Photo: IOD Performance
A couple of weeks ago, I happened to get stuck in traffic behind a brand-new Ford Bronco Raptor, onto which the owner mounted a Ferrari badge right underneath the bucking Bronco logo. Haha, I see what you did there. At that moment, I thought I was looking at the coolest SUV on the road. But I was wrong because, in hindsight, I think this V8-swapped Nissan Patrol is the true most-badass 4x4 we've seen in ages.
It comes to us from a country that's given us a few all-time great restomods over the years, Poland. Based out of Rzeszów around three and a half hours south of Warsaw, IOD Performance is one of Eastern Europe's most promising and talented boutique 4x4 tuners. The firm specialized primarily in late 90s-era Nissan Patrols, essentially the international equivalent of the US-spec Nissan Pathfinder of similar vintage. So then, these are the perfect group of lads to take a three-door, fifth-generation Patrol and turn it into something a Bronco Raptor driver would think twice before messing with.
From the factory, gen-V Nissan Patrol hit dealerships with a plethora of different gas or diesel four and six-cylinder engine options. But whichever of these motors came with this particular Patrol has been long gone for ages now. In its place is a 6.2-liter GM LS3 long-block V8 crate motor built and tuned in-house by IOD Performance in their shop. Right out of the box, GM advertises their LS3 crate engine as good for 430 horsepower. In the hands of some of Poland's most skilled 4x4 tuners, that number bumps up to a healthy 462 horsepower and 620 newton-meters of torque to the wheels.
That's a full 44 horses more than the 418 the Bronco Raptor leaves the factory with at its disposal. All this power is fed not to the same 4L80E seemingly in every other custom 4x4, but instead a ZF 8HP70 eight-speed automatic gearbox you'd find in various GM, BMW, Audi, and Chrysler vehicles from the late 2000s and early 2010s. This German transmission is made to work harmoniously with an all-American V8 with an adapter kit from PMC Motorsport, and all the necessary transfer case adapters were fabricated in-house by IOD Performance in parallel with building the engine.
Add on a custom 3.5-inch stainless steel exhaust with extra engine, transfer case, and transmission cooling also installed in-house; there isn't a single aspect of this drivetrain that wasn't given tender, loving care by this team. With a substantial lift kit riding on chunky Cooper Discoverer STT Pro tires, there are not many off-road trails, foreign or domestic, that can genuinely test the limits of a machine like this. Lucky for the Europeans in our audience, IOD Performance is happy to help you build a similarly-specked machine.
It comes to us from a country that's given us a few all-time great restomods over the years, Poland. Based out of Rzeszów around three and a half hours south of Warsaw, IOD Performance is one of Eastern Europe's most promising and talented boutique 4x4 tuners. The firm specialized primarily in late 90s-era Nissan Patrols, essentially the international equivalent of the US-spec Nissan Pathfinder of similar vintage. So then, these are the perfect group of lads to take a three-door, fifth-generation Patrol and turn it into something a Bronco Raptor driver would think twice before messing with.
From the factory, gen-V Nissan Patrol hit dealerships with a plethora of different gas or diesel four and six-cylinder engine options. But whichever of these motors came with this particular Patrol has been long gone for ages now. In its place is a 6.2-liter GM LS3 long-block V8 crate motor built and tuned in-house by IOD Performance in their shop. Right out of the box, GM advertises their LS3 crate engine as good for 430 horsepower. In the hands of some of Poland's most skilled 4x4 tuners, that number bumps up to a healthy 462 horsepower and 620 newton-meters of torque to the wheels.
That's a full 44 horses more than the 418 the Bronco Raptor leaves the factory with at its disposal. All this power is fed not to the same 4L80E seemingly in every other custom 4x4, but instead a ZF 8HP70 eight-speed automatic gearbox you'd find in various GM, BMW, Audi, and Chrysler vehicles from the late 2000s and early 2010s. This German transmission is made to work harmoniously with an all-American V8 with an adapter kit from PMC Motorsport, and all the necessary transfer case adapters were fabricated in-house by IOD Performance in parallel with building the engine.
Add on a custom 3.5-inch stainless steel exhaust with extra engine, transfer case, and transmission cooling also installed in-house; there isn't a single aspect of this drivetrain that wasn't given tender, loving care by this team. With a substantial lift kit riding on chunky Cooper Discoverer STT Pro tires, there are not many off-road trails, foreign or domestic, that can genuinely test the limits of a machine like this. Lucky for the Europeans in our audience, IOD Performance is happy to help you build a similarly-specked machine.
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