Mister Dodge – part 1 – a 1974 b300 royal sportsman maxivan (2012)
This article is part of a series:
sounds a bit like a big mac ? In the porsche elferteam community already a celebrity because the history of that specific van has 75.000 hits. In a porsche forum ? – a van ???
chapter one – what van ?
That story started six years ago…my girl wants a vw combi…these little buggers
everybody likes – so – you have to take a trunk full of cash and get a rusty seventies
german van with an free astmatic engine ? Every uphill you downshift two times and
that engine screams with an 35mm carburator to get somewhere close to the summit ?
My focus was more to these american breeder busses….that name comes from
families with lots of kiddos. Bigger and better and much cheaper. Well not everyting
is cheaper with that ironpigs but – most of it.
On an evening walk in switzerland we saw that bus….and i said to my girl…something
like this would be my van for roadtrips. Mister Dodge was sitting there and my stommach
gave two kind of feedbacks. Thats a candidate for restoration – the owner did not
start it or gave up…lets find out !
to be continued …
40 additional images. Click to enlarge.
Johannes Gerl said on June 8, 2018
Let’s start with the most urgent question: “putting the tits and a*s back in vans”?
GinTonic said on June 8, 2018
gas, gras or a*s …. no-one-rides-for-free
as the vanners say in 🇺🇸
cheers from zadar in croatia –
Martin Wal said on June 8, 2018
I absolutely love it, it’s 70’s but that short hood and forward placement of the front axle make it look timeless.
And I’m sure it’s really bing inside compared with VW.
Sabine Engert said on June 8, 2018
Okay, this is cool. Very cool. This thing must have space for a football team.
Am I allowed to say the word fuel consumption?
GinTonic said on June 9, 2018
as you can see the maxivan was registered for
4 in the back
3 times three people
2 in front
15 persons….legal. and if you surf the web for the
story of a van with a complete school class
in a maxivan…you will like it even more.
petrol consumption? – i did some modifications
and let the thing cruise around 110km/h so it
takes around 16liters for 100km.
topspeed never tried…150 ?
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Alessandro Nardelli said on June 8, 2018
I notice that the engine is kind of between the seats.
Is it very noisy there?
GinTonic said on June 9, 2018
the engine you dont hear…most of the time…on long
uphill sections there is a valve noice coming up…well
i will do a vid…that makes it more simple to explain.
Most noice when driving comes from air against the
doorsills and front is my guess
Robert Powell said on June 9, 2018
great story…and regarding an engine between the seats Paul Jameson put a 1750 hp Spitfire engine between the seats of his car in 1976:
http://grandretro.com/2018/02/the-70s-the-spitfires-merlin-engine-london-cruise-and-r-c-a-merlin-mono/
GinTonic said on June 9, 2018
https://youtu.be/ncIdKVZw7NU
GinTonic said on June 11, 2018
chapter two online….cheers from croatia
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
GinTonic said on June 12, 2018
chapter three online
The Grandretro Team said on June 12, 2018
How do you mean “chapter three online”?