“Sleeper van” is a phrase that, to some, evokes living down by the river in four-wheeled, mobile accommodations. To others, however, it means a humdrum-looking vehicle hiding an absurdly powerful engine. Or better yet, a whole dang Ford GT40 race car chassis and drivetrain, as was the case with the Ford Supervan.
Much of what we know about the Supervan comes from a single period promo film, which outlines the Supervan as originating from Terry Drury Racing; a GT40 privateer team according to Bonhams. Underneath a simple Transit body lay the spaceframe of the famed, if by then outmoded GT40, along with its brakes and feral-sounding 5.0-liter, Gurney-Weslake V8.
This tuned Ford five-oh was said to produce 435 horsepower, which traveled through a five-speed manual to the rear axle, propelling the Supervan from zero to 60 in a then-quick 7.0 seconds. According to a Goodwood blog post, the standing quarter-mile took a whole 14.5 seconds, while zero to 100 took 14.6. Ford registers its top speed as being 149 mph—though one can’t imagine the second most brick-shaped vehicle ever built was particularly stable at those speeds.
Transit Supervan – 1971
Ford debuted the Supervan in April 1971 at Brands Hatch, where it is rumored to have set the track’s lap record for a vehicle towing a camper according to one Facebook commenter. It’s not a prominent record, nor one easy to corroborate. The Supervan definitely left a legacy, which would be succeeded by a Group C prototype-based Supervan 2, which set a 170-mph camper towing speed record—and later on, a Formula 3000-powered Supervan 3. Maybe with Ford leaning hard into EVs and launching an E-Transit, the time may be ripe for a Supervan 4.
What say we about a Mach-E-Transit, folks?
F1-engined Ford Transit VAN attacks Goodwood Hill | Festival of Speed 2013
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