Utes weren’t always sporty, high-performance vehicles. I say this from personal experience, from back in the early ‘80s in my then pride-and-joy, a 1974 model XB Falcon ute, with 4.1-litre six and three-on-the-tree manual.
It was an ex-electrician’s work ute, and it’d had a hard life. But it did have a reconditioned engine, so the thing was pretty strong in a straight line. Less so in the corners, however: with the lack of weight over the leaf-sprung rear axle, traction was an ever-present issue. To be fair, it was probably as much to do with the driver being still in his teens as it was the result of poor vehicle dynamics, but that car probably spent as much time going sideways as it did in a straight line. The saving’s grace was that the ute’s extended wheelbase (shared with the Falcon wagon range) at least made
