Intersting read

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The year is 1975; Fox On The Run by British Glam Rock band, Sweet, is the biggest record of the year on Australian radio, but Aussie stars Sherbert, Skyhooks, and Hush also dominate with, respectively, Summer Love, Horror Movie and Bonie Moronie.
It's the year Gough Whitlam is sacked by the Governor General, the North Vietnamese overrun Saigon and the US pulls out, the first home computer (an Altair) is launched, and disposable razors are invented. It's a momentous 12 months, a time of change, and it's also the year I turn 18 and buy my first car - a panel van.

While my hippy mates spend a few hundred dollars on clapped-out FBs and EHs, I save and save and plonk down $2500 cash on a fridge-white, ex-commercial XW Falcon panel van, with the unbreakable 3.6-litre six and three-on-the-tree. It's the best, most reliable car in our group and, after being just one of the gang, my popularity skyrockets because I can carry up to 10 people to parties, the beach, the drive-in, and the Kingston Hotel to see The Sports or Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons play on Saturday night.

My panel van sets me free to roam wherever I want, whenever I want, but I don't buy it just to be popular with the girls (although I am kinda hoping). Nope, I am a budding rock star and have a Marshall amplifier that is taller than I am and I need to get it around. I almost buy a Toyota Hi-Lux and a Kombi, but they don't have enough power. Besides, the XW is, I think, a tough looking car.

The modified panel van craze is in full swing at this time but all I do to mine is black out the interior and add a set of chrome 12-slotters, a Pioneer radio-cassette with four speakers and a wolf whistle that runs off the exhaust manifold. I don't even put curtains on the side windows, which gives you an idea about how successful I am with the ladies at the time. They might be dubbed Sin Bins and Shaggin' Wagons but, alas, the only rockin' going on in my van is when the stereo is pumping out The Stones or Springsteen.

Panel vans are everywhere: lowered, louvered, loud and lairish, with murals, mattresses, mirrored roofs; they were shag-pile palaces riding on 14-inch mags and K-Mac stabiliser bars. They are status symbols and the sportscars of teenagers'. Trying to recreate the rock 'n' roll vibe of "American Graffiti", which came out two years earlier, we gather at hamburger and pizza shops, or outside speed shops, talking cars, music and girls.

I hang out at the Boronia Downyflake with my mate Rob Day, who has an altogether more flash van. It's a turquoise HK with a 186 bored out to 192 cubes, twin-exhaust, 'Crystal Cylinders' murals, bordello cargo bay refit, fat tyres, and the world's smallest steering wheel. His car has curtains.

My XW survives two epic trips to Queensland, flooded roads, stoned passengers, a minor brush with scenery on a dirt road, and an under-bonnet fire, when I accidentally ground the battery while doing some basic maintenance. I love that XW but in 1977, I trade up to my first brand new car (sadly, not one photo exists of my XW.).

Still enamoured of the panel van lifestyle, I buy a manual XC Falcon for the princely sum of $7300. It's chocolate brown with black trim, a GT bonnet and GXL alloys; basically every option except the 302 V8, which I should have ordered, in retrospect.

But, as slick and shiny as the XC is, it doesn't take long to fall out of love with it. I pick it up after hours and it immediately starts slipping out of fourth gear. The engine, the new, more powerful 4.1-litre six, is thirsty and I had to buy the car with a barn-door tailgate, which I can't leave open on the road. Annoyingly, Ford later releases the XC van with a 'proper' tailgate. By the way, my XC does have curtains and a mattress; I don't think I need to elaborate on that point.

Anyway, that car doesn't last long. It gets written off in a huge prang a year later, when a fully loaded car transporter runs a red light and hits me up the arse at about 70 km/h. The top car (a new Commodore) snaps its restraining chains, falls onto the roof of the XC and then rolls across the bonnet and down the road. It's a big hit but I escape unscathed and my panel van days are over. A few weeks later I buy a Triumph Dolomite Sprint; go figure!

