Why I Built a BMW M4 Ute

Today I'm going to be interviewing the owner and builder of this M4 Ute. Now I've wanted to interview this car since before it even existed. I actually met the owner like three, four years ago. He was showing me the renderings. Now this car was brand new when he got it and he decided to chop the back off and turn it into a pickup truck. So I'm going to find out why. We're going to learn about the whole build and go for a ride. So right here I'm with the owner. Do you want to introduce yourself? Hey, how's it going? My name is Canon and this is our Ute. So we actually met five years ago, right? That's right. At WEC Fest Los Angeles where you had an M5 with a trailer. That's correct. And now you've got your M4 Ute finished because when we were at that show you showed me renderings of it before you built it. Yes, we were doing the rendering almost a year earlier and planning everything. Once we had the car still holding in place, we didn't do anything to it until about six weeks before SEMA 2022. That's when we decided to cut it and have it ready in six weeks. So tell me the story. How did this come about? It's always been on my bucket list to do a Ute. I grew up in Germany and Sweden and I saw the original E30 Ute in Germany and always been wanting to have a Ute and that's what happened. But why an M4? Why a G82? Well, we were planning to do a F82 first back in 2020, but I figured if I do a 2020 F82, the next generation is going to be right around the corner and somebody's going to copy it and make a G82. So the amount of time, money, everything is the same. The only thing that is different is F82 versus G82. And I figured G82 getting so much hate for front grill, let's give them something else to hate. Because you bought this car brand new, right? That's correct. Like zero miles on it. Yes, we bought it just to cut it up and the car had about 1800 miles. So basically we did the first oil change, make sure the car is good to go. There is not a lemon, there's no engine problems. Once everything was good, then cut it up. So you literally just what? Cut it from right behind the window? Yeah, we went to Home Depot, bought the sharpest knives. We asked them for the blades, three blades actually, about 72, 78 bucks a piece. And we start cutting it in front of people live on Instagram. Wow, so you literally just chopped the roof or did you remove the roof and everything? We removed the roof. That was the hardest part, not to damage the roof. So we removed the roof first and it was a pain to remove it without damaging it. Put it to the side, then stripped the whole car almost out. The seats, the back and everything. Remove all the cables and then we start cutting. So when you open the door, you've still got part of the back here or you just literally... So the seats are still there, the rear seats, because I really didn't want to mess with that. It looks beautiful the way it is. So the leather goes back in. Looks like storage. Yep, and then so it comes out if I want to access the fuel tank. I mean, yeah, the fuel tank, the fuel pump. And the panels, I cut them up one o'clock in the morning, three days before SEMA and fit it in. And the rest of the interior is modified stock? Well, these are our back covers. We start selling these before even I had the vehicle. And so we start making these and then all the trimmings is skimmed by us because BMW makes them in carbon and silver and the silver is actually shining into people's eyes and that's the first thing I noticed when I picked up the car. This is the first day driving back to LA from San Francisco. The sun was like 12 o'clock sun was riding on it into the driver's eye. I hated it and that was one of the first things we modified. And you've got a full custom steering wheel where you've chopped the top off. We make steering wheels. We have over five different styles. This is the most loved and hated steering wheel out there, I guess, you know, and each to own. And we also make the door handles. These are all OEM pieces. Oh, wow. So it's another Chinese ones with a double-sided 3M tape. So when you say from us, you have a business building these? Yes, our company name is Dinman. So I'm the owner, janitor and everything else between. And yeah. And this is something somebody could order if they wanted you to build one? Yes, we had people asking. We will charge about $50,000 to do the whole thing, about three to four months. I don't want to rush it. I can't do it in six weeks. Yeah. So if they give us time, about three to four months, we can make it. So you can offer this if I brought you a G82? Yes, yeah, absolutely. So it's 50 grand plus purchase price of the car? The car, any car, $50,000. Oh, wow. Any car? Any car, yeah. F82, E92? Yeah, yeah. It's the work. So even if it's a Ferrari, I don't think you want to cut the Ferrari, then I'm going to be happy about it. One day, maybe. So tell me about the boot or, I don't know what you call this, the deck, the trunk? Usually, you know, they call it the top, the bed. So the original bed was metal wood. For prototype, we build it in like two nights and spray it black for seamer. And then after that, we cast it, made a mold, and now we have the mold for it. Everything under it is framing metal. It's all these lines of metal, actually, tubings. And the C-pillar is actually reinforced. So when people say, you need a cage, you don't need a cage. The C-pillar is the cage. It's reinforced more than what BMW does with just the metal sheets, tapping welds. So you cut the back out, and then are these compartments for- To access the fuses, the battery. And this opens, right? The trunk? It opens. Oh, you've got a working backup camera, I see. Yeah, everything works. So there we go. So you used the M4 trunk, and what, you just cut the top off? We cut the top. There's photo of it. So we cut off the original and shaped it, and then put it back on. So we paint match it, but we've made the top black, and it's sprayed protection on it. So it's like a liner sprayed on it. It's kind of like a lamination. So that way it protects it. So we can put wheels, tires, anything in it without damaging it. And do you actually use this for equipment? Sometimes, you know, when we have shippings, I put boxes on it. I put wheels on it. One time we had three people sitting in the back, so we could do a burnout. So yeah, so a lot of stupid shenanigans, you know. So driving this thing around, you must get some crazy reactions. There's always like somebody- Anytime I go on the street or on the freeway, there's always somebody filming