the crazy and pick up trucks

First up is the Holden VF SS V Redline Ute pictured above. The 350hp V8 machine set the N

While Aussie country boys were relying on Holden Utes to get their tinned lager and sheep from A to B, the yanks had the Chevrolet El Camino. This is the original 1959 El Camino, what must surely be the most stylish pick up truck ever to roll off a production line.

The tail fins and chrome aren t what we expect from a utility vehicle but from the outset the El Camino had a performance pick up glint in its eye. The top engine option with this model was a 5.7 litre V8 producing 315hp. It could get the two tonne truck to 60mph in around seven seconds.

As the American motor industry went muscle car crazy in the late 1960s, the El Camino followed suit. This is a 1967 El Camino SS powered by the 6.5 litre big block V8 found in Chevy s Camaro muscle car of the same era. The truck was fitted with sports suspension to help deploy its 325hp performance.

Germany is not a nation we routinely associate with pick up trucks so when BMW announced this little beauty on 1 April 2011 it didn t fool too many people. Except it did! First rate April fools gag though it was, BMW s M3 pick up was also real.

The 414hp V8 ute was specially commissioned from BMW s M Division and is said to be capable of 186mph. Weighing 50kg less than the equivalent M3 Coupe and with most of that bulk disappearing from over the driven rear wheels, it s hard to imagine the M3 ute being anything less than a monumental handful.

M3 pick ups aren t exactly unprecedented either. BMW has built open backed versions of the E30 M3 and there s a E46 M3 truck doing its tyre smoking rounds too.

Why should the Australians have all the fun? Surely there are thousands of British workers who d quite like to drive to work every day in a 6.2 litre V8 pick up truck, aren t there? Vauxhall thought there were and promptly got on the phone to Holden to arrange a subtle rebadging of the HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) Maloo.

Rebadged as a Vauxhall VXR Maloo, the HSV super ute exploded on to the British commercial vehicle scene and instantly made our domestic market pick ups look rather inadequate. This E3 version of the Maloo has 425hp and can power to 60mph (100kph) in 4.9s. Unfortunately, 21mpg fuel consumption and a

The US likes to do everything a little larger than everyone else and its pick up trucks are no exception. This is the Dodge Ram SRT 10, a giant pick up equipped with the 8.3 litre V10 engine from the Dodge Viper supercar. The Ram SRT 10 was built in limited numbers from 2004 to 2006 and a few of the 510hp machines even made it to the UK through official channels. At over 2m wide and with the four seater version weighing 2.548kg the Ram can still sprint to 60mph (100kph) in 5.2s and get close to 150mph (241kph).

Mitsubishi s L200 was one of the models that benefited most from the UK s double cab pick up boom of the late 90s and early noughties. Canny tradespeople realised the commercial vehicle tax breaks their vans qualified for also applied to five seater pick ups that could double as family cars. Mitsubishi was one of the first to capitalise with a procession of high spec, leather lined special edition versions of its L200, each with a more outlandishly macho title than the last.

Customers who were that way inclined could cruise about the place in an L200 Trojan, Warrior, Barbarian or possibly the silliest of the lot, the Mitsubishi L200 Raging Bull. Would you think twice before honking your horn at a plasterer with

It was the success of the Ford Ranchero pick up that prompted General Motors to dream up the Chevy El Camino. The original 1957 Ranchero could more than match the El Camino in the tailfins and chrome stakes but this is the 1969 fourth generation truck in racy GT guise.

This is Ford s take on the ultimate performance pick up. The Ford Special Vehicle Team first produced a Lightning version of the F 150 truck in 1993 but this is the second generation version that launched in 1999 with a 360hp 5.4 litre V8 under the hood. Production continued until 2004 and over 28,000 units were sold.

The Dodge Rampage was launched in 1982 to give the Chevy El Camino of the day a run for its money. With 2.2 litre, four cylinder power it didn t quite have the legs to trouble the performance pick up elite, but its compact size and front wheel drive layout made it a more manageable alternative. The US car based pick up market was declining by this stage and, with proper off road capable models taking over, not even the testosterone charged name could make the Rampage a commercial success.