1995 Mara Kanyon 4.0 GLX-AMM
The Mara Kanyon SUV can trace its roots back to 1982 and was originally developed as a no-frills off-roader (with the only compromise being independent front suspension), powered by a 2.5l pushrod inline-4. With the opening of the worldwide markets in 1990, the Kanyon / Bizon SUV and ute family had to take a backseat to more pressing car developments of smaller (Zvezda) and larger (2nd gen Kavaler) mass market car families.
With the release of the larger 2nd generation Kavaler sedan in 1995, a new 4.0l V8 was becoming available as well. Similar to its predecessor, this V8 essentially consisted of two I4 blocks mated together, but this time based on the OHC Progress I4 block that was introduced earlier in the decade in the Zvezda.
In the mid-90s, the venerable 1st gen Kanyon SUV still had to have a few years of life left in it…
This V8 also made an appearance in the 1st gen Kanyon’s final 1995 facelift in two guises: The 4.0 version was tuned more for economy than for performance and was offered in the Kanyon’s GLX trim together with a gearbox, steering and interior that all were based heavily on what the upscale version of the 2nd gen Kavaler offered. A further factory option for the 4.0 GLX was the special look that Mara’s performance division AMM had developed for the Kanyon / Bizon family earlier in the decade (pictured above). Since this was not a truly performance oriented variant (though it still had a 0-100 time just below 10s and a top speed above 200 km/h), AMM’s signature yellow was not available as the main colour but only for the performance stripes.
… and a factory option for a no-holds barred look was one of the attempts to keep buyer interest high until its replacement was finally ready in the early 2000s.
There was also second version with the V8 bored and stroked to 4.6l in a more ‘purebred AMM’ Kanyon (and Bizon) tuned for street than for off-road performance. This version received the same upscale mechanical and interior treatment based on the 2nd gen Kavaler components and had a swapped default colour palette compared to the GLX-AMM: AMM yellow as the main colour with black performance stripes.