Joe Handley

Actually, Rob's on the right track here! Why couldn't Round 2 do something with this kit like AMT/ERTL did with the '70 Cornet back in the 90's (and still sell this way) where they stuck one of the newer B-Body kit chassis and drivetrain in with the vintage body and interior pieces to make one kit. I'd be interested in buying one of those kits anyway, but doing the above would make it even more worthwhile of a purchase for me!

I don't even like comprimising grip for price let alone looks when I can afford to!

Depends on the victim.......er......subject. If it were the Charger my folks bought back in '70, that would go back to stock as even then the 440 6-Pack/4-Speed cars weren't particularly common. Now if it was my Turbo Mopars, our Cherokees, or our F/S Chevy Vans, those would be hot rods of some sort. The Lebaron and Shadow would have healthy 2.2 Turbo motors (maybe drop a 2.4Turbo in one), minivan brakes, and be mostly restored appearance wise (Wheels would need to change with the switch to a 5x4.5" bolt pattern. The Cherokees would have some sort of stroked I-6's in them with cop XJ springs, ZJ or KJ rear disks, Wrangler/Ram hybrid front brakes, again, restored cosmetically on all but the Briarwood. That would be an experiment too see how easy it would be to use venieer instead of Cheezy vinyl. My short lived Grand Cherokee would end up with a Viper V-10, 5.9 Limited, suspension, not sure on brakes, wider tires on bigger rims (no more than 18's though, anything bigger looks stupid on them). The Beauvilles would get LS Motors and 4L80 transmissions, mild lowerings (2/2 or something comparable), 16"-18" in the front and 18"-20" rear wheels that are either Torque Thrusts or Truck Rallys (these in 15x7 were factory), and once again, cometic restorations.

Lol, I need to do something like that for the Maglight I keep in my 200, I always forget about it until I do something agressive at the wheel and wonder what's thunking around in the trunk!

If you can afford to build and then feed a ****hp motor, you can probably afford to buy new tires every day or two

Depends, if it was my 200 Touring, I'd sure as heck hope not, it's only got 6000 miles on it (6002 to be exact, it "rolled" over on the way to work today!) Now if it was my 14 year old Cherokee............well, it's s 14 year old Cherokee with the factory motor, I'd be worried if there wasn't at least a little oil leaking, that means I'm out of oil!

So far myself and a coworker have k joked about putting FREE CANDY!!! on the sides of them, but I'm not that fond of them otherwise, the nose is about a foot or so too long and about as hideous as the Econoline's.

Just out of curiousity, has anybody seen the new Nissan full sized van that is based on the Titan p/u?

It would, alot better too!

I still can't believe that disaster lived this long, the Ford highrail truck with that front suspension could develop some vicious death wobble, when Dad saw "news" footage of a JK Wragler with DW, He just laughed and said that was nothing compared to the TIB Ford highrails!

Honestly, I thought they looked too skinny, especially out back. Figured a slightly wider front on a deeper rim and a lot wider in back eith a much deeper rim, then drop it an inch or so at least in the front. Only other thing I can think of is to ditch the orange stripe for abetter color, if not put one on at all.

The '71-'95 generation I grew up with and that was used for the A-Team vans were unibody as were the Astro and Safari, Greenbriars (Corvair based), Lumina/Venture minivans. The '96-Current and I believe the "cabover" vans that were between the Greenbriar and G-Vans were all body in frame. That grill Ford is using for the truck is pretty ugly, then to saddle that poor Van with it too just makes it look worse, especially when the rest of the lines are 20+ years old and basic style can be traced back to the mid-70's. I didn't care much for the Express when they came out in '96 as the just looked too..........meh, but I do like how the current ones with the slightly longer nose and more agressive headlights look. Throw in a healthy LS motor or Duramax with the right wheels and overall stance and it could make for a pretty tough looking machine!

Closest I've had was the back window smashed out of my Cherokee and had some RC stufc ripped off.

I don't know why, but this wagon does nothing for me..........and I'm all for weird stuff like this no matter what make it is!? Maybe it's the altitude, color, and/or the smallish wheels and tires...........I just don't know.................

IIRC, It was quicker than the Vette, which usually means Chevy threw a tantrum and it had to be slowed down (Typhoon), then killed (Grand National anyone?) If it's hopping like that, then it isn't full time or at least if it is, the tire pressures are off causing a difference in tire diameter that can cause such issues or the vehicle needs u-joints or cv joints in a bad way. My Cherokee and the first gen Grand Cherokee I had both had a New Venture 242 which is a full time transfer case that uses a planetary diff to allow for the variances that arise as a vehicle turns on a high grip surface. It also has a part time feature to lock that diff so that the same amount of power goes to both axles all the time, which is good when you need traction, but at minimum can cause the "hop" you're talking about, bit that same loading can also strain and destroy transfer cases, differentials, and all of the u- and cv-joints.

Diesel engines, even if turbocharged, tend to get much better than mileage than comparable gasoline engines, especially when just at cruising speed. That's how some of the Euro cars are getting such fantastic mileage besides being so small with better aero. Gotta gree with Charlie on van of choice, I'd prefer the Express over the Econoline too, looks better, has a newer body and chassis design, wider rear door openings, and I trust the Duramax more than any of the post 7.4l Powerstrokes too! Not only that, but the longer wheelbase, 15 passenger vans from GM were much safer than the 15 passenger Econoline and B-Vans in emergency situations since the Chevys don't flip if you look at them funny!

There's a good number of the little Transit's around here, they seem to make great little shop vans for light duty use and maybe better than the cargo version of the Caravan. I still see more of the big Ford vans too, then again, I seem yo see almost as many G-Vans and B-Vans still in service as I do the newer Express vans!

I'm thinking the tall and narrow appearance of the Euro Vans is because of the kind of places they have to fit and the nose shape and small engines are likely do to the heavily taxed fuels they burn.

Plus with the AWD in the Astro, Safari, and Bravada you could use it all the time without causing binding issues within the drivetrain when it wasn't snowy or muddy. The 4wd system used in most trucks is a part time, only for use in low traction condition system that can tear themselves apart in used when on dry or wet pavement for too long. Many of the newer "automatic" systems are just computer controled part time cases that use the ABS sensors to shift them in and out of 4wd as traction changes. The case used in this truck (as well as many Jeeps and I believe Rovers) have a small differential in them to allow for a varation in power between the front and rear diffs which keeps everything happy and in one piece.

Did any body even make that body in resin?

The railroads tried that in the 80's with the then new compact trucks and found that with the exception of the Jeep Cherokee (the only unibody of the bunch oddly enough) that they couldn't handle the abuse that normal sized trucks, especially when the highrail gear was bolted to it.

I've had the misfortune of racing against some Volts and one of the Lexus hybrids on Forza 4 in the city car class races and those hybrids are QUICK! when you have to chase them down in a Chevy Aveo/Sonic type city car! Only only way I could catch and pass those was in the corners where they couldn't run as fast as my cheap little Chevy. Could be interesting to see some on the track and running for lap times instead of MPG's.

The Transit is from the same market, at least GM still has a truely North American van on the market..............do they even sell a van like this in Europe?

Bunga Bunga Stig approves

They have become stunning cars again, definately a true successor to the XK-120 and XK-E from a styling standpoint.