TIME FURTHER OUT

Only 28 examples of the Brubaker Box kit van were ever made - but it influenced a whole generation. Mark Dixon gets his groove on

- Mark Dixon

The year is 2476, and Earth has been devastated by pollution and the collapse of civilisation. Into the wasteland rides a streamlined, six-wheeled vehicle called Ark II, with a biblically named crew of scientists: Jonah, the captain; Ruth, Samuel, and Adam. Their mission is to locate the last traces of humanity, and to attempt to bring them out of the new Dark Ages. Oh, and by the way, Adam is a talking chimpanzee.

That last piece of information is a hint as to the reality of the fiction. Ark II was the title of a 1976 low-budget American TV series for youngsters, with what now seems a prescient eco theme. Mostly filmed on the Paramount Ranch studio facility in California, it ran for just one season of 15 episodes and is firmly in the 'so bad, it's good' category. But it's fondly remembered among petrolheads for featuring a heavily modified version of the vehicle you see here: the Brubaker Box.

Its creator, Curtis Brubaker, has had an amazing career. Technical innovations in which he's had a hand include Bill Lear's original Lear Jets, the eight-track cassette player, the touch screen, haptic buttons and headup displays. He will always be most closely associated with the van that bears his name, however, a radically different and yet supremely practical vehicle that debuted at the 1972 Los Angeles International Motorsports Show, and which spawned numerous magazine front covers and influenced a generation of car enthusiasts. Unfortunately, financial reality killed the dream, and just three factory-built Boxes and a further 25 kits were made before the project died.