DRIVEN
AT35 is a great bit of kit, but it’s so wide that the lanes in most parts of the country are no-go. Or at least if not no-go, they’re certainly no fun because you spend the whole time stressed out about damaging its huge wheelarches. These cover a set of 317/70R17s all-terrains on heavily offset rims, which are the starting point for its build spec. Most will be familiar with this by now, but to to recap they stand around 35” tall – hence the vehicle’s name. To fit them, it has a combination of chassis and body lifts plus a set of lavishly flared high-clearance arches. All this is
engineered and fitted by Arctic Trucks, which specialises in building extreme-terrain vehicles for covering the frozen wastes of the Icelandic interior. Arctic Trucks is headquartered in Warwickshire these days. It still does its thing back home in Iceland, but no-one’s denying that people who buy an AT35 in Britain are doing it for the vehicle’s appearance. To most of them, it’s a second or third car, not an essential off-road tool. Hence the lavish use of decorative badging that’s part of Arctic Trucks’ spec – on the body, the front seat headrests, the company’s own
heavy-duty side steps, you name it. In the case of our test vehicle, being bright orange did it no harm in the eye candy stakes either. And sure enough, during the few days we spent with the AT35 it got loads of attention. It’s a car park conversation starter for sure – more so even than our own D-Max GO2, which is almost as tall but, crucially it would appear, is a) slimmer around the tyres and, b) not orange. Perhaps we should get it wrapped. Anyway, back to the story. During our brief first drive of the new AT35 a few months back, we remarked that it’s now more refined on the
road than the old model. That’s a D-Max thing rather than an Arctic Trucks thing, but mainly it’s a thing and it’s a good one. Whether cruising on the motorway or carving our way around the mean streets of town, and we did plenty of both, it’s pleasingly quiet in the cabin. Even on such big tyres, you don’t get vibrations coming back at you through the pedals or steering wheel, and it sits steady at speed without needing to be kept on course with constant corrections. In other words, it’s like driving a standard one. Mainly, at least. On the previous model, we noted an element of
Monogrammed headrests? Of course there are. Badging sewn into the carpet mats? You wouldn’t expect anything less.Range-topping interior appointments? Not strictly necessary in a vehicle built to rule the world off-road, but it goes pretty well with the whole king-of-the-highway image
32 | SEPTEMBER 2022
5pp AT35.indd 28
4x4 30/08/2022 18:30
