(first posted 10/12/2017) Someone here left a comment the other day that Cadillac should stop trying to chase BMW (or whomever they are chasing; maybe their shadow) and build a sedan version of the Escalade. It won’t be the first time, as Ford of Brazil was doing just that back in the early sixties. Here’s a four door, with suicide doors even. There’s others too.
Here’s a glimpse into its interior. It’s a bit of a step up into those old high-frame trucks.
And its rear end and trunk. Lift-over height is a wee bit high.
Here’s another variation. Its rear window looks like it’s a borrowed windshield from another vehicle, and lends this a coming-going vibe. This is undoubtedly a later one, as the rear end styling is now several years more modern, and doesn’t work so well with the mid-50s front end, which Ford of Brazil was stuck with for quite a while.
There’s also a two-door sedan version.
Here’s the trunk lid in action. Oddly, this one has a lower lift-over height.
A different angle. It’s quite obvious that the Ford Brazil works was very used to smaller production runs, as these were probably more like coach-built. Labor was very cheap back then.
There’s more. This is more like a utility, with a bed that almost passes for a trunk.
Pretty slick, eh?
There were a large number of “Suburban” variations built too. I’ll just show you a couple, like this four door.
This one was built on the older body style, but that rear end is wild.
And one a bit more modest. There’s a number of more variations, at carrosantigos.
Now who’s going to photoshop us a fine Escalade sedan, after all of this inspiration?
I’m horrified .
Wait, it looks prectical and I like trucks .
No, it’s FUGLY .
Jeezo-peezo I can’t make up my mind on this one Paul .
-Nate
I’m speechless! In the heyday of the monthly US auto magazines, there was very limited coverage of Latin American vehicles … usually just European stuff, occasionally an Australian Falcon or ute as a novelty. But even in the last 20 Internet years, which opened a lot of doors to the past, I’d never seen anything like this. Thanks Paul for something exotic to have with my coffee this morning!
Mpg increases 30% in reverse!
It makes so much sense, I’m surprised it is not available. On the drive home from work last night, I marveled again how my 2012 F-150 Lariat is just an elevated version of my dad’s 1976 Ford LTD. Right down to the “trunk” I finished out in the bed. A week after purchase, I had installed a spray in Line – X bed liner (stabilizes and quiets the sheet metal), a “Bed Rug” padded floor mat and a tonneau cover.
Of course, it coverts to work truck mode with the tonneau cover and Bed Rug pulled, a real trunk would lose that option. But, finished out as it is, it really helps when we go boating. I can toss in boat covers and extra wake boards, life jackets, etc. that people don’t want that day on the water, all locked reasonably securely.
The only reason to make an Escalade sedan instead of utility/wagon is style. As long as a full sedan version looks goofy, which it would, there’s no reason to do it.
Yeah Brazil was ahead of the times – this is essentially what crew cab pickups have become.
I was looking at GMCs build your own on their website and as a factory accessory you could get, soft roll up toneau covers, soft vinyl folding toneau covers, hard hinged fiberglass toneau covers, and hard roll up toneau covers. Most of them were available in variants that would or would not allow you to access a truck tool box mounted against the cab.
American’s still love full size sedans. They just happen to ride higher than a 1970 Impala and have available 4×4.
The modern crew cab, brought to you by the Congress CAFE.
The Detroit three could bring out trunk versions and call them Galaxie, Impala and Fury. That would finish CAFE’s work.
One of the best comments I read on here was, to paraphrase, “Detroit still makes the best cars in the world- they just have a box on the back.”
“American’s still love full size sedans. They just happen to ride higher than a 1970 Impala and have available 4×4.’
So back to thirties-style packaging then?
Hinged tonneau covers are very popular on Aussie utes. Aside from keeping tradies’ tools safe and dry, they convert the ute into a two-or three passenger coupe with a huge trunk. Business coupe anyone?.
It’s true. My 2015 Silverado is just like an 80s Oldsmobile Delta 88, with a V8, 20mpg, smooth ride, faux wood, and brown interior.
Love these alternate universe vehicles…will Spock-with-a-beard be seen driving it?
That’s good! Illogical, however; Spock-with-a-beard would drive something economical like an evil Prius. 🙂
Spock was a Riviera guy. You might be right about Spock-with-a-beard.
Please take a look at the 7th picture, the one where you can see the 2 door truck from behind with the closed lid. You can see the handle is from a Willys, not strange at all since Ford had bought Willys/Jeep (Kaiser then in Brazil), which in turn had bought Renault. That’s part of the story on why the Renault 12 in Brazil came out as the Ford Corcel, years later.
BTW, Brazil went on producing that kind of vehicles. Take a look:
If you take a look at the interior of these vehicles, you may find that the starter lock position and looks are very similar to a ’70s VW Passat, Rabbit, or Audi. That’s because they are the same. Ford and VW joined energies in Argentina and Brazil in the late 80’s and early ’90s, sharing engines and different parts, and even models with different degrees of badge engineering under the Autolatina brand. The VW Santana was sold as a Ford Versailles, the Ford Escort was sold as a VW Logus, Apollo and Pointer. As the VW AP Series engine was more developed at the time, most small Fords used it.
I think my head just exploded. I want one though I’d prefer an EFI 351 rather than a diesel. It would also be fun just to swap the front end on a US truck.
