One-off HSV Coupe4 ute

If you’ve ever thought the Maloo R8 wasn’t quite enough ute, you’d probably be one of very few. But we’ve found someone who’s right there with you.

Nicholas Harry woke up one day and decided he wanted to build an all-wheel-drive Coupe4 ute, so he did.

With a VY Maloo R8 as a base, and a collection of Coupe4 parts gathered over three years, Nick ended up with what he reckons is the first AWD-converted performance ute.

“The breakdown was I wanted to build a car that HSV could have built that they never did,” Nick tells MOTOR.

“The seed of that was a VY SS ute that Holden and HSV built as an engineering vehicle for the AWD program for both brands.

“I thought it would be cool to take that idea and take it to the next level which is what you see here: a HSV Coupe 4 Ute built in pretty much every way to look factory yet something that has never been built.”

The vehicle started life as a genuine VY 2 HSV Maloo R8 - all VY 2 and VE 1 vehicles have floor plans that can accommodate AWD.

“So over three years I sourced all genuine HSV Coupe 4 pieces and went around creating what you see here.”

With help from Donburn Customs, east of Melbourne, Nick got started on building his dream ute.

Under the hood, the same 270kW 5.7-litre LS1 that powers a regular Coupe4 is hooked up to all four wheels via a system HSV says “could not be beat”.

Nick reckons he’s onto a winner, saying people have told him nothing like this has ever been done to a Maloo before.

It has full HSV Coupe 4 trim/electrics/suspension/brakes. The only thing that I’ve really done that doesn’t follow the theme is the custom made 3 piece wheels. They measure 20x9.5 front and 20x11.5 rear,” Nick tells us.

The result? Something even a purist would appreciate.