Ford F-1000 Monaco by Sulamericana

I have to acknowledge the elephant sitting on our chests: whenever pundits, politicians, and economists talk about tariffs, I think about the decades of weird-ass vehicles to come out of Brazil. 

The working, living, laughing, and loving situation was cyclically dire in Brazil, where the Haves and Have Nots sparred across the last century, with the economic reality of a growing wealth gap as a wedge preventing either from meeting in the middle.

In many countries, this story is the same, and bleak, and because it only takes a year or two to get going, weird cars can often be found in the wake of regime changes — it is a story as old as the car itself.

Today’s vehicle is a perfectly normal Ford truck, with a perfectly normal performance, price, and pickup-ability to fly under the radar in most every country through North and South America. 

“A Ford truck is a Ford truck is a Ford truck,” as my momma never said. 

The perfectly normal F-Series was made in Brazil, from a previous F-Series body style, then shipped to a local factory-approved customizer called Sulamericana, who took a hacksaw to the truck and elevated its style to another level.

Story continues below…

Some say weird, I say: who’s got time to wait for the eventual introduction of the Ford King Ranch, which would never officially be sold in Brazil anyway.

(Odd, because the actual King Ranch had investments in Brazil’s cattle industry from the late 1950s. Texas Monthly has a historical writeup from 1998 about some internal politics of the operation at that time.)

A strong reason for Ford to build its F-1000 in Brazil in the first place, engineering 4-cylinder turbodiesel, dual-fuel, and alcohol-powered straight-six engines was how expensive it would have been to import a similar truck from the U.S.

In the wake of a fuel crisis that dragged on in many countries, including Brazil, consider the folly of locking owners into expensive gasoline bills.