Gallery: some of the coolest utes in the world

Last Friday, at 3pm local time, the last ever Falcon Ute rolled off Ford’s Melbourne factory production line.

Dwindling sales and increased interest in the Australian-developed, Thai-built Ranger pick-up truck spelt the end for it. This, combined with arch rival Holden also ceasing production of the crazy half truck, half car mish-mashes means that the venerable Aussie icon is no more.

For those few of you unaware, a ute is an Australian invention that combines the benefits of a car with the practicality of a pick-up truck. It’s the opposite of a mullet: party in the front, business at the back. 

The idea came about 80 years ago when a farmer’s wife from Gippsland, Australia, wrote to the head of the Ford Motor Company’s outpost in Melbourne. “My husband and I can’t afford a car and a truck,” she said, “but we need a car to go to church on Sunday and a truck to take the pigs to market on Monday. Can you help?”

In an act of consumer responsiveness that these days only happens after a particularly shouty tweet, Ford Australia went and built the first utility vehicle.  

Since the start of production in February 1961, 439,743 Falcon utes have been made. 

Over the years, all manner of mad and crude utes have been produced, and we’ve gone through and highlighted some of our favourites. They are here. Enjoy.

It’s the last in a long line of mad, fast utes to come out of Oz. This lairy farewell gets a supercharged V8 - as all fine Aussie utes do - with a big fat 546lb ft of torque, and an even bigger, fatter 576bhp.

The V8 is bolted to the VXR8 chassis, with lightweight brakes, torque vectoring, quad exhausts, a tricked out interior, and the choice of green or red.

Subtle, it’s not. Fast? You’re looking at a 0-62mph time of under five seconds, and a top speed limited to 155mph.

Nissan's KGC10 Skyline GT-R – known colloquially as Hakosuka to Godzilla gurus – is a legend. Its boxy proportions and totem status for starting the GT-R legacy has it near the top of most people’s top JDM cars. But what’d make it better? Having a pick-up bed on the back of course. 

That’s exactly what a bloke called Domini Le did for the 2015 SEMA show. He got a Seventies Datsun 1200 pickup and then grafted a GT-R face on the front.

In place of the original, quite diddy 70bhp engine, Dominic transplanted a 439hp SR20DET 2.2-litre tuned Silvia engine into it. Then slammed it 8-inches, put some bolt-on flares and wrapped it in excessively-lipped 15×9.5-inch RAYS Volk Racing TE37Vs wheels.

Originally a 1956 S1 Saloon, this yellow Bentley found its way into the hands of the Right Honourable 6th Earl of Stradbroke, Keith Rous. 

It was he who had the eccentric idea to convert it into a utility vehicle. The work was carried out in New South Wales where the S1 was painted bright yellow and had a bespoke timber bed slotted in where the rear passengers would normally sit.

Ladies and Gentleman, may we proudly present you with the incredible Suzuki Mighty Boy. 

Tiny, isn’t it? Well, it was actually the smallest ute ever and made in order to comply with Japan’s stringent Kei-jidosha ‘Kei-car’ rules. 

They dictated that the three-cylinder transverse engine pick-up could be no more than 3.4m long and 1.48m wide, with tiddly 660cc engines. 

Chrome roof rails, bucket seats and 12in wheels were all later added. Bling bling.

A couple of years ago, BMW sent out an amusing April’s Fool press release. The joke? That the kerrazy Germans had produced a V8-powered M3 Ute. A pick-up truck… from an M3!

We laughed a bit, then dismissed it. Turns out, BMW actually built an M3 ute. For real. One actually exists. Inquisitive, we dispatched our expert correspondent to the Nürburgring to go flat out in a rear-wheel-drive, 400bhp V8 with most of the weight removed from over the drive axle.

Click these blue words to see just how many expletives were required in order to get him back in one piece…