rpm (very useful while off-roading), and another one to switch on an auxiliary fan, just in case the vehicle overheats.

Each knob does something special.