The fast and the furious
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We're always striving to go faster: this is CM's top 10 list of some of the more memorable fast vans 1. Ford Transit Supervan Ford has a certain amount of form when it comes to producing fast vans. The first Superyan appeared in 1971 as a Mark 1 Transit with a GT40 chassis and a 400hp V8 engine. Slightly flared wheelarches and Ford's white and
blue livery completed the look for this 150mph van. Other Supervans followed, with Mark 2 and Mark 3 bodies (pictured), each combining Transit bodies with fearsome Cosworth engines. 2. Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport-X
It's just an ordinary Vito van. Well, ordinary because you can tick a box and get it delivered straight from the factory. However, there is nothing ordinary about the 224hp turbocharged 3-litre V6 diesel that can claim the title of the UK's most powerful production van narrowly shading out the Iveco Daily. Volkswagen Racing Cup Caddy The Volkswagen Racing Cup sees a whole host of hot VWs battling it out across the UK, so to find a van on the entry list is perhaps a surprise. With a standard 2-litre TDI engine tuned to 260hp and more than 500Nm of torque, this Caddy
is definitely not ordinary. Despite never threatening the podium positions-taken by faster Golfs, Sciroccos and Boras its participation proves the white van man isn't always the fastest on the road. 4. Transit 220
Justin Law is known for racing Jaguar's fast and beautiful XJ220 sports cars, but his Goodwood appearance in a 1989 Transit van is arguably more famous. Experts at Tom Walkinshaw Racing combined a ratty old Transit body with the XJ220's 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 as a development mule. The result: an XJ220 Van whose existence became the stuff of legends. Sabine Schmitz-v-Clarkson
The infamous words "I tell you something, I do that lap time in a van" must haunt Jeremy Clarkson. Sabine Schmitz, Nurburgring veteran and so-called "queen of the ring", embarrassed Clarkson in what was an entirely ordinary Transit van. OK, it was stripped out and had a Dodge Viper pace car cleaning the air in front, but with a lap time of 10 minutes and 8 seconds, it still makes it a very fast van. 6. Revo Volkswagen T5 Transporter The Nurburgring benchmark set by Schmitz was always going to inspire challengers, but it wasn't until Reyo
treated a Transporter with Bilstein suspension, a tuned engine, and a full body kit that the record was broken earlier this year with a Bridge-toGantry time of nine minutes and 57.36 seconds. 7. Toyota H iAce V8 turbo
Japanese cars are notoriously tuned to within an inch of their engine's life, yet strangely the van-modding scene has yet to take off in the UK. But as YouTube can prove http://bit. ly/17JtkRn V8 turbo HiAce vans, capable of nine-second quarter-mile drags, are all the rage in some parts of the world. Ford Transit Connect X-Press With the body of a Transit Connect and the running gear of a Focus RS, the Connect X-Press is 212hp of hot-hatch madness. With an RS engine, gearbox, front suspension
and brakes, this baby Transit is no slouch. Thanks to the tireless out-of-hours efforts of Ford's Belgium engineers, the X-Press will hit 60mph in less than seven seconds. 9. Vauxhall Maloo "Strewth Sheila! What's that?" The answer: 425hp of Aussie muscle. Brought to the UK by Vauxhall, the Maloo is a product of Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) and oh boy, is it special. The 6.2-litre V8 will propel this antipodean to 60mph
in 4.9 seconds and 100mph in just under 12 seconds, while its blood-curdling noise will definitely turn a few heads. So it's not a van (and it costs £51,500), but we don't care. 10. The fastest milk cart in the West
Benny Hill's comedy love triangle involving Ernie and his nemesis Two-Ton Ted from Teddington failed to give enough credit to the story's real star, his milk cart. Pulled by Trigger, the horse, Ernie's milk cart is the earliest and arguably the most entertaining example of a fast 'van' to make it onto CM's list. "His name was Ernie [Errrrnie], and he drove the fastest milk cart in the West."