SUPER FANS OF THE SUPERVAN

The party was over. The fun was done. That was the familiar refrain for the U.S. auto industry in the early ’70s, as several socially and federally driven changes meant high compression, and hood scoops gave way to compact cars and catalytic converters.

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A few holdouts notwithstanding, the muscle car was dead as 0-60 times meant less than miles per gallon.

America wasn't alone. The swinging ’60s also turned into the sober ’70s across the pond, where Great Britain’s once-dominant auto industry was cracking under the stress of inefficiency, labor strife, and increasing competition, particularly from Japan. It was a painful transition, and just as performance drove into the ditch in the United States, it sailed right off the White Cliffs of Dover in England.

Times were tough all over, so when the bark of a race-prepped 302 Windsor mounted amidships in a utilitarian Ford Transit cargo van cut through the fog of Britain’s mechanical malaise, it was like the automotive equivalent of the Beatles’ rooftop concert. Even better, the project, known as Supervan, was a Ford-sanctioned endeavor that would spawn follow-ups for more than the next half-century.

Unequivocally outrageous in its execution, the simple concept for Supervan was as straightforward as they came: drop jaws to draw attention to a product. With a few quid from the commercial truck division’s marketing budget and additional direction from motorsports honcho Stuart Turner, Ford turned to longtime British racer Terry Drury to make it happen.

He'd been a development engineer on the original GT40 program and was running his own racing shop when Ford called.

Drury and his team reportedly built Supervan in about four months, channeling the Transit body over a widened Cooper Monaco racing chassis, while the powertrain was the same as a small-block GT40. Drury’s involvement with the GT40 program and the car’s running gear spawned a myth the body was dropped on a genuine GT40 chassis. That was likely the original intent, but it didn’t fit, so the Cooper Monaco spaceframe was used.