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Volkswagen has given the closest look yet at a Amarok hot-rodded by the firm formerly known as Holden Special Vehicles.
With bespoke front styling, a louder custom exhaust, and Aussie-tuned Koni suspension from Melbourne-based engineering outfit Walkinshaw, the Volkswagen Amarok W600 will go on-sale exclusively in Australia in Q3 this year.
Promising to be the “ultimate driver’s ute”, the W600 will be sub-assembled in Walkinshaw’s sprawling new manufacturing facility in Dandenong, Victoria, and was engineered at the former Holden Lang Lang Proving Ground.
Open Road joined an exclusive first look of the new VW Amarok W600 in Melbourne in December.
While Volkswagen Australia has hired the firm responsible for Australia’s greatest performance sedans – and optimised the Amarok’s suspension, wheels and tyres for bitumen use – don’t think this is a Ford Ranger Raptor rival.
The Amarok and Ranger sit on the same T6.2 ladder-chassis architecture as part of a Ford-VW platform sharing agreement, however Volkswagen’s hottest Amarok will use the same 3.0-litre turbodiesel V6 unit found elsewhere in the Amarok range, with outputs unchanged at 184kW and 600Nm. The V6 is paired with high- and low-range four-wheel-drive and a 10-speed automatic transmission.
Walkinshaw said it had not touched the engine or transmission calibration of the Amarok when applying the W600 treatment. “Not one Amarok customer has complained to us that 600Nm is not enough,” said a Volkswagen Australia spokesperson.
The previous Amarok W580S had 190kW and 580Nm, and Walkinshaw offered an aftermarket upgrade kit that boosted torque to 680Nm. “Walkinshaw has a huge ability to do performance and engine upgrades and so on, but at this juncture with this vehicle, the focus was on the chassis,” said the VW Australia spokesperson.
Built on the same platform, the Ford Ranger Raptor is powered by a 3.0-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 producing 292kW and 583Nm. It has a braked towing maximum capacity of 2500kg.
Volkswagen Australia said the Amarok W600 will tow up to 3500kg (braked) and maintain the same load carrying capacity and circa one-tonne payload as other V6 Amarok models.
— Dylan Campbell
The new W600 will come with an all-new front bumper, bespoke wheels and other minor special styling treatments led by Julian Quincey, Chief Designer at Walkinshaw Automotive Group. From 2003 to 2020, Quincey was Chief Designer at Holden Special Vehicles (HSV), responsible for the aggressive look of models from the 2004 VZ Avalanche through to the final, thumping supercharged 2017 GTSR W1.
Traces of HSV DNA can be seen in Volkswagen’s new Amarok W600. While Volkswagen showed a prototype with camouflage concealing its new front bumper – the full styling is expected to be revealed in April or May – Open Road was able to discern some details.
The front bumper will feature a distinct patterning to its upper grille slats around the large VW badge, while the W600 is the first Amarok to wear a full-width front LED pinstripe as part of its forward lighting signature.
“We’re trying to give it that Walkinshaw look with the added stature, the additional stance, the wide-set outside edges of the tyres, but we’re also trying to make it look really integrated, like it was always designed to have this look from the very beginning,” said Quincey. “We’re not about just chucking lairy on the front of the vehicle – this is very much more integrated and much more upmarket.”
For the custom cast-flow form wheels, Volkswagen and Walkinshaw considered 38 different designs before settling on a six-spoke wheel. The 20-by-10-inch wheels are a big increase on the Amarok’s 18-by-7.5-inch items, while the tyres are now 285/50R20 Michelin Pilot Sport 4 SUV.
New wheel arch flares bring attention to the larger wheels, while down the side of the car, there are new, custom side steps which electrically deploy when you open a door and automatically, discreetly fold back under the sill during driving.
Walkinshaw has fitted a custom, “cat-back” exhaust system with twin rear tail-pipes exiting from the rear-side, with Walkinshaw-branded tips.
For the exterior badging, Walkinshaw has used 3D badges rather than decals – while inside, changes are limited to the embroidering of Walkinshaw logos on the headrests, as well as Walkinshaw branding on the aluminium pedals, side sills and floor mats.
The W600 uses custom Koni “Frequency Selective” passive dampers, along with a custom new 22mm rear anti-roll bar, which had to be designed, developed and validated in-house at Walkinshaw.
Walkinshaw said the Amarok W600 was extensively tested at the former Holden Lang Lang Proving Ground south-east of Melbourne in Victoria, as well as on public roads including across Tasmania.
Those with a hoist at home will notice that Walkinshaw has painted the anti-roll bar and dampers in a colour close to Volkswagen Lapiz Blue.
Volkswagen Australia said pricing will be announced around August.
As of January 2026, the Amarok range was priced from $55,490 to $82,990 before on-road costs. In 2022, the first-generation Walkinshaw-fettled Amarok W580SE was $81,490 new before on-road costs, or approximately 10 percent more than the $73,990 TDI580 Aventura, suggesting the W600 could start from the low $90,000s.
Based on the previous-generation Amarok, Volkswagen produced three variants of the Walkinshaw Amarok, selling 2594 units between 2020 and 2023. Volkswagen Australia said an off-road version of the W600, as seen with the first-generation model, is a probability later down the track.
Open Road will share more details as they become available.
