Bogan Nights: Holden SS Ute vs Ford XR8 Ute, Outback Style!

[JoeT]

Trayding Places - Kandos Street Machine Show

Sean Poppitt
29 May 2009
www.wheelsmag.com.au

Ford and Holden's hot ute heroes abandon the building site for a shot at sideways glory at the annual Kandos Street Machine Show.

The story goes that the first Aussie ute was designed by Ford engineer Lew Brandt in 1934 at the request of a farmer’s wife in Victoria. Fast forward 75 years and the ute has grown into a fair-dinkum Aussie icon: every tradie and cocky from Hobart to Broome has one in the garage, we’ve got race series dedicated to tray-backs and ute musters that number in the thousands.

But Wheels has been a bit remiss recently by overlooking one crucial stoush: SS v XR8. So we threw the swag in the back and headed to an all-Aussie festival of horsepower to see how these new-gen utes are received in the Ford and Holden heartland – do they carry cred with the faithful, or are they just tray-backed sports cars for cashed-up city slickers? So welcome to the Kandos Street Machine Show. Think of it as a downsized Summernats: a celebration of blowers, burnouts and beer.

Rolling into the showground-cum-campground on Friday in ‘my’ shiny new blue Ford XR8 ute, I accidentally venture onto Hawkesbury Holden Streeters turf, a car club where Holden is God and Fords are as welcome as an enema. A broad-accented bloke with a terry-towelling hat and a can of Jack Daniel’s leans into the window. “A farkin’ Ford? You’re bloody kiddin’, aren’t ya!? This is Holden country mate – piss off.” Rivalries run deep out here...

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[ausrutherford]

The falcon looks better, end of story.

Waiting for rebutale is 1...2...3.lol

[JoeT]

You know substance abuse is bad for you, right? I love the FG sedan, but the FG Ute looks deranged!

[63GrandSport001]

The Ford looks strange from some angles though, its not ugly or anything but its interesting looking.

I think that if we did a poll most people on this forum will prefer the looks of the Holden ute over the Ford ute.

The Holden just looks like a higher quality ute because the bed section of the vehicle runs smooth with the front section of the vehicle where as the Ford looks more like someone took a Falcon, cut it up, and added a bed to it. The bed on it kind of looks like an after thought while as on the holden it looks more intergrated.

[stevecmh]

i think they both look great.. but i really like that Holden front end

[gagt02]

They both have nice styling, but I'm leaning more towards the Holden SS ute.

[chinamonty]

I prefer the look of the Falcon but I would buy either depending on whether the options I wanted were available at the time.

[Baz]

I prefer the holden and that's because from the door to the tail lights there is no gap where the tub is. I know it's there so you can have put a tray on there but still, it's never looked right to me. Both look great front on

[Revvhead]

I like to think the Holden was designed with all models in mind. The base Omega looks really good from most angles (the wheel arches don't appeal to some though), and the SS doesn't just look like it has a heap of bodywork tacked on. The HSV variants are really smooth and agressive, keeping the simple edgy lines. The Ford looks as if it was designed as the XR8, downgraded for the base model, and had a heap of stuff tacked on to make the FPV versions. It looks too evolutionary from the previous Falcon, and has a taxi/fleet image when you look at the base model.

That's just my $0.02 anyway.

[nota]

Originally Posted by Wheels magazine

Think of it as a downsized Summernats: a celebration of blowers, burnouts and beer.

Think of it as a downsized Summernats: a celebration of Burnouts, Boobs and Bankruptcy

The company behind Summernats just went into liquidation



Street Machine Services = Chick Henry



chick chick bust?

[ford&holden]

Originally Posted by JoeT

You know substance abuse is bad for you, right? I love the FG sedan, but the FG Ute looks deranged!

Personally, i hate the carry over tailgate on the FG utes, i prefer the separate tub of the FG over the VE's one piece body pressing and for some reason VE utes suffer huge rear over hang compared to the VE sedans and even FG utes.
To me interior is an easy win to FG, material use and styling.

[cedarman24]

i wouldn't say no to either of them as a second car.