The Ford F-1000 and Brazil’s Crazy Trucks
The F-100 is a classic truck, begging for a big motor, cams and some big slicks. The F-150 is a modern powerhouse, too – it’s sure to be an old favorite when newer vehicles come out in the following decades. The F-250 can tow some crazy stuff behind it. But have you ever heard of the F-1000?
The Ford F-1000 GB Fly was, ironically, the most “tame” of the series
No, this is not some kid’s grandiose fib about a “big, huge truck” he saw outside at the playground. The F-1000 is a real, tried and true Ford truck that came equipped with a 3.9L diesel or 3.6L gas motor. But that all sounds pretty typical, so let us reassure you that the F-1000 was crazy. Or really, its many variants were.
Ford’s Crazy South American Cousin
A company called Sulamericana, a licensed Ford builder, received “standard” F-1000s with zero miles on them, ripe for zany modification. One such variant, the GB Fly, somehow manages to combine 60’s truck style with an 80’s profile, complete with a SuperCrew-ish cab that, inexplicably, has no second-row doors. This makes absolutely no sense, and it technically makes the GB Fly a two-door coupe – one that can roll over Brazilian mountains and tow unfortunate stranded vehicles out of muddy bogs.
Especially (GB) Fly
Oh, and we can’t forget the GB Special Fly – oooooh, yes. This thing departs pickup truck world and gets into 4×4 party bus territory, a fanciful market of vehicle that shouldn’t exist. Yet here it is, in all its glory. Two oblong porthole windows with a safari cab, factory mud tires and deep dish wheels, an impossible wheel well clearance that would surely rub on even moderate 4×4 trails, and a strange clamshell hood that mimics an old F-100’s hood.
The F-1000 GB Special Fly
A Land Rover Offender
That’s nothing. Speaking of safaris, let’s look at the Special Summer. With its insane wheelbase, velvety tuft three-row seats, massive full-length, raised cab, and provocative name, the Special Summer is a shag wagon and a South American Land Rover Defender in one. Tech specs, motors and axles are irrelevant here. The Special Summer is downright badass. While it may be a faux pas for us to title a 4×4 truck a king of the rough country based on looks alone, well, we must. Look at it!
The F-1000 Special Summer
You guessed it. It only gets crazier from here. Enter the GB Monaco, a sacrilegious combination of van and truck – yet we can’t help but want one with a 3” lift and some Mickey Thompsons.
The Ford F-1000 GB Monaco
Ugly, but Very Rare
Or take the GB Airplane. If you thought the Monaco was a demon spawn of the car making world, then the GB Airplane was surely designed by some abusive, alcoholic car designer in a secretive 8th circle of car production Hell.
The Ford F-1000 GB Airplane
We’ll end it with the DB Delta, a (mostly) logical, Ford Bronco-ish two-door 4×4. It spoiled the mundane by coming with some Star Treky digital vinyls and panoramic windows gracing the rear cabin. Those glass panes were surely stolen from a Sulamericana executive’s penthouse in Rio. They even came with fancy little curtains and ties so you and your honey could bed down atop Mount Pico da Bandeira.
The Ford F-1000 GB Delta
If crazy could be pulled off in a strangely aesthetic, functional way, Sulamericana did it with the F-1000. These trucks are as mythical as their designs, with no known models available for sale in the states at the time of publication. If you spy a strange, old diesel Ford truck for sale and it’s ugly as sin, buy it. You might have a hidden gem that some eclectic buyers would die for.
