The mountain track was just two feet wider than the car, with rock face to my right and a nasty drop to jagged rocks below if I cared to look left. I didn’t. I don’t like heights and this was hair-raising stuff for me.

The ravine had come upon us suddenly as we rounded a corner on the first leg of our test drive programme in the next Toyota Land Cruiser.

Add in the fact that I was steering a rather large left-hand drive vehicle, and you’ll get the picture.

Eyes only on the ‘road’ ahead I carefully made my way round all those blind corners, and through the enormous deep ruts carved by monsoon-type rains that can hit this part of the world.

All 26kms or so of this track took in terrain that you’d never get to drive in Ireland. We were driving some 4,200 feet up in the Sierra de Almijara mountains in southern Spain, up higher than our own Carrantowill in Kerry.

We found out later the off-road track is part of the world famous Paris Dakar 4x4 rally route, which explains the kind of ground Toyota had picked to prove their newest Land Cruiser. Not to mention their confidence in us getting their cars safely back!

There was no need to worry, this car simply eats up every obstacle and actually takes over the driving for you in certain conditions. There probably isn’t anything else quite like it for off-road capability. No matter what you’d throw it at.

This proved to be quite a lot over the two-day programme which included a specially-built assault course carved into the side of a steep hill. Made of pure mud. We drove up a steeply constructed mucky slope, perched at the top which was just the length of the car, and let the car drive itself down the 40-deg slope the other side. There’s faith for you!

Further along we watched as the car in front negotiated its way successfully through two mud holes of at least four feet in depth with, at one stage, two of its wheels high in the air. The car behind had the same view of us as we progressed through the course.

Another test drive programme took in an even more mountainous track presenting us with really evil driving conditions before dropping down through huge olive tree plantations where you’d expect no car could travel. We spotted an older Land Cruiser parked in the farmer’s compound beside a whopping big tractor. Imagine what he could do with this latest version 3-litre D-4D Land Cruiser, which is due here in Ireland sometime in the first half of 2003.

It has such features as Downhill Assist Control (DAC) and Hill-start Assist Control (a world first) not to mention ABS, EBD, Brake Assist and VSC. DAC allows the vehicle to be driven at very low speed while the Hill Start assist control stops backroll.

No prices or specifications are yet available for the Irish market but a 4-litre 249bhp V6 petrol will also be available. Satellite navigation will be an option.

This strong and handsome SUV had certainly looked the part when we’d set off earlier that morning from the Spanish coastal resort of Malaga. The diesel engine was so smooth that you’d think it was a petrol unit.

The lady who spoke to us from behind the dashboard via the navigation system took us inland in the direction of Granada, climbing all the while with the snowclad Sierra Navada mountain range looming ever larger to the right.

On reaching the test area, we had locked the differential to maintain power to all four wheels which made the vehicle cope better with the kind of driving we were expected to do.

Besides the thrill of driving the Land Cruiser, we passed through some quite superb scenery over the two-day event. Driving in cloud in early morning, patches of sun picked out white villages on far hills while majestic mountain ranges seemed to rise above low lying cloud. Olive tree plantations pickled the landscape and resembled a patchwork of colours with the ochre and gold of the land.

That we could drive this very luxuriously-finished vehicle straight into that terrain, and then out of it onto well-surfaced hairpinned mountain side roads that thrilled and raised the anxiety factor at the same time, was a really great experience.

And some time later, on the homeward run down the motorway, I found it such a good main road runner too, that I began to realise just what the attraction of these large SUVs might be to the sector who use them, who in Ireland never have to ever take them offroad.

I’m looking forward to driving it in Irish conditions. Must keep an eye out for suitable mountains.