A tuner has given the Suzuki Jimny portal axles

A company called delta4x4 has decided that what the Suzuki Jimny really needs isn’t a newer, more efficient engine or better on-road manners or electrification or more creature comforts or any of those mundane things. It decided on something a little more… heavy metal.

Portal axles. The Swiss-based company prides itself on “exceptional and unusual conversions” and has thus upgraded a small run of Jimnys with tech recently made famous by the G- and E-Class 4x4 squared.

The main benefit of portal axles is way more ground clearance – the axle tubes and hubs are mounted higher than the centre-line of the wheels. Ergo, more ground clearance. And higher ground clearance provides fairly obvious benefits if you’re into extreme motoring. Indeed, there’s a winch bolted onto the front of this Jimny, equipped for three-tonnes.

Delta’s Jimny gets 100 per cent diff locks for the front and rear axles, along with a 4cm body lift via adjustable shocks connected with remote reservoir tech. The wheels are massive too: 18-inch items wrapped in all-terrain Cooper tyres. Eighteens! The wheels even get replaceable collision guards to protect against off-road damage. And kerbs. Always beware kerbs.

The new axles, shocks and wheels boost the wee Jimny’s ground clearance by a whopping 40cm underneath the diffs, and yet we’re informed it’s 1.8m in overall height – 75mm more than a regular Jimny.

Only twelve are being built – indeed the first cars have already been sold – and it’s been homologated for Switzerland and Germany. Prices start at €56k, rising to €65k for the one with the diff locks.