Coupes with truck beds sound like a novel concept, right? BMW once joked on April Fool’s Day about putting a pickup version of the E92 into production. However, the concept goes beyond novelty. That same E92 is used as a parts hauler across the BMW M development center, succeeding the original E30 pickup. Sweden converted Porsche 924 and 944 models to bypass underage driver laws; Denmark did the same to Porsche 928s to bypass taxes. The concept even reached mass production elsewhere, with Australia as the biggest adopter, given the popularity of the Falcon Ute down south, and the United States trying it with the Chevrolet El Camino and Ford Ranchero.
Speaking of Ford utes, Ford Heritage Fleet US manager Matt Korczyk (going by mattk1903 on Instagram) shared photos of an orange S550 Shelby GT350 converted from a fastback to a Ute. The concept was an apprentice project at the Ford Experimental Vehicles Building (EVB) Metal Shop, so trainees could gain real-world experience, including crafting body lines, fitting parts like the Ranger truck bed onto the body, and turning the Mustang’s original rear decklid into a functioning tailgate with support cables.
Autocar’s Take
The concept of sports cars (or coupes in general) with pickup beds might seem like a novelty at first, but there’s more to that than meets the eye. BMW built its own as a nimble way to get parts across Garching and Munich; Swedish and Danish residents gave their own Porsche models the same treatment to exploit legal loopholes for sports cars; Australians embraced utes with open arms, becoming a symbol synonymous with the car culture from the land down under; and the Americans in Dearborn used the concept to help further hone the minds of the automotive designers and engineers of tomorrow. The Mustang Ute concept sitting in the lobby of the Ford World headquarters shows that utility coupes are more than just a novel idea, one that might eventually find its place here in the Philippines.
