1934 Ford V8 Type 302 Coupe Utility

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 widely accepted that Ford Australia was the first to create the Coupe Utility in 1934.

It featured two distinct developments that separated it from earlier passenger vehicle-based utility vehicles. The new Coupe Utility combined the stylish five window coupe roofline (two door windows, two side windows and a rear window) of Ford's rakish long-tailed coupe models with a unique one-piece side pressing that extended from the doors to the rear of the load area. Compared to what had come before it, the effect was dramatic.

Because the company had already offered a wide range of light 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.

Ford Australia already had a standard utility car or roadster utility in its range which was little more than a long rectangular box behind the windscreen with a seat and rudimentary fabric roof separating the vehicle occupants from the load area.

Long before 1934, Ford pick-ups in the US had fully enclosed steel cabins but they were short steel boxes with doors that offered just enough room for driver and passenger. They were chopped-off vertically ahead of a narrow load box located between the rear wheel wells. The wheel wells were left exposed on the outside, hence the stepside description applied to US designs. The Australian load bed with its wheel wells on the inside was soon referred to as the styleside for obvious reasons.

Styling of these first US steel cabin pick-ups was not a priority when they consisted of a load box and a cabin box with Ford's latest bonnet and grille attached. This early US style evolved into a pick-up range separate from the passenger cars and ultimately became the F100/F150 series.

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. You could imagine the scene on a cold and wet Gippsland evening as she declared she was no longer going to share the trip to town with pig manure or the elements.

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?"Unfortunately, the actual letter has not survived but records of the ensuing correspondence, design briefs, sketches and other details still exist and are held in the Ford Discovery Centre, Geelong. An important context for this request is often overlooked. In 1934, the banks in Australia had the final say over what you could or could not buy and would only finance one motor vehicle. Because a farm could not do without a work vehicle, the family's needs inevitably were pushed to a distant last as Australia's isolated rural population had little choice other than to bring home one of the crude light commercials of the day.

At first it was treated as a "luxury" request, but French handed the letter to Director of Manufacturing C.C. 'Slim' Westman who called on the services of one Lewis T.Bandt, then Ford's only designer. The 22-year-old 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 in typical Aussie contexts such as creek crossings, clambering up banks and across ploughed fields. He showed an intuitive understanding of how hard it would have to work in a country where there were more tracks than roads and the four wheel drive was another decade away.

Overhang was kept to a minimum, ground clearance high, and the cabin had to be big enough to stow gear out of the weather. At a time when Bandt's contemporaries were content to leave it that, he took it to the next stage. It was his keen understanding of the Aussie farmer's dilemma that separated his new vehicle style. It had to show some style, enough to do a family proud as they arrived at church on Sunday.

This is the key to the unique Aussie ute heritage. Light trucks in other markets provided workers no more than what was required to do their job and were little more than a work tool. In egalitarian early Australia, the economy rode on the sheep's back and the rural sector was the main market. Australian farmers were tough and independent.

The Ford Coupe Utility had to earn its keep in tough isolated conditions but also reflect the owner's self-employed status. This quickly grew to include tradespeople and other small business owners who wanted a vehicle to look smart after knock-off time. It is a market that is stronger than ever, even today.

Westman believed - quite rightly - 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 - the first major job in the expanded Geelong tool shop and body press shop.

Two were sent to Canada - with Bandt in tow - and shown to Henry Ford. So impressed with the design Ford revealed the radical new vehicle 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 in fact 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 provide 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.

Footnote: The Ford Discovery Centre in Geelong is custodian of a replica 1934 Ford ute belonging to the Bandt family. Because most original 1934 coupe utes were worked into the ground or hotrodded, Bandt after his 1976 retirement had to build this replica of his inaugural design from a chopped down sedan. Tragically, Bandt was killed in it in 1987 on his way home from filming an ABC 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 procured a street-rodded example of the original coupe-utility and is restoring it back to its original 1934 specification