<VV> FCs at Cruise - no Corvair

[Dale Dewald]

At 21:57 4/13/2010 -0400, Warren wrote:

>We just got back from a cruise in the Bahamas. We took an excursion
>into Nassau.
>    Interesting to me were the taxis used there on the increditably tight
>streets.
>The streets were full of Forward Control (Cab Forward) minivans
>produced by Mitsubishi and Toyota.
>Just when we thought that the famous/infamoous Corvair truck design was
>gone it's everywhere in the Bahamas.
>   Of couse the engines are all watercooled nad under the front seats.

Oh yes, in areas of the world without such onerous crash standards FC vans 
are quite common.

When we travelled to east-central Siberia to adopt our son, Alex, we were 
chaffered all about in two Korean-built FC passenger vans.  The most 
interesting was a SsamYong, that was similar in styling to the current 
Sprinter but with a very long front overhang.  It had a Mercedes 2.3L 
turbodiesel mated to a 5-speed manual front drive transaxle. The empty 
weight distribution of this van must have been 75/25, but it had rear air 
springs that adjusted to load.  The other minivan was built by KIA and 
looked like a 3/4-sized Dodge B-van, except with the front axle displaced 
back to make it FC. The drive train was pretty much conventional; 2.5L 
turbodiesel and 5-speed driving a rear live axle.

The most unique and interesting FC's we encountered in Russia were the 
UAZ-452 4X4 passenger and cargo vans. Their styling was similar to a bread 
loaf on wheels.  These had a 2.4L 4-cylinder gasoline engine located up 
front like the Ford Econoline and Dodge A100.  We saw many of these (as 
they were still in production in 2001) but never had a chance to ride in one.

Dale Dewald
Hancock, MI