Ford Crown Victoria 'Pig-Up'
If you're on to a good thing - stick to it.
Although it was clear that the days of the body-on-frame passenger car were numbered, there was still a clearly identified and loyal customer.
When playing to your strengths, in this case the separate frame construction, you can sometimes turn a perceived 'disadvantage' into an 'advantage'. In this respect, the product conceived as the Ford Crown Victoria Coupe-Utility (in about 2006), looked to its separate frame construction as a method of providing a vehicle type - the Coupe-Utility, long absent from the US market, into a viable product proposition by borrowing the 'utility' section from the similarly sized forthcoming Ford Falcon Ute (as Australians call the coupe-utility design), due for release in 2008.
The Ford Falcon in Australia has had the Coupe-Utility design from day one. In fact, the Coupe Utility was originally conceived and designed in Australia by the fledgling Product Development group in 1934 (on a Ford V8). The intent was to provide a farmer with a single vehicle that he could take the pigs to market, and also to go to church on Sunday. For history buffs, its creator was a young engineer named Lewis Bandt.
Any, an interesting divergence from the main story.
In the mid to late 2000s, both Ford Australia and GM's Holden division were proving their mettle in developing RWD vehicle architectures that could compete globally. Holden built and exported its large RWD car, the Commodore (and LWB Caprice) derivatives to the Middle East in large volumes, along with other markets. A similar plan was also conceived to send the Falcon to this same market, but internal politics resolved in favour of supplying Crown Victorias.
In 2006, the VE Commodore debuted GM's new Zeta platform, destined also for the Camaro (also engineered in Australia), along with various other derivatives. The Commodore was exported to the US to provide the Pontiac G8, and it was rumoured that the Commodore wagon and Utility would also be soon following as a Sports-Wagon and Coupe-Utility counterpart, bolstering Pontiacs sport performance image with some vehicles which could actually deliver.
Ford hastily conceived a response. Having rejected the LHD Falcon for Mid-East markets, it was similarly undesirable to remedy the issue and build volumes of LHD Falcons (which incidentally did not have a US-compliant engine program - but this is another saga-length story). However, the rear utility section of the AU-BF, and superseding FG, were unlike to traditional Coupe-Utility, a separate unit, mounted to a traditional rear rail section. As the Crown Victoria and Falcon were substantially the same size, exporting only the load box provided a majority of the new content required to make a Crown Vic Coupe-Utility, but with none of the engine or vehicle homologation issues presented by bringing over the Falcon whole. The one remaining issue, the fitment of a rear body panel took the form of surrogate Falcon panels in the prototype vehicles built, but was to be better served by the creation of a dedicated Crown Victoria panel section.
All this seemed to be going to plane. Ford's highest volume US car line was to be injected with a fresh dose of market, due to the Coupe utility, which could be sold to fleet services, notable Police and Fire to supplement to Crown Victoria Sedans that they already used.
Storm clouds were brewing on the horizon though. Ford was reluctant to invest in an unknown product, and was busy divesting itself of the various units of its Premier Automotive Group (PAG), comprising of Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo.
Similarly, as GM head toward bankruptcy, it put forward for sale, or closure, the SAAB, Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer divisions.
Alas, a Crown Victoria Coupe-Utility (or even a Ranchero nameplate), was stillborn, but not before a number of prototype vehicles had been built and tested (though not fully tooled).
The model you see here is the result of a 'Rat-Rod' exercise, whereby the model has been 'enhanced' in the idiom of the Rat-Rod, but with a modern touch. Many of the prototypes were painted as Police service vehicles as part of a product assessment tour to various Police Vehicle assessment teams. The model here wears the residual efforts of the traditional 'Black and White', though with a heavy patina of rust and ruin.
This Lego miniland-scale LUGNuts Ford Crown Victoria Coupe-Utility Rat-Rod has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 102nd Build Challenge, titled - 'I Smell a (Modern) Rat!'. In this challenge, any post-1996 vehicle can be built as a rat-rod.
