This car was purchased on a whim after our 1989 F70 broke. It was a barnfind that had been sitting for around 15 years in someone’s garage. As such, the underside was very well preserved, and the body has only very minimal rust.

Even though this is also a Rocky, the driving experience is substantially different. While the F70 was solid front axle and leaf sprung on all corners, the F78 featured torsion bar front suspension and a coil sprung solid rear axle. This combined with the longer wheelbase makes this Rocky much more car-like to drive. While the on-road handling drastically improved, some would argue it’s not as robust and durable when off roading as having a solid front axle.

Unfortunately this is the non-turbocharged variant of the 2.8 diesel engine, making this an almost dangerously slow vehicle.

All Daihatsu F78 projects