And you didn’t hear that diesel running. A 2.5 or 2.8 turbo 4 cylinder. One of the noisiest non Perkins diesel engines I’ve ever found.
Looks awful, just like those “coupe SUVs” that began with the BMW X6 a decade ago.
This is a super-cool collection, Paul—thanks for assembling it, and for noting your source, which I never would have found in a million years (many more delightful photos there, CC-ers!).
Now I’m playing the irrational game of “if I could only have one”—and I think the coolness of the suicide doors trumps bed length or enclosed storage for me. Wow!
+1 on the suicide door version.
Keep your Continentals. This is the Ford product I now long for!
I am by no means an expert on Brazilian automotive history, but from what I’ve read, roads were bad to nonexistent, especially outside of urban areas, during this time period.
I can only surmise that these vehicles were created for buyers who wanted sedans but understood that ordinary sedans would get beaten to death on sub-par roads.
Wow, never seen these before! Very cool.
It may look too Arabic
Wasn’t the 2002 Lincoln Blackwood a “truck-sedan”?
It had a big trunk with a horizontal deck lid that opened from front located hinges and could, I believe, not be removed. It also had two barn door tailgates, hinged vertically. Goofy! The Blackwood was not usable as a pickup, had a trunk and four doors so I guess it was a truck-sedan.
These would be good for areas where it snows a lot and where there are no roads, only directions.
The one based on our 56 f-series screams Buldgemobile to me.
Other than the later model posted above my favorite it the one that has the picture with the trunk open.
Ford technically did try something like this in the US with the Lincoln Blackwood. Yes it had a separate bed rather than a one piece but it was trimmed as a trunk and not a bed and was watertight, at least when new.
I’d take something along the lines of the Explorer Sport Trac with a proper trunk on it, a mid gate of sorts via a fold down seat would be nice.
Oh and if ever there was a Ford worthy of the name Country Sedan these would be it.
Ha, I was just thinking that you could put Lincoln trim on that suicide door job and call it the Ur-Blackwood.
I saw some trucks oddities of Argentina, this time at Dodge showing a “Suburban” rival based on the Swepline design at. https://web.archive.org/web/20111115143016/http://www.cocheargentino.com.ar/d/dodge_pick_up.htm
Ford trucks in Argentina didn’t got the Brazilian oddities but the old Y-block 292 V8 was still available under the hood of the Argentine F-100 until the 1980s. https://web.archive.org/web/20111115134115/http://www.cocheargentino.com.ar/f/ford_f100.htm
The second to last photo with the twin conical taillights and “V” emblem look GMish from the back. …..”it’s the NEW 1959 Escalade!!!”….. Would need fins though!?
Caddy kinda did cover this idea already.
Argentina did something similar with the Rastrojero-derived Conosur.
Wow; that’s anew one for me. A bit cobbled-up looking. It’s like something Borat would have been driving back home.
It’d be fun to have one here in Canada and watch people when they see the back and promptly drive of the road!?
What a shame, even after decades of digging into Brazilian Classic stuff, I must confess I’ve never seen those pictures before.
Thanks Paul.
Thank you Paul for these superb period shots!
These Fords are all new to me and I really like them. They’re not exactly beautiful, but the novelty of the concept and the weirdness of the styling are outstanding.
The amount of South American cars I have discovered online (many of them on this website) never ceases to amaze me. Need to make it down there someday. In the meantime, more of these strange and wonderful things, please.
Wouldn’t the Escalade EXT be Escalade ‘sedan’ we’re referring to?
It looks to me that Ford of Brazil invented the Avalanche a long time before Chevy did.
Wonderful peculiar designs, these Ford pickup notchbacks had the purpose of being driven on
non-asphalted rough roads around the countryside where normal passenger cars can’t face the mood or the irregular terrains as it still exists in Latin América. By the way i’m still waiting for a Curbside Classic large review about specimens like these called Tata Telco Double Cab made in India, Rastrojero Conosur made in Argentina and the crazy Mexican forwarded cabin Volkswagen Hormiga who was an unconventional pickup tooled around the engine of traditional VW Beetle i mean the classic 1584 cc boxer , they worth the while to be illustrated for American readers in search of ignored mobiles from the third world countries, or the Tarpan Double cab made in Poland, or the incredible ute line of venerable Skoda 1203 Combi made in Slovakia around 1961, or whatever we missed .
Here is the target.
Lower the truck so that it sits lower, and then incorporate this front end and design.
I favored this approach for Lincoln instead of dropping Mercury. The new Mercury line should have been Lincolns with waterfall grilles, and the F150 should be the base for a new Lincoln that looks like this.
Might have seemed like too much of a compromise on the load capacity back then. Sorry I didn’t read the 2017 comments but assume that was frequent comment. The design looks good to me and I could totally see a modern BEV embrace around 95% of its design. Like a Rivan four door truck but shrunk down 3/4 or 1/2 regular size.
I can’t help thinking that’s the next inevitable step after the current “Coupe Crossover” phase.
“Mustang Raptor? Well lets just save a step and put a Mustang body on an F-150 frame!”
No coupe version? I’m disappointed but International did those in OZ so all is not lost, these are as someone else said the twincab ute so popular everywhere today that market has exploded here with all the Asian and US brands on offer petrol diesel or EV take your pick.