Modded Grand Vitara Very early lifted Suzuki from the good old days

Grand Design

Original Suzuki Vitaras are getting to the age at which people are starting to use them off-road. The same can’t be said for the Grand Vitara, however – which is why Craig Langley’s is one of a kind

Words: Tom Alderney Pictures: Phil Masters

I’m a Suzuki man through and through,’ says Craig Langley. He’s not joking. Having bought his fi rst SJ410, taken it on a couple of fun days and been bitten by the off-road bug, four years later he owned two heavily modifi ed Samurais and had a Jimny for his wife.

Enough? Of course not. What you see on these pages is a 1998 Grand Vitara V6 LWB – the Langleys’ erstwhile family car, which we photographed while it was in the process of being turned into Craig’s next plaything.

Back in 2002, the vast majority of the many Grand Vitaras you’d see going around had never even been so much as put into low box. But Craig started thinking about turning his V6 into a big boy’s toy pretty much as soon as its three-year factory warranty had expired. ‘I was looking for a nice, comfortable vehicle for long-distance off-roading,’ he told us. ‘I’d been thinking about possibly a Land Rover or Wrangler – but having read the magazines, there wasn’t much that people hadn’t done to them. You know, there are so many people out there that have done every sort of trick possible.

‘So we decided that because the Vitara had been so reliable, and nobody had done one, we’d have a go at experimenting and doing one for off-roading.’

This desire to be different led Craig on a major hunt of the internet, as he searched for the necessary kit to build the mother of all Grand Vitaras. ‘We established that we could get some sort of suspension lift, and started from there. That was the basic premise – we needed a lifted car, because obviously the Grand Vitara has quite low ground clearance in normal trim.

Said suspension system, a 2.5-3” Calmini kit, was augmented by a 1.5” body lift built by Craig’s friend Shaun Briggs. Shaun’s been the man behind the majority of the mods on the vehicle, having also designed its rock sliders and front and rear winch bumpers, relocated its fuel tank and trimmed out its interior for serious action.

Shaun modifi ed the Calmini kit as he worked, moving the radius arms back slightly and altering

Above: Suzuki’s original V6 engine remains in standard trim but doesn’t think much of 265/70R16 tyres Right: Modified Calmini lift kit rides a little on the firm side, but that’s a small price to pay for the greater flexibility and ground clearance it delivers

the position of the rear shocks to get exactly what he wanted out of the components.

The results allowed Craig to run the vehicle on 265/70R16 rubber.

Does it feel underpowered with the larger tyres? ‘We’re thinking of down-gearing it, actually,’ says Craig. ‘We’ve lost a lot of the towing capability of the vehicle. Not so much in low ratio, obviously, but there’s quite a drop-off when you’re towing another vehicle. I think that’s down to the bigger tyres, and obviously the weight’s increased, too.’

One of the main reasons for the extra weight was a pair of Superwich X9s, one at each end. Using the same model twice makes sense because, as Craig puts it, you’ve always got a ready spare. ‘If the front burned out, we could always take the one off the back and keep going forward.’

Shaun made the winch bumpers himself, in the case of the rear structure also having to use chequer plate to fill the chasm left when the enormous original bumper came off.

Being an auto-electrician by trade, Shaun wasn’t about to cut corners when it came to powering the winches. That’s why what was once the nearside rear passenger’s footwell became home to a pair of Optima dry-cell batteries, dedicated just to the winches but set up so that the main battery can also back them up if they start to flag.

Shaun’s not a fan of the split-charge systems often used to power winches. ‘You’re pulling 300 amps when you’re winching hard, and the biggest split-charge relay you can get is 80 amps, so something’s got to melt. It just isn’t worth split-charging for winching – the more capacity, the better.’

Further belt-and-braces modifications included body armour to the vehicle’s underside. Being used to Samurais, Craig was worried about constantly grounding out the Grand Vitara, so once again Shaun was called upon to make up skid plates for the steering, sump and transfer box. These went with a new tank guard, and a rerouted exhaust, to make this a Grand Vitara which definitely wasn’t going to be leaving its components on terra firma without putting up a mighty struggle first.

Even if it did get hung up, a high-lift jack backed up those two winches to ensure the vehicle wouldn’t stay stranded for long. The jack was mounted on the rear door, making use of the spare wheel carrier – which in turn was left available when the spare was moved into the rear cabin. The reason for doing this is that with the chunkier back bumper, it was no longer going to fit in its original location – and with the Grand Vitara now only needing to seat three people, instead of the five Suzuki envisaged, there was a

Above left: A custom fabricated bumper provides a home for the front winch and allows a much improved approach angle Above right: Those vulnerable looking side steps are in fact indestructible rock sliders. The original spare wheel mount hosts high-lift jack; chequer plate fills the gap where the rear bumper once was

The huge spare wheel dominates the cargo bay, which has been lined out in chequer plate – as has the top of the fabricated rear winch bumper. The false floor where the nearside rear seat used to be is in fact a cover for a compartment in which two batteries are housed with the sole job of powering the winches

redundant belt mounting behind the passenger’s seat that could be turned into its new home.

As well as this, and those dual Optimas in the footwell below it, the entire load bay was chequer plated in readiness for Craig starts hitting the trails. When we took our pics, too, Shaun was also planning to fit an external rollcage to protect the vehicle’s bodywork among trees and protect its occupants should things go pear-shaped.

Further plans also included front and rear ARBs to replace the standard open diffs, as well as a snorkel – though this was waiting for the design of the roll cage to be finalised. ‘This is the first stage,’ Craig told us. ‘I’ve designed it so it won’t take much to step it up that extra bit. We’re going to use it a few times, see what needs to be done and either change or upgrade parts. It seems to be doing okay, to be honest.’

A much longer-term plan he told us about involved replacing the independent front suspension with a live axle… Now that really would be pioneering – though given the infamous ease with which Vitaras’ front diffs go ping (Craig’s let go halfway through our photoshoot, actually), it would be a belt-and-braced alterntive to the usual tactic of chucking a Samurai unit in there instead.

Conventional wisdom has it that if you’re going on an expedition, you should keep your vehicle as standard as possible. But since when was a Grand Vitara with a live front axle conventional ‘It’s basically for adventure trips abroad,’ said Craig. ‘It’s not going to be used for anything extreme at the moment, but obviously in five or six years when it’s picked up a load of dents, it’ll go that way more and more. But initially it’s for adventures, going abroad and doing the Andalucian Trail, the Mille Rivières, that kind of thing.

‘When you finish a vehicle, that’s the best it’s ever going to look. Even if you don’t go silly, it’s going to get scratches from brambles. It’s the first dent that hurts. I won’t smile as I hit the tree. But I’ll accept it.’