Car derived vans

[freebird]

Doing a bit of WWW surfing and i found these beauties or beasts, depending on your view point.

I remember the halcyon days of the 70s where all sorts of kits were about to transform your chod into something completely different

Like this........

..........which, when built would actually look more like this....

Thing is you couldnt blame some smartarse for coming up with this this kind of kit because, it would appear, they were only apeing what the factory had a go at anyway which, when they tried, looked like this........

So, ladies and gents are there any more little gems out there? Did the East Germans have a stab at a prototype Trabant van? Has anybody ever panelled in the windows of a Lada estate? What goes out there in shite land?

I will leave you with this.......

Logical or ridiculous?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Look at that pathetic opening on the factory van. They could just leave it parked like that and use it as a pillarbox.

[Shep Shepherd]

The Dutch could once buy this sort of thing, which is basically a Focus estate car with a raised roof, one blanked-out rear door window (opening rear doors, though) and no rear seats. Several other manufacturers (notably Opel and VW) offered similar models:

 

 

GR9 if you want more space than a small estate car offers and don't need rear seats but don't want to buy a van. They were cheaper to tax until recently, as they were classed as commercial vehicles, which was a major selling point for many buyers.

[catsinthewelder]

That Beetle van might work as a hearse for skint midgets

 

This Riva van was on the tat thread yonks ago, I might even have got it past the mrs if it wasn't in bonnie Scotland

 

[hairnet]

 

seen a favorit version too

[Cavcraft]

And if there wasn't one available simply make your own...

 

 

[MrSteve]

I think I might have seen one of these on a school exchange trip to France once.

 

 

Is it me or does it have a whiff of Allegro estate to the rear quarter panel.

 

Moving on...can't say I ever thought something hot and saucy like this ever existed?

 

[eddyramrod]

Has anybody ever panelled in the windows of a Lada estate?

 

Yes, Lada did! Or at least their UK importers, not sure; but certainly in the mid-80s, I think possibly just before the introduction of the Riva, you could buy effectively a Lada Estate with the rear windows and doors panelled in. AFAIK the doors still worked. The Chevette Estate and Peugeot 304 Estate also made handy vans (Peugeot losing its two rear doors in the process) and wasn't there a van version of the Mk3 Escort Estate?

 

Over here you get Ibizas and other small hatchbacks with no rear seats, and wire grilles at the side windows. These pass for little vans in Cyprus. In fact, here's one, belonging to my friend Yannis:

Seems he's removed the grilles, but you get the idea...

[rml2345]

Citroen C15D Van by Dan Hirst?, on Flickr

 

Can never decide whether this is a car derived van or not. It did start out in life as a Visa... Or perhaps half a Visa?

Definitely shite though.

[Timewaster]

Shite? Check

Car Derived? Check

 

[freebird]

I do very vaguely recall the Lada "van" Eddy, thing is i was associating it with one of these beauties.

Now i could have sworn that the 4 door estate version of these had been turned into a van, i can almost see a powder blue one in my head that i could swear was running around in the late 70s.

Thats memories playing tricks again

[freebird]

I was looking for some TV rental company "vans" they used loads of estate cars with panels to cover the side windows. Remember the days when most of us rented TVs?

I could only come up with this,

This one was an estate with the side panelling. As is probaly known, the factory actually built a number of 1100 vans but they never went into full production.

[Justin Case]

Surely the ultimate must be the Skoda Favorit Foreman, possibly the world's only five-door car derived van Now so completely forgotten that I can't even find a picture of one on the interweb, so probably none survive. Therefore I hereby nominate it as the Holy Grail of Shite

[Felly Magic]

Skoda have done loads, based on the Felicia & Favorit. They did the panelled in estate (complete with rear doors), the pickup, and in the Felicia's case the Cube, and an estate based thing with rear doors & GRP high roof like on the Golf & Fucus posted earlier

[Felly Magic]

Surely the ultimate must be the Skoda Favorit Foreman, possibly the world's only five-door car derived van Now so completely forgotten that I can't even find a picture of one on the interweb, so probably none survive. Therefore I hereby nominate it as the Holy Grail of Shite

 

Lada Riva Vans! I do remember seeing them. Land Rover Discovery2 vans as well.

[DSdriver]

We used to have one of these for deliveries in London. Strangely I found when driving it home on the motorway that it would do another 5mph top speed with the windows wound down about an inch.

[freebird]

Surely the ultimate must be the Skoda Favorit Foreman, possibly the world's only five-door car derived van Now so completely forgotten that I can't even find a picture of one on the interweb, so probably none survive. Therefore I hereby nominate it as the Holy Grail of Shite

I think you mean one of these but without the white fibreglass extension

[Felly Magic]

Check out this Ruskie invention. Riva van! FTW methinks....

 

[eddyramrod]

^ I want!

[Mash]

 

Right, I'm off to bed now!!!

[Vin]

These are ORSUMZ.

 

 

Although I expect the number of RHD ones left is close to nil...

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

 

You've got to wonder why more C.D.Vs didn't make use of the side window holes like this.

[baldrickthecunning]

[Felly Magic]

Who can forget this crock of shite? The Maestro 500 1.3 as used by BT....

 

[Felly Magic]

^ I want!

 

New trousers for Eddyramrod!

[Vin]

 

Right, I'm off to bed now!!!

 

There is a Panda Van in Northern Ireland. He got the van bits sent over from Serbia.

 

 

http://www.maranellohouse.com/bluepanda.html

[Felly Magic]

It does look like the sort of job you could do with a couple of hours work and a few cups of tea.

[flat4alfa]

[Father Ted]

We used to have one of these for deliveries in London. Strangely I found when driving it home on the motorway that it would do another 5mph top speed with the windows wound down about an inch.

 

 

Or you could have bought a Fiesta XRV

(also available in pink)

[155V6]

 

I've seen a 3-door Focus van round here a couple of times,but guessing it's some sort of conversion?