Suzuki took the wraps of its fourth-gen Swift late last year at the 2023 Tokyo Motor Show, but there’s very little for enthusiasts to get excited about. A 61kW three-cylinder or a mild-hybrid engine. Yawn. Where’s the Swift Sport? Who knows? Given the disappearance of hot hatches in recent times, we wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t show up at all.
In the meantime, here’s something to get all you Swifties excited (and we aren’t talking about the Taylor Swift death cult). We’re talking about this little monster which has just been posted up on Haltech’s Facebook page.
Based on the outgoing Swift Sport chassis, this is a purpose-built rallying machine, with sequential gearshift, a big hydraulic handbrake lever and full roll-cage, leaving very little passenger comforts in place.
With a far beefier, wide-body aesthetic than the standard Swift, it sits menacingly on white rally spec wheels shod with Pirelli PZeros. The big news is the powertrain, borrowed from a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.
That means a 2.0-litre ‘4B11T’ turbo four-cylinder, which makes 217kW and 407Nm in its original home, but undoubtedly far more here, propelling something far lighter and dimensionally compact. The benefit of Mitsubishis Super All-Wheel Control system (S-AWC) would be felt in a more nimble package, too.
Information on how much power it is generating in the Swift is thin on the ground, but we’d venture the wick would be significantly wound up, given it is running Haltech Nexus R5 engine management and PD-16 power distribution modules.
Although the pictures show Austrian flags next to the name of the drivers, it looks very similar to a build by Polish outfit Dykto Sport a few years ago. We are unsure if this is the same vehicle with cosmetic changes, or a similar build.
Nevertheless, we can deduce this was obviously built to compete in a no-holds-barred form of rallying, without restrictions or regulations applying to engine swapping or balls-out modifications.
We’d love to hear this thing in action and it is a pleasing antidote to the disappearance of affordable hot hatches on the new car market. What do you think of this little monster? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
