© JAMES TAYLOR
Editor: Land Rover Enthusiast Magazine

BACKGROUND

Although the Sportrak shares many styling cues with the established Fourtrak range, it is actually a very different vehicle with a much shorter wheelbase and no diesel engine option: all Sportraks have been powered by a high-reving petrol engine which first saw service in Daihatsu saloon cars.

The Sportrak was Daihatsu's entry into the recreational and image 4x4 market. It was announced towards the end of 1988 and became available early the following year. From the beginning, it was intended as a chic urban runabout with the ability to go off-road occasionally. However, it was bested by the Suzuki Vitara, which offered much more radical styling and looked less like a traditional 4x4.

Despite what is probably a better off-road performance than the Vitara, the Sportrak has never had quite the same appeal - which says a lot about the real reasons behind many young buyers' choice of a 4x4. From 1994, a cheaper base model was introduced to improve sales, and a year later an even cheaper entry-level Sportrak Xi was announced.

Nevertheless, the Sportrak - a Daihatsu Feroza in Japan and most other markets - did lead the field by being the first 4x4 vehicle ever to have a multi-valve engine (the 1.6-litre petrol engine has four valves per cylinder to give 16 valves in all). It also became the first vehicle to follow the lead set by the Toyota RAV-4, and in Italy and Switzerland its 1995 Feroza Full-time version featured permanent four-wheel drive without a transfer box to give reduction gearing for off-road use.

The Sportrak has always had a single basic body style with a rollover bar behind the front seats and a removable cab roof. To this can be added either hard or soft-tops, although the hardtop version has always been more popular in the UK, where soft-tops tend to lose their appeal in the winter months.

Character summary

The Sportrak was designed as a chic urban 4x4 for young singles or couples without families, everything about it reflecting those design priorities. It is compact, comes only as a three-door, and offers sparkling acceleration and the sort of handling more familiar to the owners of hot hatches. In essence, it is designed as a vehicle to have fun with. Most buyers are far more interested in its looks and the image it conveys than in whatever or not it can actually be driven off the road.

The down side to all this is that it is not very good as a long-distance cruiser. The biggest problems are noise (the 16-valve engine can become very thrashy at high speeds) and poor seats (there is insufficient side or lumbar support, particularly for tall drivers). Similarly, load space in the rear is minimal if all the seats are occupied.

Above, an early Sportrak EL, and below, later open-top and closed versions of the vehicle in ELX trim, all three indicating the Sportrak's positioning in the recreational as well as the chic urban 4x4 market.

Performance summary

That the Sportrak appeals to hot hatch drivers new to 4x4s is one of its strengths, and Daihatsu scored a number of sales on the back of that appeal. The vehicle is lively and responsive on the road, accelerating very much faster than most larger family 4x4s. It also corners well with little of the disturbing lean so characteristic of its bigger brothers. The gearchange is positive and slick, with low gearing to mask the torque deficiency of the engine at low revs.

However, the ride is hard and unforgiving, the stiff springing (which counters body roll in corners) joining with the short wheelbase to give a ride which is at best uncomfortable. Otherwise good all-round visibility is marred by the spare wheel mounted on the rear door, which can make reversing difficult.

Off the road, the Sportrak performs much better than its paper specification suggests. The short wheelbase and minimal overhangs are a help, but the engine must be reved hard to deliver enough torque for hill-climbing. The lack of bottom-end torque also means that engine braking on steep descents does not inspire confidence.

Reliability, weaknesses, spares

The Sportrak follows the great tradition of all Japanese vehicles by delivering unfailing mechanical reliability. Daihatsu dealers are generally extremely helpful and efficient, but spares can sometimes be pricey because there is little demand for them.

Nevertheless, the Sportrak does have a few weaknesses. The early carburettor engines often suffer from acceleration flat spots, a problem which was never fully sorted by Daihatsu and can still give trouble today. The sealing rubbers around the removable hardtop are easily damaged, while the hardtop itself (made of a resin-like material) can crack and is very expensive to replace. The quality of the ride has never been one of the Sportrak's better features, but a particularly bouncy or soft ride may be the result of having the adjustable dampers on the wrong setting: the best thing to do is to set them on 'Medium' and then leave them a one

Resale values

Even though the Sportrak has begun to look a little dated and the importers a p pear to be struggling to maintain sales, resale values remain firm at the time of writing. As a general rule, hardtops hold their value better than soft-tops, and in this market the better- equipped models are the most sought-after and therefore hold their value best of all.