It’s a sad day for us here at Cars in Action. We’re having to bid farewell to our big, bad, and very black Chevrolet Lumina SS Ute. Also known as Bruce…

Fortunately we can console ourselves with two thoughts — its replacement, in the form of the all-new Lumina SS Ute, should be with us pretty shortly now, and at least this brUte that we know and love is going to go to a good home, with a loyal reader.

It’s comfortable, almost plush, despite the Bilsteins which really do help tie the front-end down when pushing through the bends. This low front-end also does a lot in massaging the look of the SS, no ugly duckling even with standard springs fitted, making our Ute one of the meanest-looking examples around.

Then backing up this look, is the glorious noise. The meaty 6.0-litre V8 never grumbled and snorted in such an extrovert way with the standard exhaust still in place, but CRD has liberated a soundtrack straight from the glory-days of the US muscle-car. Not to mention a good deal more grunt too, some 41kW and over a 100Nm in fact, just from better breathing! Even at idle, you’re made aware of the presence of that engine, as if it’s alive and eager to be let off its leash, rocking the entire bakkie on its springs not-so-gently at times while waiting for the lights to go green.

All right, it has some traction issues, especially in the wet, but in sunny and dry situations you can exploit this fact to poke its lengthy rear-end sideways through every well-sighted bend, if you so desire. And if you can afford all the replacement rubber.

It likes to drink too, but then it is a 6.0-litre Detroit V8 after all…

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