Ute The World

What images conjure up in your mind when you hear the name Australia? Kangaroos and koalas? Sunny beaches and the outback? You shouldn’t have answered yes to any of those.

The first thing that you should visualize are seemingly normal sedans that have had truck beds grafted on behind the front cab. I am of course talking of utes, which is short for utilities. They combine the ease of having a car with the benefits of having a big truck bed that you can fill up with all sort of things. Think an Aussie interpretation of an El Camino, a type of vehicle that is a very common sight no matter where you find yourself in this massive country.

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The ute is also a great platform if you want to build something fun, like this drag-spec Holden WB Statesman I found at Meguiar’s MotorEx last weekend.

One look at the massive V8 sitting in the reinforced engine bay and you automatically think, ‘how on earth does this thing put power down with virtually no weight over the rear wheels?’

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But drag utes aren’t anything new; with some good engineering you can actually get these things to hook up and put serious amounts of power down.

Housing the massive drag slicks has called for quite a bit of tubbing and fabrication in the bed area, so loading capabilities have been cut down to a minimum. If you’re like me you are probably thinking of the massive burnout abilities something like this will have. See, that’s what Australia will do to you!

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It’s just crazy that the majority of vehicles we’ve come across during our Speedhunting trips to Australia over the years have always ticked every box. This whole scene is very competitive, and owners as well as builders put a lot of pride into what they create. It’s gotten to the point that you need to come up with something very different and unique to really stand out.

Dino Dalle Carbonare
Instagram: speedhunters_dino
dino@speedhunters.com

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Comments



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19 comments

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1

Oh boy. Another fast pickup...

Where do I sign up?

2

There is nothing compelling about this post or it's pictures. 3/4 shots a couple words about obvious things blah blah blah - if you are going to feature a car don't just make it feel like 4 pictures you left out of a car show post.

3

Easy guys, I think our friend here is upset because no details were mentioned, not even a briefing (same here, wish we had more about this ute). It was good to have some specs and numbers but as it says it's a spotlight (Read: this was a fast long range "hunt" and details were not available nor the builder/owner).

Author4
Dino Dalle Carbonare

A spotlight, as the word suggests, is a shot story type we introduced to give a little more attention to specific cars that may have grabbed our attention at a show or event we've covered (or anywhere really). It fits in rather well with the whole notion of what Speedhunting is, where we spot or come across cool stuff and want to share. It's fine if you don't find it interesting, an 800 HP ute might not be for everyone haha

5

I think a lot of people overlook the ‘spotlight’ aspect of it. Although the spotlights always leave me wanting more details, I’m sure it’s impossible to always find the owner to get more info, never mind how busy you guys are trying to bring us great features

6

I love Speedhunters Spotlights. I love how you guys not only highlight a variety of cars from multiple events, but you sometimes highlight the smallest of details about that car, a particular mod or the car scene. Dino's posts are the best for this. It's like getting a form, function, culture and even history lesson all in a single snapshot; perfect. Keep it up!

Author7
Dino Dalle Carbonare

Thanks for the comments guys, I really appreciate this sort of feedback. Yes it's true we can't possibly feature everything, there are just so many awesome rides out there the best we can do most of the time at shows and events is to walk around the car and dedicate a spotlight to it. It allows us to increase the number of cars we are able to share, rather than showing you a pic or two and then that would be it.

8

i've never really understood the whole spotlight thing.
What is the point?

9

It's a spotlight post..... Are you new here?

10

Yeah I'm furious too.... we should demand our money back! pfft..

11

Wanker

12

No comment.

13

Hey!

For me the cars are just tools to get from place A to B.

But I follow speedhunters because all of the articles are very well written (including this one) and have a awesome art pieces on display with sharp images (including this one). All articles don't need to be 10 pages of investigative journalism. There's smaller posts also in traditional magazines.

"Dino Dalle Carbonare", thak you very much for all the good stories and beautiful pictures.

I'm little by little getting very interested about cars. Maybe I by a small hobby car some day. 90's convertible golf would be awesome.

Author14
Dino Dalle Carbonare

Thanks for the kind words. Nice to hear what you think about all the different story types we offer :)

15

El Camino must be back to life, it will have a lot of costumers(RHD guys have the Holden but LHD have nothing). Fact: Lot of guys are buying pickups and dropping them, check the Arab Gulf countries lot of pickups are dropped there (and sedans are lifted for off-road purpose).

16
Wade Anderson

http://www.lefthandutes.com converts late model Holden utes.

17

well, i have to make some researches to check if it's legal here.

Author18
Dino Dalle Carbonare

I totally agree.

19

All that effort and it still has a cheap ass steering wheel from autobarn.

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