To understand the BrUte concept, perhaps a little about me is needed. My name is Mike, I live in Whangarei in Northland, New Zealand. I've been a Holden enthusiast as long as I can remember, and a Ford hater for longer than that. I work for a rather well known airline, prior to that I taught monkeys to fly.

When I'm not shaping metal into utes I get out hunting, fishing, and drinking with the lads. A ute is a rather handy accessory to any of these tasks, and thus I decided one day I needed one. However, my budget is somewhat lacking when it comes to a nice new VE Maloo.

Currently I drive a Holden VN GTS, and prior to that a VL Berlina. Whilst I love the VN, my love affair with my VL is hard to deny. The sheer simplicity of the beast meant you could fix it with a screwdriver and a rivet gun in most cases. My father even used to comment on what a brilliant machine it was, claiming boldly that Holden should just make them again and that would solve the worlds problems. (He did however enjoy having a jab at the rust issue, commentng to a friend and I one day when we had both our VL's parked up that we were 'comparing rust')

I've seen a VL with a VY front end, and even more bizzare was a VB ute with a VL front end, made out of a sedan. I honestly believe that a VL ute can be constructed from a VL Stationwagon, and thus is now the plan.

In creating a BrUte, it has to live up to it's name. It's not just a matter of not listening to Rod. Thus the checklist for building a Brute:

•  1. It must look Tough
   
•  2. It must have go to match it's show
   
•  3. Function and Form must be intergrated
   
•  4. It must look Tough
   

The major design issues revolve around the tray. It's not as simple as it seems. First you say "I'll hack the windows off the back."

Looks wrong? Funny that. The window line is too low. Consider the VZ Ute below...

Note the line of the tray is higher than that of the window. So, how to adapt this to a VL? First, pick a line to follow. Again reference the picture above, follow the line of the bonnet. The rise continues through the window and back to the tray, where it then tails off towards the rear. (in the case of the VZ. VT to VY remained taller)

If we apply this to the above VL model...

...this is the result. The graphic is crap, but the concept is there. It satisfies requirements #1 and #4. It looks tough.

My artistic skills are exhausted by this point, but with my spare time in the last few days, I managed to create this concept drawing, using similar colours to what the BrUte will end up with...

My drawing skill is the same as it was when I was about 7. But you get the idea!

Let the fun begin.