Theophilus Chin is a Singapore-based Malaysian whose skills in digital manipulation is channeled into what he calls “car chopping”. Much like other artists who take today’s digital tools and let their imaginations roam, Theophilus has come up with a rendering of a CLS that has been transformed into a ute. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a quintessentially Australian variation of what we would call pickups. But not quite. See, ute drivetrains and chassis have more components in common with cars than with trucks, which is how utility pickups are known to the rest of the world.
Chin’s rendering undoubtedly bastardizes the lines of the CLS, but compared with the home-grown utes from Ford and Holden, the CLS ute is decidedly the sexiest of the lot. The front is unmistakably Mercedes, while the rear treatment carries over the wheel overarches that are present in the real CLS. This is a nice touch because some ute designs look like a car chopped in half with a box placed at the rear.
We know that a vehicle like this will never be, but at least with artists like Theophilus Chin, we can get an insight on how such a CLS ute would look.