it, or stopping by the gas station. Hey, what is this? You know, this is cool. We don't have these cars in the U.S. Like, you know, BMW made it. I'm like, no, it's us. We made it. So you get a lot of like, you know, love when people see it. Yeah. But we also get a lot of hate online because people haven't seen it. Yeah. So, you know, I get a lot of love and hate because of the name. We call it Malu. It means thunder in the Aboriginian and Australian language. A lot of people think Australians are the ones that came up with the U. Not true. Ford made it in the 1920s for a farmer's wife, you know, so that way they could take the kids and everything to the church on Sunday, rest of the week, to work in the farm. Yeah. So that was the whole idea. Chevy has it as El Caminos. And there are a bunch of other companies who have made these as a prototype, as a concept cars, including BMW, which I saw first and want to have one. Yeah. So you built your own. Yeah, exactly. Well, do you mind if we take it for a ride? Yeah, absolutely. So we're in the M4 now and, I mean, inside it's pretty much intact. Yeah. There's full-on working cameras. And it's the rear, so we can see the dashboard. Yeah, you can actually have a better view of your cluster. Now, this is the pre-facelift, right? Because now they just have one massive screen on them. That's correct. Which I personally much prefer this setup, where you've got two different screens. Other than that, I mean, right there's your back window. You've got a nice view. It feels OEM quality, like it feels from factory. That's right. That's the goal. That's the goal, to look OEM plus. Yeah, you don't want it riding around in a car with basically nothing in the back, cut out. A lot of people are like, why don't you make the glass bigger? I'm like, no, this is perfect. Yeah. Perfect size. You can see it's straight with the top. That's good visibility. Now, when you drive this thing on the streets, how do people react when they drive past? Most of the time, they're on my 7 o'clock or 6 o'clock, taking videos and pictures just like those guys. Right there. There you go. I mean, they must get a lot of love because the M4 and the M3 are probably the most popular cars amongst young people right now. And then you've got the only one with a roof or the boot cut off. Yeah. The first reaction is, why? Usually I say, because we can. Because we can. It's so Texan to make your M4 pickup. Actually, this car is Californian, so you cannot say Texan. So you built it in California? California, Los Angeles. So it's straight up Californian. Wow. And then you moved here to Texas. That's correct. And how do you like California versus Texas? That's for another story. That's for another video. That's another video? Representation without, what's it? No, sorry. Taxation without representation. There we go. That's it, I guess. Now back to cars. So BMW made the E93 Ute, right? In 2011? BMW made it back in 1999, 1998, 1999, E30 Ute. And then they did the E93 convertible Ute back in 2009. And then that was for April Fools, wasn't it? Correct. So you could never actually buy a factory Ute from them? No, they haven't made anything for sale. And have BMW contacted you about this car? Do you know what they think? No, they haven't contacted me. But I've seen some screenshot of files of emails going up the ladder of the BMW Corporation about this Ute when it was made. What did they say, do you know? I didn't see the email because then they would get fired. But I saw that there is, again, information about the Ute. There's somebody that cut up a Ute, you know, cut up M4. That's kind of cool, they recognized it. Yeah, so there was some internal talk, for sure. Have you taken it to a dealership to get serviced? Have they seen the car? Yeah, yeah. Because when it was under warranty, because the car is now three years old. So under warranty, oil change, everything, it's normal. And what did they think when you pulled into the service center? Usually it's like about maybe 20 sales guys and service guys outside taking videos and pictures. Yeah, I bet. That's on Instagram. I mean, this thing is so crazy. It's been on my bucket list to interview you for about, yeah, five years since before I even knew that it was done. And here we finally are. I finally got to the same place as you. Yeah, I'm going to drive into the parking lot. What, and then you want me to drive? Yes, you can pick and pull. Oh my gosh. Let me pull over here. Wow, it'll be pretty cool. I've never driven the G82 before. Thank you so much. No problem. It's recording. All right, put it in reverse. My first time driving a G82. Maloo, or you. Maloo, an M4. You call it M4 Maloo or just Maloo? I call it, when I built it, we called it M4 Maloo. But, you know, I got a lot of love and hate from Australia, so they disappoint me. So now I just call it M4U, but the original name is M4 Maloo. Oh my gosh, I want one of these. I want this, ideally. Oh, I'm so glad you did this. I don't care what anyone hating on this car says or thinks. I think it's the coolest thing in the world when people take a car and they do their own thing to it, and they are bold enough to make it how they want it. I just think it's the coolest thing in the world. It's just tiring to go to any show and you see everybody ordering everything that they could for these vehicles. I think it's so cool. It's the only M4U in the world. There's thousands and thousands of G82s, G80s, but no one's bold enough to make a U out of it except you. Yep. And I love it. I love that guts. And it was brand new, so maybe in the future there will be somebody who's going to cut up, you know. Yeah, a crashed one or rebuilt one, yeah. What I really want to do is a M4 competition, not a competition, what's the name of it? CSL? CSL. You want to cut one of those up into a truck? There was a plan. We had a plan for one of our customers to do it, but then he was scared that BMW kind of blacklisted him. They don't care, I don't think. If they're watching, they can let us know. Yeah. Do you care, BMW? Or do you make enough that you're like, whatever, go have fun? Exactly. I think they probably secretly love it. They watched it. I bet someone at BMW might be watching this, whether at the dealership level or the main corporation, and they're probably going, yeah, that's cool, because you're the only one that did it. Yep, exactly. I love it. Thank you so much for this interview, and thank you for letting me drive it. No, absolutely. One of my dream cars, as basic as it sounds. But maybe I've got to get the U, then it's not basic.