Toyota's Hilux has toughed it out in the world's most extreme environments for decades and which only last year made history by conquering the Arctic to become the first car to drive to the Magnetic North Pole.

Now Toyota UK is unveiling a new Hilux version that is set to become the most powerful production pick-up model on the British market — with numbers limited to 500 units.

It is equipped with the familiar 3.0-litre D-4D engine, but thanks to a Toyota Motorsport diesel engine performance kit, maximum output is increased to 145kW. This slashes the 0 to 100km/h acceleration time from 13.0 to 10.5 seconds (11.4 seconds for automatic versions).

There is an even greater hike in torque performance, with a maximum 430Nm (up from 343Nm) sustained all the way from 1600 to 3200rpm.