Pleasanton Street Sighting - 1973 Dodge Royal Sportsman

My last post here dealt with a 1973 Ford Econoline van. In that post I mentioned that Ford's van sales were down that year. Now we look at its primary nemesis in the marketplace, the Dodge B-Series. I see this fantastic Royal Sportsman passenger van on the road often in my area, much more often than I ever see it parked. This van even popped up in traffic while shooting the 1957 Austin-Healey 100-6.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1968 Dodge A108 Custom Sportsman

The first vehicle I featured here on California Streets was a 1968 Dodge A100, so in a way we've come full circle. This is actually the third Dodge A-van we've seen here, and this time it's a '68 A108 Custom Sportsman. It's owned by a Mopar collector in San Francisco. The last A108 featured was a 1970 model in the same colors as this van, but in rougher condition. In retrospect, I wish I'd shot this one more in depth, but at the time it was merely another A-series van and I didn't see a reason. Oh well.

Best of the Rest 2: Vantastic

1963-67 Volkswagen Type 2 Microbus, Dublin

1965 Chevrolet Sportvan, San Francisco

1969 Dodge A108 Sportsman Family Wagon, San Francisco

1968-70 Chevrolet ChevyVan, San Francisco

1987 Nissan Van, San Ramon

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1970 Dodge A108 Custom Sportsman

While browsing the archives, I noticed that I had a few old vans to post. So, this week is going to be Big Three Vintage Vans week.

It kicks off with Chrysler's entry, the 1970 Dodge A108 Custom Sportsman.
The van had already been around for decades, in the form of the car-based sedan delivery and truck-based panel van. But in the early 1960s, Detroit introduced a curious new approach to vans: the forward-control, "one-box" style van. These new vans were usually marketed in three ways: as a cargo hauling van with blank panel sides, a pickup truck, or as a fully appointed family "station wagon" with side windows. That's right, this was considered a wagon. I suspect the reason these vans were created was to compete with the Volkswagen Microbus which was imported to the US and sold primarily as - you guessed it - a station wagon. Now, Detroit wanted to beat VW at their own game, so they created small, often car-based vans in the image of the Microbus.
As far as vans go, the A100 is not a particularly adventurous design. Unlike the Microbus, or even the Chevy Corvair "Corvan", the A100's engine is in the front, with water cooling and six- or eight-cylinder configurations. Ford's Falcon-based Econoline van was designed the same way. This front-engine layout probably saved the company money but ate up interior space, produced a lot of heat and was hell to work on. These vans were poorly streamlined, ponderous to drive and downright unsafe in a collision, but they offered far more interior space than a traditional wagon and could carry a ton of cargo in a compact, relatively thrifty vehicle.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1959 DeSoto Firesweep Sportsman

The 1959 DeSoto is one of those cars for which I harbor an irrational affection, a car fraught with some of the worst late-1950s excesses and yet it still exudes class and style. It is my favorite Chrysler product made in 1959 and the very last model year of DeSoto that I like. I have always been hit-or-miss on Chrysler Corporation. When they get it right, it's tolerable or even rather nice. When they get it wrong, boy is it wrong. I'm talking about you, 1962 lineup. A classic case of "getting it wrong" was DeSoto after 1959. Some fans really like the curiously angry-looking 1960 DeSoto, but even those people will rarely defend the horribly deformed 1961 model with its canted headlights and mismatched double grilles. That was the end of the road for DeSoto, as sales withered and died like a feverish Hernando de Soto.