I’ve been on record as saying that what Australia was to mammals, Brazil was to Volkswagens. By that I mean it was a closed environment that allowed what was there to thrive and diversify to fill every possible niche. Sure, Australia was a continent surrounded by ocean, and instead of cars, we’re talking about marsupials, but otherwise I think the analogy holds, as Brazil had effectively closed their automotive industry to imports from 1976 to 1990, meaning what companies were there had to get especially creative about what they built. And while I’ve normally said this about Volkswagen of Brazil, this goes for all the automakers with major Brazilian bases, like Ford.
As a result, there’s all manner of deeply strange and wonderful Ford-based vehicles that evolved to fill these various niches, and it appears that at least one niche was “what’s the most bonkers-looking machine that I can use to drive around myself and eight of my pals?” Oh, and it should run on sugar cane alcohol.
A company called Engerauto stepped up, and the machine they stepped up with was called the Escorpion.
Just take a moment and look at this glorious thing! Really drink in all the details – the oddly Taurus-like grille-less front end, the strange upward arc of the roofline, and, with it, that oddly contoured roof that almost feels like a frozen bit of flowing river water, the bulbous hood, everything!
I suspect there’s at least one familiar part on there, and that’s the key to what is going on under the skin. That door. That’s because that door is a Ford F-150 door, one that started with the fifth-gen F-150 in way back in 1967, but in this case it’s a hint that the basis is a Ford F-1000, the Brazilian variant of the 1967-1972 F-250 made between 1979 and 1998.
Engerauto was a sort of low-volume customizer, a subsidiary of Companhia Santo Amaro, a large Brazilian Ford dealership. The company made a number of specialized variations of Ford vehicles, and the Escorpion was one of those designed to fill a specific niche: a luxurious people-carrier.
You can see one here in this photo of a showroom, along with some other equally strange machines: there’s another F-1000-based vehicle at the rear, a crew cab pickup with a front end treatment essentially the same as the Escorpion, and then there’s that red sporty thing and that incredible little truck with the rear seat T-tops and a wood-lined bed! I need to look into what the hell that thing is more.
You can see the pickup version better in this ad, and it seems to be called the Cabine Dupla Magnum GTO, a lot of very exciting words strung together.
The overhead view of the Escorpion gives a good look at just how tall the thing got, becoming downright van-like at the rear, all for the comfort of the people inside. Note that it’s a three-door, with the rear door only on the passenger side. And you can’t complain about the window area, because the amount of glazing going on here would make a Krispy Kreme jealous:
Under the hood, the Escorpion used a 3.6-liter inline-six – I’m not sure if this is a smaller variant of Ford’s legendary 300 (4.9-liter) straight-six – and you could get these in versions designed to run on álcool, Brazil’s unique sugarcane-based Ethanol fuel that was used extensively throughout the country, and was a huge success for renewable fuel.
Those taillights are familiar; oh! They’re from a Fiat Uno! Whew, now I can rest.
I’m really taken by this odd thing; it almost has a Colani feel to it, though I have no idea if the designer, Anísio Campos, was influenced by Colani at all. I do know that Campos was one of the designers that created the famous VW-based Puma sports car and that amazing (and also air-cooled VW-based) shrunken-Porsche 928, the Dacon 928, so the man had some real chops.
I know there’s all manner of arguments for and against protectionist markets like what Brazil used to have, but if they can breed strange beasts like these, then I think they’re at least somewhat okay in my book.
While these are somewhere between bizarre and interesting I want a Mexican Ford B100, the homegrown Ford Suburban
Why the hell are there none of these imported and visible on USA roads?
There must be some _quirky_ ‘Muricans who would love having a roadable version of this in US of A.
if only to help other drivers throw-up-a-little-in-their-mouths when they see it coming or going.
I kinda love it. Definitely needs the 2 tone paint with light color upper half to accentuate all that weirdness. dark paint up there dampens the thrill.
Rich guys with their entire stables of supercars; no one cares. Random Autopian, wins huge lottery, buys/hordes all the bizarre vehicles of the world, like today’s examples: oddballs like this Escorpion and the Brubaker Box. Hires madmen fabricators to recreate the strange vehicles we lost like the ARK II. All of them get driven. No one cares.
Rich people don’t drive their cars because they’re investments. Autopians don’t drive our cars because they’re broken. We are not the same.
😉
That thing may have overtaken a late ’90s Fiat Multipla as the ugliest MPV I’ve ever seen.
I am absolutely in awe of the Cabine Dupla Magnum GTO. I love cars that doesn’t elicit a “Wow!” as much as a “What… How… Why?”
I LOVE the Brazilian market trucks. Ever wonder what a 90s ford bronco would look like if it were built by its archnemesis?
Look up the 90’s Chevrolet Bonanza.
Your welcome.
Challenge accepted… And the attempt at updating the old “sqarebody” panels definitely comes out disturbingly strange. And for what are actually very simple reasons. They stamped a crease just below the window line that’s exactly like what Ford did on the Ranger/Bronco II. And the whole front fascia is cribbed straight from the facelifted Ranger/Bronco II of the 90s.
On the one hand, they did a really good job of facelifting the old squarebody design for the 90s. But the way that they so obviously copied the competition’s homework (and from a significantly smaller truck, too) just kind of breaks my brain.
Edit: Here, let me share the cognitive dissonance —
What was the Chevrolet Bonanza? | The Daily Drive
I like the wheels!
That’s pretty peak Brazilian van truck. Have to love the escort style grill too. Some of the slightly older ones really look like something you would see in a yard in Alabama and do a double take. Just a pickup with part of an econoline attached to the cab. This looks more like the popemobile people were involved. Maybe some south African defense industry people.
That is special looking. I was guessing it was based on a 77-79 F-150 based on the doors, windshield and cowl.
Wait what?
This was the Brazilian luxury limousine to haul around a driver and 8 people!?!? Eesh.
Wow. Those poor high school seniors had to rent one of these to haul around their date and friends to prom? I guess it could be 4wd and get to the post prom parties in the country easily. And everyone would be hammered on sugar cane liquor by then anyway. So there’s that, I guess.
It’s makes me wonder if the advent of the BBL doomed the Brazilian luxury truck vans. Just not enough space for those alterations.
They should have called it O Homer.
It looks like an earnest little wagon, but the scale threw me off. It’s actually a fairly large van/SUV? With a car front end. I don’t know. Never knew anything about these!
Yeah, like fullsize pickup width, short bed, body on frame, and then I think its kinda an optical illusion because of the wacky proportions of the rear body. Its a large vehicle for sure.