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NEWS
SEMA: Yankee Ute
Australia's blue-collar sports car goes red, white and blueTheir reaction is almost comical; Americans just stop and stare.
At SEMA there are possibly a thousand or more modified cars, unique concepts and insane rat rods, so a pair of dead stock emission-legal HSV Maloos are nothing really special. But to see the 'Aussie El Camino' parked kerbside in the United States puts a wild spin on an interesting tale.
Randll (sic) Reese is based in the mile-high city of Denver, Colorado and the pair of Maloos belong to him temporarily. Through his company Left Hand Utes, he imports, modifies and resells HSV Maloo and Holden SS V8 utes as well as HSV and Holden V8 wagons. "Only V8s!" he makes the point. These aren't chopped Pontiac or Chevrolet badged sedans; these are fair dinkum factory built utes that comply with US emission standards in all 50 states. The utes are titled in Colorado as a GM pickup and can be serviced by any GM dealership.
Randll in his small shop has achieved what GM for the past decade hasn't.
Business is good. "We've delivered 13 and have a few in the shop," he says. Despite the intense interest, he and his business partner predict sales at around 10 to 12 utes per year for the next five years. The price for a low-mile 2013.5 VF Maloo is north of $80k (USD). And everything works from the heads-up display to the air bags to ABS brake control to the traction control system with launch control. It is a genuine left-hand drive ute converted using genuine GM parts.
"It is the closest you're going to get to a factory left-hand drive Maloo," said Randll.
And here's how he does it. For VF utes he sources the dash and most of the needed bits from a LHD Caprice Police spec. The later 2014 utes are converted using bits from a Chev SS, and earlier utes (2008-09) are converted using Pontiac G8 parts. Seems simple, but it isn't.
GM officially claimed it didn't import the ute to the US because the program wasn't profitable and would potentially take sales from GM full-sized pickup range. But when Mark Dickens, GM Director for Performance Variants, was told that two real left-hand drive HSV Maloos were parked in front of the SEMA convention centre, his reaction was beyond disbelief. "What? Really? Where?"
Since the launch of the Pontiac G8 and Chevrolet SS, Americans know Holden. And they simply love the ute.
One of those utes loitering in the shop is a 2005 Ford XR8 ute in citrus acid green. "We don't have a buyer yet, but I have a 2012 5.0-litre Coyote V8 ready to go in and I think I can use a Lincoln LS sedan as the donor car."
By the way, that black VF Maloo was picked by SEMA as a Top 10 truck of the show.
"Can you believe that?" asked Randll, "And it is a standard Maloo."
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Written byTodd Hallenbeck
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