Keep on Truckin’: The Toyota Hilux
We explore the modern history of putting big guns on wheels, then dive into the history of Chad and its border dispute with Libya to learn how a humble pickup truck became a quintessential weapon of war.
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Image: A Nigerien military convoy on a counter-terrorism patrol in the Sahara Desert (UNICEF)
Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel
THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Tatmadaw’s Shiny Happy People Committee for Lo-Fi Beats to Study To
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
This week, we’re in Southeast Asia, jumping just over Thailand’s north-western border to Myanmar, where the ongoing civil war between the country’s military dictatorship and numerous armed groups across the country is showing slithers of hope that a resolution might be on the horizon, nestled amidst a morass of repression and violence which has persisted, practically uninterrupted, for over sixty years.
Sources:
Mario J. Azevedo (1998), Roots of Violence: A History of War in Chad
BBC News (July, 2006), ‘Profile: Chad's Hissene Habre’, available at BBC News
Antony Beevor (2006), The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
Michelle L. Burgis (2009), Boundaries of Discourse in the International Court of Justice: Mapping Arguments in Arab Territorial Disputes
Carla Chahrour (October, 2020), ‘The arrival of Toyota in Saudi Arabia’, available at Arab News Japan
Michael Ellmer (April, 2021), ‘The Great Toyota War: Birthplace of the Technical’, available at Grey Dynamics
Human Rights Watch (September, 2005), ‘“Africa's Pinochet” Faces Extradition and Trial for Crimes Against Humanity’, available at Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (June, 2016), ‘Enabling a Dictator: The United States and Chad’s Hissène Habré 1982-1990’, available at Human Rights Watch
Frank Jacobs (November, 2011), ‘The World’s Largest Sandbox’, The New York Times, available at The New York Times Archive
Roy May (1988), ‘Internal Dimensions of Warfare in Chad’, Cambridge Antropology (13:2), pp. 17-27
Jack Mulcaire (February, 2014), ‘The Pickup Truck Era of Warfare’, available at War on the Rocks
Le Monde (March, 1987), ‘TCHAD: le conflit avec la Libye Les nouvelles inquiétudes de Paris et de N'Djamena’, available at archive.today
Le Monde (March, 1987), ‘TCHAD: N'Djamena affirme que 1 269 soldats libyens ont été tués à Ouadi-Doum’, available at archive.today
Leigh Neville (2018), Technicals: Non-Standard Tactical Vehicles from the Great Toyota War to Modern Special Forces
Lodi News-Sentinel (April, 1987), ‘How Libya lost the battle for Wadi Doum’, available via Google News
Los Angeles Times (April, 1987), ‘Chad Troops Used Pickup Trucks to Foil Libyan Tanks’, available at Los Angeles Times Archives
LRDG, Long Range Desert Group, available at lrdg.hedgewisch.net
Michael Maren (1997), The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity
Sam C. Nolutshungu (1996), Limits of Anarchy: Intervention and State Formation in Chad
Pierre Péan (March, 2001), ‘Les preuves trafiquées du terrorisme libyen’, Le Monde Diplomatique, available at archive.today
Bryan Perret (April, 1979), ‘Ford Model T Patrol Car’, Airfix Magazine, available at Landships II
Kenneth M. Pollack (2002), Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991
Kenneth M. Pollack (2019), Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness
Nathaniel K. Powell (2021), France’s Wars in Chad: Military Intervention and Decolonization in Africa
Reuters (March, 1987), ‘Chad is Said to Capture Strategic Air Base’, The New York Times, available via archive.today
Geoff Simons (2003), Libya and the West: From Independence to Lockerbie
Ravi Somaiya (October, 2010), ‘Why Rebel Groups Love the Toyota Hilux’, available at Newsweek
Chandra Lekha Sriram (February, 2013), ‘“Africa’s Pinochet” or the beginning of “Africa’s solutions”?’, available at Al Jazeera
Toyota Global, ‘75 Years of Toyota: Vehicle Lineage’, available at Toyota Global
Toyota Industries, ‘The Story of Sakichi Toyoda’ available at Toyota Industries
Simon Whistler (March, 2026), ‘The Great Toyota War: How Chad Won a War with Pickup Trucks’, available at War Fronts
Luc Wiesman (August, 2025), ‘How The Humble Toyota Hilux Became The World’s Most Deadly Warzone Vehicles’, available at DMARGE
Ignacio Yárnoz (2018), ‘Toyota wars and the next generation in counter insurgency strategies’, available at Universidad de Navarra Global Affairs and Strategic Studies
Comments (33)
re: coup: "Hi all, hope you had a nice weekend..." 🤣 I AM FKING SCREAMMMINGGGG loving this cursed linkedIn style commentary greg lolllll 😭🎉🧑💻👏
Finally caught up with this episode and hooting, hollering at the closing needle drop. Excellent work 🫡
"Gaddafi's GUNT is full of FAP" is quite simply why I listen to @Bloodwork
The more I learn about Gaddafi, the more I like him. He was doing chaos mode for anti-imperialism.
