Here in America we never really got utes, the car-based pickup trucks that are so popular in Australia in other markets. There were outliers like the Ford Ranchero, Chevy El Camino and Subaru Baja for a time, but they never really caught on here in the U.S, and we came so close to getting a Pontiac G8 ute at the end of the 2000s, but sadly that was never meant to be. Many private owners have resorted to creating their own utes, and the results are usually mixed, like this Dodge Charger pickup currently for sale on eBay.
The conversion was done by none other than Smyth Performance, the Rhode Island–based company that provides ute conversion kits for cars like the B6 and B7 Audi A4, the Subaru Impreza and the MK4, MK5 and MK6 Volkswagen Jetta and Golf. According to the eBay description of the car, the donor car was a 2015 Charger. The project for the conversion was called “Operation Thunder,” which is cool, I guess? It was also fitted with Charger Widebody fenders for the front and rear.
The conversion looks well done overall, especially the front end and the cab. It’s clearly a Charger pickup, not some other truck with a Charger front end put on. At least, everything looks good until you get to the rear. It looks like it’s melting. The listing notes how hard it was to make the tailgate:
The design of the basic kit did not match up with the Hellcat wide body front, so a new design concept was created. The new design uses features of the Hellcat car, so a lot of work went into the final design to make a working tail gate. The design after being drawn up was built using foam crafted to the design. A fiberglass mold was made to make the new parts. The kit rear section was replaced with new parts, a very time-consuming process.The final product after several tweaks ended up blending the Hellcat look to the rear creating one bad to the bone ride.
Unfortunately, this Charger pickup only looks the part of a Hellcat. Underneath, it’s all Charger SXT. That means it has a 3.6-liter V6 with only 300 horsepower. The seller does note that the engine has a cold-air intake, high-performance coils, and a catback performance exhaust, for what it’s worth. Oh, and there’s 30,000 miles on this thing. If all of that interests you, you’re going to have to part with $42,000 (or your best offer) for a chance to put this in your driveway.
