THE COIL REVOLUTION

SUPERIOR ENGINEERING'S COIL CONVERSIONS REPLACE OLD-SCHOOL TECH WITH MODERN SUSPENSION PERFORMANCE

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WE'VE got it good these days. Just one generation ago your choice of 4x4 was limited, and it was likely rudimentary, agricultural, underpowered and underwhelming. Despite the often-romanticised ideas of rugged simplicity, you'd be doing well to find a 4x4 that could pull the skin off a custard, and you'd probably be locked up in a looney bin if you expected one that could ride well on road and still manage to work well off road.

These days 4x4s have surged forward in leaps and bounds; power, ride quality and useful off-road features are the standard, but they're still mass-marketed vehicles, designed for everyone, not anyone. If your needs fall outside the scope of the manufacturer's ideas, then the aftermarket is your source of salvation.

Enter Superior Engineering. This company has been slowly but surely redesigning every aspect of various 4x4 models to make them perform better. From Superior's early radius arms to its later high-tech electronically controlled shocks, it has been making 4x4s do things vehicle manufacturers never thought possible.

With the introduction of Superior's coil-conversion kits, the company is essentially re-engineering vehicles to how they should have come from the factory. If you've ever fantasised about what a HiLux Raptor competitor would be, Superior has the answers. But what exactly goes into its coil conversion kits, what are the pros and cons, and how much is it going to hurt the hip pocket to build a better HiLux than Toyota can? We caught up with Sam Turnbull, the general manager at Superior Engineering to find out.

JACK OF ALL TRADES