Project Swarm. It started as a terrible sketch on a scrap of paper, and ended up on top of a 300m dune on the other side of the world. It’s also possibly the world’s most expensive Mitsubishi L200, but let’s not dwell…

But what it has been, is a labour of love. From the Mitsubishi PR team who conveniently forgot to say ‘no’, to a roster of extremely talented and creative people working to make silly ideas real, getting the truck built in time and very nearly on budget was hard work.

But worth it. Especially because when we took it to the harshest and most diverse environment we could think of - Namibia - it performed pretty much faultlessly. To the point where the guides we used to get us across the desert were asking where they could buy our modifications.

Most of it is pretty simple: upgraded SuperPro suspension (though still leaf sprung), a PPC external roll cage, 35-inch tyres and Speedline wheels, some extra-supportive Cobra bucket seats, a couple of sun’s worth of Lazerlamps LED lighting and spares. The rest is just… fun stuff. A rear drone hangar made from an actual aircraft wing by a man called Stuart (it was supposed to house a triplet of drones - hence the name Swarm - but they wouldn’t fit), a rear-mounted 125cc MotoPed scout bike on its own deployable ramp, rear-mounted spares on their own cradles, swing-out arms for camera mounts.

The team built a sort-of European pre-runner in a shed in the UK with no idea whether it would work in the real world. But when we put it to the test, it was magnificent. If I were a millennial, I’d be #proud. Here’s what it looked like on film…

Want to read more on Project Swarm’s birth? Click here for the Big Read

Project Swarm is one of the stars of Top Gear magazine’s January 2018 issue. Pick up a copy via the links below:

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