Date:         Mon, 02 Jan 95 23:36:15 CST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: What Van was that?

On Mon, 2 Jan 95 21:42:57 CST King, Robert said:
>It was LHD and had European or English plates (no country or State on them
>though). From the back it looked most like my 76 bus (similar tail-lights etc).
> From the front it looked a caravelle (or transporter or whatever).  In fact it
>looked like the 'newer' (post 80) front end grafted onto on 'older' (73-79)
>back end.  It had a chrome badge saying 'T21' (italic script) on the grille
>below the windscreen.  It had a HUGE box top at LEAST half as high as a normal
>bus again.  The box top had a 'Westphalia' sticker/logo on the rear right hand
>side.  On top of this it had a HUGE floored luggage rack (or was it a sun deck
>8-) ???). It was watercooled (had what looked like a radiator grille anyway)
>and it didn't sound or smoke like a diesel.......
>What was this vehicle?

my bet would be that it is an LT21 ... a 'truck' made by VW. it's a good
bit bigger than a caravelle/transporter/vanagon, but the front end resembles
the 1980-1991 buses, while the rear end does look more like the 1972-1979
buses, especially the taillights. but most of them are sold with dual doors
opening sideways at the rear. it's powered by a variety of engines, all
water-cooled and mounted between the driver and passenger, powering the rear
wheels in a conventional manner.

Westfalia, and several others, make camper versions of this van (as well as
a similar Mercedes van). in fact, there was a fellow who came through my
with his own version ... huge bull-bars on front, with 9" driving lights,
and stickers and sponsor labels all over the thing. he's a swiss trucker
who is driving round the world to benefit a german cancer institute for
children. ... but he passed through here in 1991. he should have gotten
farther than australia by now! but his was also an LT31 (it says here in
the newspaper article).

anyway, they are recognizable by the turn signals on the front being above
the headlights ... other than that, it's very easy from the front and sides
to mistake it for a vanagon/caravelle/transporter. at least to me. :)

joel
Grand Accumulator of Useless Data