Tag Archives: Ute

Ute Beaut

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The sedan-based pick-up known as the ‘Coupe Utility’ is an icon of Australian motoring. Built by all of Australia’s indigenous manufacturers, and with a few others importing to Australia too, they were hugely popular in decades past.

But with Australian motor manufacturing having ceased in recent years, the Australian ‘Ute’ has almost died out, although the body type lives on (in a smaller form) in South America.

Flickr’s chris.elliott.art remembers the golden age of the Aussie ute however, with this ace ‘1971 Aussie Turbo Coupe Utility’.

Based on no particular model, but somehow looking like all of them, Chris’ ute captures the Australian motoring icon brilliantly, and there’s more to see of his superbly presented creation at his Flickr album. Click the link above to visit Australia some time in the early ’70s.

Jurassic Re-Boot

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Hollywood loves a reboot. Cue ‘Top Gun, Maverick’, ‘Fast and Furious 10’, anything with ‘Star Wars’ in the title, and ‘Jurassic World’. That said, a genetically-modified dino-weapon running amok in a theme park is a winner in TLCB Office. Because we’re 6.

Also rebooting a dinosaur-based classic is chriselliott.art, whose marvellous vintage half-ton ute inspired by the 5975 ‘T-Rex Transport’ Adventurers set was suggested to us by a reader.

Clever techniques, gorgeous presentation, and a conspicuously absent T-Rex can all be seen at Chris’ photostream. Click the link above to reboot.

Holden HJ

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Lego Holden HJ Ute

Being unfamiliar with Australia’s (now deceased) domestic car market, at first glance we thought this was a bastardised Volvo. It turns out that it is in fact a Holden HJ ute (sorry Australian readers!), built from the early to the mid ’70s, and available with a huge 5 litre V8 engine. It’s about as Australian as a hat with corks on it, and this delightfully studdy Lego version has been constructed by serial bloggee Senator Chinchilla.

There’s opening doors, a dropping tailgate and an opening hood – underneath which is a working V8 mounted to a functioning gearbox. There’s more to see on Flickr at Senator’s photostream – click the link above to make the jump down under.

Lego Holden HJ Ute

Brute of a Ute

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The LUGNuts group on Flickr is currently holding a dragster contest and Lino Martins has produced a souped-up ute in response. The “ute” is a classic vehicle of the Australian outback, like the pick-up in North America or the camionetta in South America. Holden still produce utes, despite having been subsumed into the General Motors empire. With an engine of 6.2l available as standard, we don’t think that you’d need to do much to make a great drag-racer of this car. It’s also the only car manufacturer’s website that we’ve visited with a button to press just listen to the engine noise. Click here to see Lino’s ute at full size and click here to hear the roar of its modern counterpart.

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Men At Work

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Lego Holden Ute

This classic Holden one-ton ute is probably the most Australian thing this side of a hat with corks. But they don’t have wheels so this’ll have to do. Plus it’s also allowed us to write an obscure – but very clever if we say so – Australian band reference as a title.

Anyway, back to the Holden. It’s a half car, half flatbed V8 mongrel that’s so manly just sitting in it would make you pregnant. Even if you’re a dude. Flickr’s Senator Chinchilla built this Model Team version of the Holden in less than 24 hours to limit his exposure, but if we were him we’d still take a trip to the pharmacy for one of those blue sticks.

You can see more of the Senator’s classic Aussie on Flickr – click here to go to the land down under.

Lego Holden Ute

Beaut of a Ute

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Lego Ford Model A Ute

This Ford Model A flatbed, or ‘ute’ for our Australian readers, is the work of Aussie builder Parrington Levens. Mr. Levens has utilised* some very old parts for his very old truck, and they look rather nice in this context. You can see more of this beautiful ute on MOCpages.

*Sorry.