Photo: wb.artist20/Instagram
You might have heard of the Australian species of pickup called a ute. Wild supercharged custom versions are the tire-shredding stars of local shows. The closest thing to these car-like utility vehicles we have in America is the El Camino. No, not the Netflix special, but a Chevrolet vehicle they stopped making in the late 1980s.
Because of strong demand from the customers, the El Camino was, for a short moment in time, one of the coolest Detroit products. The 1968 and 1969 models were gorgeous-looking, thanks to the Chevelle connection. Plus, you could have Chevy's 396 (6.5L) V8. And for 1970, customers could even have a 454 (7.4L), a gigantic big-block V8 making 450 horsepower and 500 lb-ft (677 Nm) of torque.
Ford's equivalent model, the Ranchero, isn't as famous. Perhaps it's because the Blue Oval didn't want to wage the horsepower war in this segment as well. But we'd like to imagine that the problem was the Ranchero's Falcon-like appearance. Wouldn't a sporty Mustang have been better as the pickup's underpinnings?
The idea of a Ranchero with a Mustang front end is nothing new. But this latest rendering from wb.artist20 tries to connect everything to one of the most famous names in pony car history, the Bullitt. Here, we're talking about the modern version, the one that just got discontinued.
The artist says that if this were a real car, the tailgate would be its coolest feature. Of course, we're more interested in the fact that it's got a V8 engine, RWD, and very little weight over the rear. So handling would be dependent on whether you have a load in the back or not.
To its credit, Ford did have a production ute. It was called the Falcon and was locally made in Australia until 2016. Only 500 Ford Falcon GT-F models were built that year, fitted with a supercharged V8 making around the same horsepower as the Bullitt.
Ford's equivalent model, the Ranchero, isn't as famous. Perhaps it's because the Blue Oval didn't want to wage the horsepower war in this segment as well. But we'd like to imagine that the problem was the Ranchero's Falcon-like appearance. Wouldn't a sporty Mustang have been better as the pickup's underpinnings?
The idea of a Ranchero with a Mustang front end is nothing new. But this latest rendering from wb.artist20 tries to connect everything to one of the most famous names in pony car history, the Bullitt. Here, we're talking about the modern version, the one that just got discontinued.
The artist says that if this were a real car, the tailgate would be its coolest feature. Of course, we're more interested in the fact that it's got a V8 engine, RWD, and very little weight over the rear. So handling would be dependent on whether you have a load in the back or not.
To its credit, Ford did have a production ute. It was called the Falcon and was locally made in Australia until 2016. Only 500 Ford Falcon GT-F models were built that year, fitted with a supercharged V8 making around the same horsepower as the Bullitt.
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