Not many Aussies may have ever had the joy of sliding around corners in a ’70 El Camino SS 454, but don’t feel too bad for them just yet, because they’ve been cruising their own right hand drive, car-based-trucks in the form of Holden Utes since the late 1950’s. Much like the American El Camino, the Ute can accept a wide variety of engine swaps, and this Holden Ute owner from Sydney, Australia, chose to go the LS1 route with a bit of a twist. (Well, actually it’s more of a “boost” than a “twist” really…)

This Ute is running a turbo LS1 swap pushing 9 PSI, and in this video we found on YouTube, this little orange truck made an impressive 493 rear wheel horsepower on the chassis dyno. In the video caption, the owner states that this run occurred shortly after the car’s inaugural drive, and that with a bit more tuning be believes this combo has even more power waiting to be drawn out.

We were curious about this classic Ute, so we did a bit more digging and discovered several other videos from the owner, one of which includes shots of the boosted Gen III mill under the hood. We can imagine with the light rear end in this tiny truck, those low-profile tires, and that much power, this Ute should have no problems making the tail end come about virtually at will.