Ride for family and lucky pigs

Depending on how far you stretch the definition, the first ute arrived when someone replaced the horse in a horse-and-cart combination with an engine. That honour is usually attributed to Nicholas Cugnot's steam-powered artillery tractor in 1770.

Ford Australia's place in the evolution of the modern ute is more specific. It is now accepted that Ford Australia was the first to create the coupe utility in 1934.

It combined the five-window coupe roofline of Ford's long-tailed coupe models with a one-piece side pressing that extended from the doors to the rear of the load area.

Because the company had already offered a wide range of light Roadster utility trucks based on the earlier Model T, Model A and the first V8, Ford Australia more than any rival knew how much its new 1934 coupe utility differed from its predecessors and the substantial gamble on tooling it represented.

The idea for the Australian coupe utility began with a 1933 letter penned by the wife of a farmer on his behalf from Gippsland in rural south-east Victoria to Ford managing Director Hubert French. The letter was written in the quaint language of the times: "Would Ford build for me a vehicle: the front is the Coupe, to suit my need of taking the family to Church on Sunday; the back is to be the Roadster Utility box, so I can take the pigs to town on Monday?"

At first it was treated as a luxury request, but French handed the letter to director of manufacturing C.C. Weston who called on the services of Lewis T. Bandt, then Ford's only designer. The 22-year-old Bandt had already designed a number of fabric roof utility vehicles for a South Australian body builder and was given the task of combining the style of a Ford coupe with an integrated utility tray.

Bandt's watercolour concept sketches - still in Ford's possession - depicted the new model crossing creeks, clambering up banks and across ploughed fields.

Overhang was kept to a minimum, ground clearance high, and the cabin had to be big enough to stow gear out of the weather. Most important, it had to show some style, enough to do a family proud as they arrived at church on Sunday.

Weston believed that cutting down a passenger vehicle and putting a tray on the back would result in the vehicle tearing itself apart once there was a load on the back. Bandt hit on the idea of installing a frame that ran from the back pillar. An extra pillar was added to strengthen the weak point where cabin and tray joined.

Upon completing his fabled masterpiece, Bandt told Westman: "Boss, them pigs are going to have a luxury ride".

Christened the "coupe utility" the vehicle went into production in 1934. Two were sent to Canada with Bandt in tow and shown to Henry Ford. Ford was so impressed with the vehicle he showed it to his key men, who asked what it was.

"A kangaroo chaser," Ford replied. "And we're going to build them here." Ford US would build many coupe utilities based on the Australian concept, the later models wearing the Ranchero badge.

The new concept was an instant hit for Ford Australia and each new Ford V8 model brought a new coupe utility.

These early Ford V8 models were out of reach of most Australians and the fact that the latest coupe utility models always sold steadily provides an insight into the importance of the rural and building trade sector in the fledgling economy. They also found a market with the Australian military.

After World War II, the 1946-48 Ford coupe utilities featured a shortened version of the sleek 1946 coupe roofline incorporating the Coupe's oval rear window.

Ford Australia carried over this style for unique coupe utility versions of the all-new 1949-51 Ford Custom V8 range. These were followed by similar Mainline ute versions of the 1952-54 side-valve Customlines. These became a force in Australian motor racing and challenged the notion that a racing car had to be based on a passenger car.

The rules eventually caught up with them but not before the Ford V8 ute had earned a worthy racing pedigree.

Ford Australia then introduced its most powerful ute, the 1955 Mainline, the first and only ute in Australia with an overhead valve V8 at the time. These big Mainlines were the last Australian Coupe Utilities based on US V8 models and ended in 1959.

* The Ford Discovery Centre in Geelong has a replica 1934 Ford ute belonging to the Bandt family. Because most original 1934 coupe utes were worked into the ground or hot-rodded, Bandt after his 1976 retirement built this replica from a chopped down sedan. But he was killed in it in 1987 on his way home from filming a documentary on the first coupe utility. The Early Ford V8 Club Victoria rebuilt it with Ford Australia support as a memorial to Lewis Bandt. It was never intended to be a historical reference as its sedan roofline slopes in the opposite direction to that of the correct coupe roofline. At least one national motoring museum has a street-rodded example of the original coupe-utility and is restoring it back to its original 1934 specification.