Ford Crown Victoria 'Pig-Up'
If you're on to a good thing - stick to it.
Although it was clear that the days of the body-on-frame passenger car were numbered, there was still a clearly identified and loyal customer.
When playing to your strengths, in this case the separate frame construction, you can sometimes turn a perceived 'disadvantage' into an 'advantage'. In this respect, the product conceived as the Ford Crown Victoria Coupe-Utility (in about 2006), looked to its separate frame construction as a method of providing a vehicle type - the Coupe-Utility, long absent from the US market, into a viable product proposition by borrowing the 'utility' section from the similarly sized forthcoming Ford Falcon Ute (as Australians call the coupe-utility design), due for release in 2008.
The Ford Falcon in Australia has had the Coupe-Utility design from day one. In fact, the Coupe Utility was originally conceived and designed in Australia by the fledgling Product Development group in 1934 (on a Ford V8). The intent was to provide a farmer with a single vehicle that he could take the pigs to market, and also to go to church on Sunday. For history buffs, its creator was a young engineer named Lewis Bandt.
Any, an interesting divergence from the main story.
In the mid to late 2000s, both Ford Australia and GM's Holden division were proving their mettle in developing RWD vehicle architectures that could compete globally. Holden built and exported its large RWD car, the Commodore (and LWB Caprice) derivatives to the Middle East in large volumes, along with other markets. A similar plan was also conceived to send the Falcon to this same market, but internal politics resolved in favour of supplying Crown Victorias.
In 2006, the VE Commodore debuted GM's new Zeta platform, destined also for the Camaro (also engineered in Australia), along with various other derivatives. The Commodore was exported to the US to provide the Pontiac G8, and it was rumoured that the Commodore wagon and Utility would also be soon following as a Sports-Wagon and Coupe-Utility counterpart, bolstering Pontiacs sport performance image with some vehicles which could actually deliver.
Ford hastily conceived a response. Having rejected the LHD Falcon for Mid-East markets, it was similarly undesirable to remedy the issue and build volumes of LHD Falcons (which incidentally did not have a US-compliant engine program - but this is another saga-length story). However, the rear utility section of the AU-BF, and superseding FG, were unlike to traditional Coupe-Utility, a separate unit, mounted to a traditional rear rail section. As the Crown Victoria and Falcon were substantially the same size, exporting only the load box provided a majority of the new content required to make a Crown Vic Coupe-Utility, but with none of the engine or vehicle homologation issues presented by bringing over the Falcon whole. The one remaining issue, the fitment of a rear body panel took the form of surrogate Falcon panels in the prototype vehicles built, but was to be better served by the creation of a dedicated Crown Victoria panel section.
All this seemed to be going to plane. Ford's highest volume US car line was to be injected with a fresh dose of market, due to the Coupe utility, which could be sold to fleet services, notable Police and Fire to supplement to Crown Victoria Sedans that they already used.
Storm clouds were brewing on the horizon though. Ford was reluctant to invest in an unknown product, and was busy divesting itself of the various units of its Premier Automotive Group (PAG), comprising of Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo.
Similarly, as GM head toward bankruptcy, it put forward for sale, or closure, the SAAB, Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer divisions.
Alas, a Crown Victoria Coupe-Utility (or even a Ranchero nameplate), was stillborn, but not before a number of prototype vehicles had been built and tested (though not fully tooled).
The model you see here is the result of a 'Rat-Rod' exercise, whereby the model has been 'enhanced' in the idiom of the Rat-Rod, but with a modern touch. Many of the prototypes were painted as Police service vehicles as part of a product assessment tour to various Police Vehicle assessment teams. The model here wears the residual efforts of the traditional 'Black and White', though with a heavy patina of rust and ruin.
This Lego miniland-scale LUGNuts Ford Crown Victoria Coupe-Utility Rat-Rod has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 102nd Build Challenge, titled - 'I Smell a (Modern) Rat!'. In this challenge, any post-1996 vehicle can be built as a rat-rod.