In 2011, the Ford Ranger was phased out in order to stop the tiny truck from cannibalizing sales from the F150. Ford has claimed their halo truck to be the number one selling pickup truck for as far back as I can remember (24 years apparently). The Detroit firm has come under increasing pressure from its competitors…

We have a bit of an El Camino fetish here. Anytime someone mentions the prospect of it coming back to America, we get all hot and bothered and have dirty dreams for weeks. Alas, GM never makes it happen and we have to lust after our Holden driving friends in Australia.

The Australian car market is a truly fascinating place. While we love our massive, hulking pickup trucks, the Aussies are perfectly happy in their car-based utes from Ford and Holden. It's like an alternate reality where everyone said, "Why have an F-150 when you can have an El Camino?"

When it comes to being convinced of the merits of the half car/half truck hybrid pretty much any argument no matter how ridiculous or far-fetched will work—at least for us.

This is last weekend's Burnout Mayhem 2011, where the Australians have shown the world how a burnout is done. It's not just the smoke crowds want. You've got to go straight to flaming carnage to make a real burnout.

It's rarer than hen's teeth and more rotten than a pear sitting in the owner's orchard, but that is only the beginning of the amusing description that accompanies this 1976 Austin Ute.

Here in the states, the El Camino and Ranchero battled for decades as car-based pickups. Australia is much like the US, only upside down, and today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe Falcon XF Ute might have required a bed cap to keep everything from falling up when down there. Now that it's here, that's not a problem, but is…

Our obsession with the Holden Ute is a mix of Single White Female and The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, but it's about to go full-on creepy One Hour Photo if one doesn't land on our shores soon. This short commercial for the Holden "Thunder" Ute is only exacerbating things. (Hat tip to MrQuick!)

Walkinshaw is perhaps best known for making Aussie super cars we can't get here. Their latest Series II SuperUte is the most enticing and most ridiculous of all.

Holy Ride of the Valkyries, what's this? Caught this week testing at the Nürburgring with all the other BMW M-Class models was this El Camino "Die Straße" coupe, with a truck bed. UPDATE: Sorry, folks. Not happening...