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Feann Torr4 Apr 2014
NEWS

BMW M6 ute under consideration

Fast utes are not new, but this twin-turbo V8-powered German tray-back is a bit special

April Fool’s day 2014 saw a veritable excess of amusing vehicles and automotive innovations, from BMW's Force Injection Booster to this interesting BMW M6 ute design from German tuner Prior Design.

Although the M6 Ute was meant to be a photoshopped fantasty by the aerodynamics specialist, the company reported via its Facebook page that the response had been so positive -- complete with references to the HSV Maloo -- that it may in fact look at developing the conversion for sale.

"Well... yes, as most of you suspected, pick-up conversion for 6 Series was just an April Fool's joke. However, positive feedback was so impressive that we might consider building it!" says Prior Design.

If the novel German ute does become reality, there's a very good chance it would end up outperforming Australian performance utes from FPV and HSV -- the respective GS/F6 and Maloo.

The FPV GS ute is powered by a 5.0-litre supercharged Boss V8 that belts out 315kW and 545Nm of torque. The HSV Maloo R8 with SV enhancement pack extracts an even better 340kW and 550Nm from its naturally aspirated 6.2-litre LS3 Chevy V8.

Both Aussie brutes are seriously swift, accelerating to 100km/h in less than six seconds, but the BMW M6 ute would trump them both.

Powered by the Bavarian-developed 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 that grinds out an unholy 412kW and 680Nm, the M6 coupe rips to 100km/h in 4.2 seconds. With less weight due to the removal of part of the roof and the rear glass, the M6 ute could theoretically go even faster – provided it can get its power to the ground.

Although car-based high-performance utes have been an Australian phenomenon, US and Asian car-makers have focussed on less exciting car-based pick-ups in the past.

The Chevrolet El Camino was sold in the USA from the early 1960s until the late 1980s, and there have been some other workhorse utes from Asian car-makers, such as the Subaru Brumby, Proton Jumbuck and the pint-sized Suzuki Mighty Boy, to name a few.

Although BMW has never sold a utility as we know them, the idea of a BMW ute is not new.

The company never manufactured such a model, but it built a one-off M3 ute in 2011 -- again as an April Fool’s joke. It was a fully functional vehicle and was later used as drift car.

The original BMW ute, however, was created by Australian golfer Stuart Appleby, who famously commissioned a hand-built E39 M5 ute.

With performance utes from Holden and Ford to be killed off altogether within the next few years, hi-po fantasy utes like this BMW M6 could indeed become the last bastion of hope for fans of highly-strung two-door load-luggers.

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