4x4s we'd buy, and how we'd modify them: Mazda BT-50

I have a rather huge soft spot for the heavily under-appreciated BT-50, ever since I pummelled one through the High Country a few years back chasing dirt bikes and highly modified GQ and GU Nissans on a wheeling trip. 

For a stock standard rig, the BeeTee handled itself incredibly, suffering only a weeping shock at the end of a gruelling week on all of the main tracks plus a few that weren’t signposted.

Another thing I’m a fan of is Extra cabs, or as Mazda calls them, Freestyle cabs. Why? Because dual-cabs really don’t offer heaps of room as it is, and the shorter tray means a lot of sacrifice in terms of what you can carry. Plus, the rear axle is more centralised under the tray, so handling is optimised. As someone who regularly takes my dirt bike away, the extra tray length trumps the extra rear seat room, which I rarely need, and it fits my fridge on the back seat nicely. So I’m sold. Given Mazda only offers the Freestyle cab in the XT cab-chassis models, that’s my huckleberry. 

At $51,700, it offers decent value, and assuming I can afford the top-spec BT-50 SP at around the $70K mark, it gives me a bunch of wiggle room to turn this thing into a proper tow rig and tourer that’d be right at home tackling a Simmo crossing as it would turning right at Dalhousie and heading up to explore the Top End for a few weeks… or months. 

The engine in this trim is the same as the D-MAX – the 4JJ3 3.0L turbo diesel, which I love, because while its power output is lame from the factory, the wick can be turned up a lot without affecting reliability. I’d spend $8000 to upgrade the snail with a G-Turbo, PWR front mount, a Process West Catch Can and custom tune, then I’d chuck an extra grand on top for a Redback DPF-back three-inch exhaust (it’s actually legal, officer). The result: 280 horses to the rubber and a swarthy 650Nm for towing and cool points. Lock me in, Eddie.

I’d then swing past my local Ironman 4X4 store and grab a Raid front bar with a 32-inch lightbar, and then bolt in a Carbon Scout Pro 9000lb winch while it’s all getting fitted up. That’d cost me around $4000, and while my wallet is getting lighter, the front end of my rig is starting to get a little heavy so it’s time for suspension shopping. 

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With utes, I’m a huge fan of fitting the best shocks you can afford. Mainly because the front coils and rear leaf springs, once you have the rates sorted, don’t affect the ride nearly as much as the shockies do, in my experience. I don’t need a big lift from this thing, so a set of 25mm spacers under the rear leaf packs with King shocks and a replacement set of King coilovers from Mike’s Shock Shop ($5000-ish) in the front should level things out while still retaining a bit of lift to fit up some 265/75R17 Falken Wildpeak ATs. 

This’d give me about the ultimate in rutted desert track hooning ability without the undue stress on ball joints and steering arms that comes with big lifts and bigger rubber. And I still have my rear diff locker that’d get me over the majority of tracks. 250+hp, 650Nm of pull, riding on Kings while being able to self-recover and with a few bucks leftover for fuel.

Who said Mazdas were boring?