The '70s was really the golden decade for panel vanning in Australia. While Holden and Ford had been making vans, basically for commercial use, since the early-'50s and '60s, respectively, it took the burgeoning modified van scene and the explosion of youth culture to galvanise the big two into officially getting behind the vans-as-sportscars craze: Ford with its Sundowner and Holden with the Sandman, hands down the most popular van. A 1975 HJ Sandman even scored a movie credit, appearing in Mad Max.

Chrysler was the last to react, finally releasing a panel van version of its CL Valiant range in 1976, and the Sports Van and Drifter models followed in mid-1977. But by that stage the fad was already beginning to wane and Chrysler halted van production one year later after making only around 2000 cars, making Drifters the hardest of these classic Aussies to find. In fact, Unique Cars had a devil of a time just trying to get the three cars you see here in the one place and still failed: the Sundowner is in WA.

Holden built the first panel van in 1953, based on the FJ, and continued to make them right up until 1984's WB model then the body style was killed off. The Sandman debuted in 1974. Ford kept panel van production line going from 1961 until the XH in 1997, although by that time the halcyon van era was well and truly forgotten and only 'tradies' and police drove them, and the Sundowner debuted in 1976 (check)

The definitive panel van years were probably 1977-78 when the HZ Sandman, XC Sundowner and CL Drifter finally went head to head in the marketplace with their most sophisticated models. The fact that each manufacturer offered extensive options lists, particularly in the drivetrain department, meant that owners could customise their cars before they even left the showroom floor.

Sundowner had the edge in grunt, offering a 5.8-litre V8 as its top option engine, but the most popular powerplants were the 5.0-litre bent eight, and the aforementioned 4.1-litre six. In 1978, you could buy a Sandman with 5.0 and 4.2-litre V8s and the venerable 3.3-litre six. Drifter offered three engines: 4.0 and 4.3-litre sixes and a 5.2-litre V8. All manufacturers offered the choice of four-speed manuals or auto 'boxes, and various diff ratios.

In these times of 250-300kW V8s, it's almost comical to look back on the 'high' power outputs of the three most popular panel van V8s, strangled as they were by new fangled pollution controls. The Sundowner's 302 cube V8 was good for 151kW/363Nm (at 4600/3000rpm) and the higher revving Sandman's 308 pumped out 161kW/400Nm (at 4800/3100rpm). But the lazy 318 cubic inch Drifter V8 put out only 107kW and 345Nm (4000/2000rpm).

Nevertheless, with live axles, relatively crude suspension by today's standards, skinny tyres, no weight over the rear axle, and high centres of gravity, all were a more than lively drive, especially in the wet. My old man used to tell me to carry cement paving blocks in the back of my XC van but, naturally, I didn't listen. The common consensus is that the Sandman, with new Radial Tuned Suspension, was the best handler; the Sundowner had the best ride, and the Drifter stuck well until the limit was reached...

Inside, from the seats back, all three were still just commercial vans but a blank steel canvas for customisers to go hog wild in, which is exactly what many did. Taste often sank to new lows of trashiness, as vans became mobile bars, brothels, and entertainment complexes with TVs, custom-made beds, and the most psychedelic carpets, fabrics and mood lighting available. They were like Clockwork Orange cocoons. Up front, the Sundowner had the edge on luxury (hate the two-spoke steering wheel), the Sandman came across as a lot sporty, but the Charger-based Drifter already looked out of date.

We will never see another era like the panel van '70s again but that doesn't mean there still aren't hundreds, maybe thousands of former vanners, who still cling to those more innocent and, dare I say it, more fun times. The fact that the owners of the three cars on these pages range in age from 24 to 54 shows the appeal of panel vans easily crosses the generation gap. There are still panel van clubs and shows running, and the Summernats in Canberra wouldn't be the same without a few vans on display,

Thats a great article James, with a few little faults. HZ Sandmans never came out with a 6 cylinder. But how cool are his memories of his XW! And his XC crash sounds like something out of the Dukes of Hazzard or an AAMI insurance ad!
Love it!