India's Only Daihatsu Wildcat TAFT F20 Rebuilt 'From Scrap To Show Stopper' [Video]
For many in India, the name Daihatsu may hardly ring a bell. It is not a brand that we grew up seeing around, like Maruti, Tata, or Mahindra. It is, in fact, one of the oldest surviving Japanese car brands. The Wildcat F20 is a rugged and compact 4x4 off-road vehicle that was in production till 1984. Today, India reportedly has just one of these SUVs. A video shared on YouTube shows India’s only Daihatsu Wildcat F20 in detail. This SUV was built from scratch by a garage in Kerala’s Kochi.
This video has been shared on the channel Wheels and Wagen. It starts by showing the host giving an introduction to the SUV. This vehicle was restored and rebuilt by Sunu Babu, an IT professional from Kochi. It took him a little over two years to get it to the current form. He says that when he bought it, this 1969 Daihatsu Wildcat F20 was in scrap condition. He sourced it from a workshop in Alwaye. It had fallen victim to not one, but two floods.
It had a lot of rust and lacked components like the carburetor, distributor, cylinder head, radiator, dashboard, and seats. Sunu knew that breathing life into it would take time and effort. Its previous owner had imported it from Dubai, and the vehicle had a Left Hand Drive (LHD) layout.
Fast forward to today, and we have the vehicle in pristine form. It has a dual-tone paint scheme comprising Yellow and White, much like what you see on the Toyota FJ40. This Wildcat has been rebuilt tastefully. The exterior design stays true to the original. Most components have been kept stock. It, however, rides on large mountain terrain tyres.
The wheels retain the stock design, even though they have been widened to 9J to accommodate the wider rubber. To make the build do justice to the original, the indicators and rear lamps were imported from Columbia. The split-opening design of the loading bay door has been retained.
Components like the side view mirrors, steering wheel, instrument cluster, seats etc have been sourced from other vehicles. The brake booster and master cylinder were borrowed from a Mahindra pickup, while the clutch came from the Toyota Qualis.
Key mechanical components (outside of the engine and transmission) were sourced from vehicles that have already been on sale here, to make the ownership experience and possible replacements smooth. The front and rear windshields have been custom-fabricated.
The garage rebuilt the entire cabin. The dashboard is now made of Teak wood. The steering rod has to be modified to accommodate the Willy ’s-borrowed wheel. The entire wiring was redone from scratch. At the rear, this short-wheelbase Wildcat F20 has a mini loading bed. It has been rebuilt with Mahogany and now boasts classy Steel strips as well.
The Wildcat F20 is also called the TAFT. It expands to ‘Tough and Almighty Four-wheel Touring Vehicle’, denoting its ‘go anywhere’ capabilities. Back in its day, the F20 Wildcat came with a 1.6L Toyota 12R petrol engine. This powertrain has been retained on the rebuilt off-roader as well. The four-cylinder, OHV engine makes up to 90 PS. It has had a complete overhaul and currently runs smooth.
The team at Petrolheads Customs started the restoration journey by rebuilding the engine. They imported engine rebuilding kit from Japan, and used it for the same. The reworked unit, Sunu says, fired up on the first attempt itself. It also has a functional 4x4 setup.
The Wildcat was sold in several international markets under various names. In Australia it was Wildcat while in Germany and some other European markets, it was called 'Scat'. Toyota's version of it was called the Blizzard.
Interestingly, Toyota considered bringing Daihatsu (which is currently its wholly owned subsidiary) to the Indian market. These plans were trashed later and Toyota announced its joint venture with Suzuki.