10 Weirdest, Wildest & Wackiest Vans of All-Time
Who said vans are mere commercial vehicles designed to get cargo from Point A to Point B with minimum fuss and fanfare? Why can’t vans be weird, wacky and wonderful?
Fortunately, this is a mentality shared by more than just us here at Vansdirect because while our heads are all for a no-nonsense, dependable, hardy commercial workhorses, our hearts do occasionally yearn for something altogether quirkier.
Our ranking of the ten wildest and most surprising vans of all-time doesn’t just focus on the unfathomably fast – we’re considered vans that are bold, untypical and have a trick or two up their boxy sleeves as well.
1. Ford Transit SuperVan
Think ‘wild van’, immediately think Ford SuperVan – in fact, no top ten of wild vans would be complete without it sitting pride of place at #1.
Four generations (actually, 4.2 generations if we’re being accurate) have borne the SuperVan moniker, a line which began with the bonkers notion to wedge a 4.7-litre V8 into a Mk.1 Transit in 1971. The result may have been unwieldy – the body shell jelly-rolling across the widened track as the engine laid down 400bhp – but ultimately a legend was born.
SuperVan generations two and three followed in 1984 and 1994, cranking the power up to 590bhp and 650bhp respectively but – mercifully – were this time able to prevent the driver wasn’t looking skyward under acceleration.
Ford revisited the SuperVan in 2022 with an eye-wateringly fast 1877bhp electric version to celebrate the launch of the Ford E-Transit, before then ripping up the rule book with the SuperVan 4.2 in 2024 by somehow extracting 2040bhp from a machine better used for lugging furniture to conquer Pikes Peak and Goodwood.
So, while you wouldn’t be able to get a mattress in that sculpted bodywork, you could probably complete your delivery route in about four minutes...
2. Holden Sandman
Aussies know a thing or two about amping up their commercial vehicles and none do it better than its own home-grown marque, Holden. After all, remember the Holden Maloo pick-up truck?
While Holden has history in turning its humdrum Commodore saloon into fire-breathing flat beds, it cut its teeth with the Holden Sandman in the 1970s.
Colloquially known - hilariously – as “Shaggin’ Wagons”, the Sandman packed either six-cylinders or a monster V8 into a low-slung car-derived van that had space at the back for (at least) two people to lay flat on a mattress. Ahem.
It looked cool too with its chrome detailing and customisable options attracting plenty of attention – if the noises coming from the back hadn’t already done so.
3. Volkswagen Revo Transporter
It was a close-run thing between including this – the Volkswagen Revo Transporter – and a Ford Transit driven by daredevil ex-TT rider-turned-TV-favourite (and professional northerner) Guy Martin, but for the purposes of authenticity we’ve plumped for the former.
Strictly speaking, Martin and his Transit is responsible for the fastest time ever recorded around the fearsome “Green Hell” – aka. the Nurburgring Norschleife – but then it was achieved (on his TV show) in a heavily-souped up Ford Transit SuperVan generating 700bhp.
However, it was ‘only’ 30secs faster than the previous record achieved by Dale Lomas in a fairly-standard Volkswagen Transporter T5, who succeeded in breaking the magic 10-minute mark with just 220bhp on tap around the 13-mile venue.
Special mention should however go to ex-BTCC driver Rob Austin, who achieved a similar time with a mere 150bhp available to him in a rented Transporter.
To be fair, legend says the fastest vehicles in the world are rented ones
4. Citroen Ami Cargo
Slowing things down (a lot), here is the cutest little van in all of van-town. Move aside, Postman Pat!
The Citroen Ami Cargo may not look like it could carry more than a sandwich but a bit of expert packaging means it can pack a few boxes in where a passenger would ordinarily be.
There are limitations, as you might expect. It has a top speed of 30mph and has a miniscule range of 47 miles, but it can carry 140kg of payload (approximately 1300 Greggs sausage rolls if you’re interested) and can be driven by anyone as young as 14-years old in France with the right licence.
Because you’re never too young to learn the responsibility of hard work.
5. Iveco Daily 4x4
And now for something altogether grizzlier – the Iveco Daily 4x4.
Quite why you might find yourself tracking a big payload through the absolute wilderness is anyone’s guess, but just in case you do need to deliver some IKEA furniture to a cave, there is a van for that.
Drawing on its knowledge for building big, beefy HGVs, Iveco has applied a similar heavy-lifting ethos to its premier van, the Daily, which – with its ladder-frame chassis – openly sacrifices some on-road refinement for a model that has an option for carrying a whopping 7-tonnes.
Better still, if you are looking to lug the contents of a small county in one trip across rocks, mud and the odd mountain, the Iveco Daily 4x4 7T – complete with terrain tyres, hard-wearing bodywork and raised suspension - exists to fulfil this quite niche brief.
6. Ford Transit MS-RT
So, this is just your average Ford Transit. Albeit after a can of Monster and a few trips to the gym.
The Ford Transit MS-RT satisfies the popular trend for turning vans into lifestyle accessories that successfully turn heads right onto your business plastered over the side via some multi-spoke alloy wheels and protruding bodywork.
It’s not just all look and no go though. Indeed, the MS-RT can be had as either 150 or 170PS turbodiesel, a 232PS plug-in hybrid or a full-on 285PS electric E-Transit.
And that’s not it – the MS-RT is available with a retina-searing palette of bold colour choices just in case you didn’t get their attention the first time around.
7. Nissan S-Cargo
It’s called S-Cargo. And it looks like a snail. Need we say more...?
8. Hyundai iMax Drift Bus
OK, so we’re going a touch off-piste here since the model in these photos you’ll notice has – gasp! – windows.
True, the superbly-titled Hyundai iMax Drift Bus is physically based on the since-discontinued Hyundai i800/iMax minivan, but then that was also based on the (also since-discontinued) Hyundai iLoad van. So, it counts, right?
Anyway, this one-off 394bhp behemoth was created to demonstrate the versatility in Hyundai’s N racing division, so much so that they made a bus into a drifting machine.
Looking the part with 19-inch alloy wheels and fitting a limited-slip differential, the Drift Bus packs a twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre V6 and has absolutely zero chill.
9. VW Caddy Cup Racer
There aren’t many eligibility restrictions in the Volkswagen Cup racing series beyond the simple rule that entries must be a Volkswagen.
Either way, this regulation has been put to the test several times by racers opting to enter a Volkswagen Caddy van alongside a swathe of Golfs and Beetles.
While vans are more likely to be seen cluttering up the paddock during meetings, these ones found their way on track to prove you can race anything if you believe.
10. Ford Transit XJ220 Mule
Something of a legend in van circles, this particular Mk.II Ford Transit – a large one at that – hides a very special secret underneath that unassuming one-box bodywork.
It comes equipped with a 540bhp 3.5-litre V6, the engine that would go on to power the iconic Jaguar XJ220 supercar back in 1992.
The machine – which would for a time hold the title of the world’s fastest production car – generated fever among the motoring industry, which in turn made testing the engine in a version of the eventual machine away from prying paparazzi a risky task.
So, Jaguar pulled an absolute blinder by disguising it in a Ford Transit so that no-one would be the wiser.
The rest is history and this very special Ford Transit – still powered by the powerful V6 – is a regular on the show circuit, even though it’s likely you’d never give it a second look if you saw it out on the road.
