Ford is rumored to be working on a smaller pickup truck to sit below the Ranger, which may revive the Maverick nameplate. There is almost zero chance that this new pickup will be a ute-style vehicle like the old Ford Ranchero or the Australian market Falcon but that hasn't stopped YouTube rendering artist The Sketch Monkey from designing one anyway.

The Sketch Monkey has decided to base his modern reinterpretation of the Ranchero on the recently-revealed 2021 Ford Mustang Mach 1. Like the Falcon ute, the rendering imagines an awesome muscle car with the practicality of a pickup bed but without the cumbersome size of an American truck.

Transforming a Mustang into a truck would likely take months of engineering, designing, and bodywork but as a rendering, the project only takes around 10 minutes. The rendering manages to keep the Mach 1's rear end and taillight design, although there would need to be some gap lines for the tailgate on the real thing. It swaps out the stock car's sporty wheels for a more industrial looking set and even adds a classic Ranchero stripe with the appropriate lettering, similar in style to the Mach 1 graphics.

Since it is based on the Mach 1, this modern Ranchero would be powered by a 5.0-liter Coyote V8 producing 480 horsepower. Power would be sent to the rear wheels only through a six-speed manual or 10-speed automatic transmission.

A vehicle like this is merely a pipe dream for ute fans who always yearned for either a Ford Falcon or Holden Maloo but couldn't get one because they were never offered in the United States. Pontiac came close to offering a G8 ute but the company went bankrupt before it could ever become a reality. A rendering like this may be the closest we ever get to having a cool ute in the US market.