3 minute read
Isuzu Moments
THE IRON SUMMIT IS BORN
“I WAS SITTING in it the first time it went over and I thought I was going to die!” says Scott Anderson, co-creator of Isuzu’s death-defying Iron Summit. “Wayne and I were sitting in a shed in Ingleburn and we did rock, paper, scissors to see who had to drive over it first and I lost.
“I remember driving it, thinking, ‘This is absolutely stupid, what have we done?’ I wasn’t even convinced on its first transition whether the vehicle would stay on the ramp or slide off. It was scary. I still have nightmares.”
Today, Isuzu’s Iron Summit is a staple at showgrounds across the country, but in 2015 it was just a twinkle in the eyes of Anderson and his business partner Wayne
Boatwright. The pair’s invention, named by Boatwright, who was the director of the Team D-MAX Precision Driving team, had been sketched on paper six months earlier.
With their creation complete, neither wanted to be the one to test it. Taking on the 45-degree climb, up and over a custom-built hydraulic ramp— six metres in the air—and down the other side, was too daunting.
“The scariest part is when it transitions over,” says Anderson. “I used to ask passengers when I was driving over it to tell me when they thought we were on the same angle going down as what we did when we went up. And when you’re about halfway down, people begin saying, ‘Oh, we’re close now!’ But you’re not!
“In the last bit of the transition you’re literally hanging from the seat belt.”
Anderson feared that the D-MAX or MU-X would physically slide off the ramp, even with his foot on the brake.
“Landing could’ve been quite ugly, but as it turned out my fears were unwarranted. I was thinking, this is mental, this is stupid, what are we doing? But the Iron Summit is a very good thing,” he says, “and we’ve wowed lots of people.”
And the D-MAX and MU-X, too.
“Not many things will get up that ramp, I tell you,” he says. “You can even do it in the wet!”
