Text: Danie Botha. Photographs: Kian Eriksen and Maniac Manufacturing. Article from the October 2013 issue of Leisure Wheels Magazine.
Mark Esterhuizen, a self-confessed 4×4 junkie, has been working in the 4×4 industry for more than a decade. He started of with a tyre franchise, then moved on to a 4×4 accessory and fitment franchise, and finally he decided to do his very own thing. Nowadays he specialises in “custom anything” – you name it, he makes it!
There’s a standard Volkswagen Amarok parked in the Maniac Manufacturing workshop in an industrial park in Montague Gardens, Cape Town.
The German bakkie seems a little bit out of place – the shop is mostly frequented by big-wheeled 4x4s with loads of accessaries and kit. It’s serious hardware, specially crafted and created in this very workshop.
The Amarok’s owner is chatting to Maniac Manufacturing’s Mark Esterhuizen. The Volkswagen man had been to the well-known 4×4 accessory suppliers and fitment centres in the Cape Town area, and they had all sent him packing when he told them what he wanted.
He was looking for a specific modification for a roof-rack and tent mount, for the Amarok’s “bak”, but since it wasn’t available over the counter, the big franchises shrugged their shoulders and sent him on his way.
And this is where Maniac Manufacturing fits into the 4×4 picture. Mark and his team specialise in custom fabrication – exactly what the Amarok owner needed.
“If a customer wants a certain bracket or part, we’ll make it,” says Mark, “So we’ll definitely be able to supply the brackets he needs to make his rig work the way he wants it to.”
Mark has been in the fitment and accessory game for more than a decade. He started off with a tyre and exhaust fitment franchise, and later moved on to an LA Sport franchise. Mark is a 4×4 junkie, so it was only a matter of time before he created something out of the ordinary.
A few years ago, two dilapidated Range Rover Classics dating from 1982 were turned into one super-duper Range Rover with a “bobtail” finish. The completed vehicle was a short-wheel based bakkie.
Habenero, as the Rangey was christened, was fitted with some serious aftermarket suspension and mud terrain tyres, and it soon became a regular entrant at 4×4 competitions in the Western Cape.
“The Range Rover was a big modification job and certainly drew a lot of attention,” says Mark. “But there were already guys in the Cape specialising in Land Rover modifications. There were also companies that did only Cruisers, or only this, or only that. No one was really focusing on Jeep products, and that’s the gap I decided to fill.”
Maniac Manufacturing was established and Mark and his team began developing extreme accessories for the popular Jeep JK. These included everything from replacement bumpers to protection plates, metal doors, roll cages and special covers for the cargo area.
If there was a bracket or a hinge that could be customised or replaced or upgraded, Maniac Manufacturing developed and stocked it.
Soon Jeep owners and the local Jeep club were taking note of Maniac’s good looking yet strong and practical designs.
“We’ve done loads of Jeeps,” explains Mark in his workshop. “The Wrangler, the Cherokee, the Grand Cherokee – we’ve even customised a few Commanders, adding suspension, replacement bars, winches and rock sliders.”
As Jeep after Jeep rolled in and out of Maniac’s workshop, owners of other brands took note, and wanted a piece of the action. So Maniac Manufacturing now works on all the popular 4×4 brands.
A recent highlight involved a Toyota Fortuner V6. Mark says: “This customer had seen some of our designs on the internet, and gave us a call from Durban to get a quote for a few upgrades he had in mind.
“We gave him the prices, not really thinking anything would come of it. But the next week the Fortuner arrived via a carrier service, delivered to our front door.
“We did the upgrade and sent the Toyota back with the carrier company a few weeks ago.”
The owner is apparently so happy with the results that the Fortuner will soon be making a return trip to Cape Town for some more upgrades.
“I think the fact that we work with our customers to find a solution to a modification idea sets us apart from the mainstream fitment and accessory shops here in the Western Cape,” says Mark. “We nearly always have a plan, and if we don’t have one for this particular requirement, we make one.”
A project that Mark and his team are particularly proud of is a custom Nissan Patrol 4800i GRX, completed for a local customer.
The Patrol arrived stock-standard, and rolled out a few weeks later with massive 38-inch Mickey Thompson mud terrain tyres on aftermarket wheels, custom wheel arches, spectacular new front and rear bumpers (the rear bumper with a spare wheel carrier), a drawer system for the cabin, a snorkel and a full suspension upgrade that enhances this capable Patrol’s off-roading ability even further.
“This Nissan, like all our project cars, is not only designed and built to look the part, but also to be highly effective in an off-road environment and to still be usable on the road,” Mark says.
Another case in point is Leisure Wheels’ Project Terios, which is currently in the hands of the Maniac Manufacturing crew. They are busy creating a new front bar, rear bar with a spare wheel carrier to handle the bigger all- terrain Cooper tyre, and rock sliders.
The Terios relies on its light weight and compact size to get by quite efficiently in an off-road environment. With this in mind, Mark has decided to go a very different route with the Daihatsu’s front replacement bumper.
“A standard, typical steel bar weighs in at around 75kg, which obviously adds a lot of weight to the car’s front end. Even though this Terios is now fitted with the aftermarket GIZ suspension, if you also add a winch to the bar you will end up with more than 100kg on the nose. This would affect handling and braking,” says Mark.
So the Terios’s bumper will be made from aluminium, to keep it light. “Even with a 45001b winch fitted to the aluminium bar, the maximum weight will now be around 60kg. This may not seem a massive difference, but we reckon it will have a big effect on the way the Terios handles, both on the road and off the beaten track.”
That’s just another example of Maniac Manufacturing’s out-the-box thinking. It’s this kind of innovation that is causing a buzz in the Western Cape 4×4 fraternity.
Indeed, it’s a brave new customisation world out there, and Maniac Manufacturing is leading the charge from the Mother City.
More information: tel. 021 552-4477:
www.maniacmanufacturing.co.za; e-mail info@maniacmanufacturing.com.
Link: http://www.leisurewheels.co.za/blogs/overlanding-with-a-conversion/
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