VOLKSWAGEN HAS SENSATIONALLY INTRODUCED the Australian-designed all-new Amarok to the heart of the Aussie outback, driving 17 utes through some of the country’s toughest conditions to the annual home of the Big Red Bash music festival.
Rockin’ the Simpson since 2013, the Big Red Bash is Australia’s most remote music festival situated more than 1500km west of Brisbane near the intersection of Queensland, South Australia and Northern Territory.
This year the festival also doubled as Australia’s most remote test drive experience, as 130 customers test drove the all-new Amarok across ‘little Red’ – the desert sibling to the famous Big Red in the Simpson Desert – and beyond.
One particular customer gained arguably the world’s longest test drive: after his own ute failed to proceed, Volkswagen provided an Amarok to drive the 2077km back home to Sydney in. This was a 6000km-plus trip for that ‘Rok.
Illustrating the toughness of the second-generation Amarok – four years in development between Volkswagen’s Melbourne-based team and Hannover, Germany – the fleet of ‘Roks brushed off unseasonally wet outback conditions.
Over the 4000km expedition circuiting the Simpson Desert, more than 10 Amaroks faced both road closures and just-reopened trails that included over 100km of constant mud.
The expedition started in Broken Hill before moving up through the Sturt National Park into Queenland along the Warry Gate road to Eromanga and finally to Windorah. The last stretch, on drenched and just-opened tracks, was from Windorah to Birdsville stopping off at the infamous Betoota Hotel.
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles marketing and product national manager Nathan Johnson said the combination of Amarok’s classic toughness, V6 power and iconic seats made the long journey to Birdsville a breeze.
“We wanted to show real Australians, families towing caravans and exploring the outback to the fullest, the depth of engineering in our Australian designed second-generation Amarok,” Mr Johnson said.
“The all-new Amarok is the direct result of taking Australians’ feedback on board and creating a ute born from tough love delivered by our dual-cab ute-loving market – our Volkswagen ute’s biggest worldwide,” he said.
Volkswagen continues to sponsor the Big Red Bash, which this year was home to Icehouse, John Williamson, Hoodoo Gurus, Human Nature, Pete Murray, The Angels, Troy Cassar-Daley, Kate Ceberano, Wendy Matthews and more.
Australia’s most remote test drive centre ran for three days in early July, with more than 130 test drives conducted.