Was there a David Byrnes / Talking Heads bit at the start?
Dunno who you are, nor how you slid in my Patreon feed, however I’m absolutely DELIGHTED!! I’m today years old, first timer, and planning to making my way back to the start.
As regards French colonisation of Chad, it's important to remember I think that the British ribbon across the continent was not predestined, the French had been hoping to continue pushing eastwards themselves across the continent. Which brought about the famous diplomatic incident at Fashoda in 1898 where the British and French clashed over control of Sudan before the French backed down.
Curtains for Gaddafi?? France and Chad caught flipping a GUNT
I listened to this on the drive home from grief counselling- and Gregk, the section on the Bloodwork Coup-League gave me the biggest smile and laughs I've had in a while. GOATed podcast, keep up the good work boys xoxo
It was an excellent coup
Well Tom certainly went hog wild on this one didn't he
Tbh I love how the effect of Tom going hog wild is that it feels like you're reading really juicy twitter thread with excellent gif usage.
Wait; was Gaddafi a fan of the gunt or did he fap in the gunt?
GADDAFI MENTIONED
the Senussi are not really a tribe
Years ago I complemented my uncle's choice of buying a Hilux by saying they were good enough for ISIS. He didn't take it particularly well.
Odd
On top of just being hella informative and Entertaining to listen to, Gregory's AuDHD comedic delivery is what keeps me coming back.
I hit the play button without reading the title (I trust you like that) And then spent the first two minutes saying PLEASE BE TOYOTA TRUCKS 😂😂 What an amazing intro. I’m so ready.
Yesss! This will be as mighty as the AK series.
Excellent use of Rack City in this one
WTYP did a technicals bonus episode if anyone is jonesing for more content
So glad someone else remembered trucks, guns, or trucks with guns on them
when talking about the "send it" part of attacking the airbase you clearly missed the "whitness me" drop from Mad Max: Fury Road. What a banger of an episode!
“I could have dropped more.”
GOAT outro music choice this week. Incredible episode, gonna be “listen to Blood Work”ing this one extra hard.
Certified Thomas O’Mahony Special right there
If Clarkson, May and Hammond couldn't kill a mid-'80s Hilux, I don't think anybody can...
(Slaps hood of a hilux) This bad boy can do it all. Whether you wanna transport alot of guys or mount an assortment of large caliber weapons.
We had an '86 HJ60 hardtop. We called him Hodor. He drank gasoline faster than we could pour it into him. He started with the key and thats a flex. When my brothers and I meet, we lament the friend we had to leave behind. Trust me, we had all kinds of ideas and plans to save him. Last I heard, the locals turned him into a firetruck. There's just something special, something magic, about these units.
Real Stan rogers Mary Ellen Carter feeling
(the window of a technical rolls down and a gloved hand emerges from darkness holding a phone) (on the phone's screen is a picture of a gun) [a whisper from inside the technical]: "...listen to Blood Work..."
This is the fastest I have ever clicked to listen to a podcast