How does one name a van? This is a question a child might ask, but not a childish question. Our co-founder Beau once told me, with a faraway look in his eyes, that naming cars is the “sport of Kings,” and he’s not wrong. Naming cars is notoriously difficult, and that includes vans, of course. You’d think a van’s name should convey things like utility and maybe spaciousness or workhorsitude or perhaps even evoke certain exotic locales or suggest maybe a bit of adventure, depending on the van’s configuration and target audience. But I don’t think there’s a good argument to be made for naming your van after a type of car racing suited to small, nimble, fast, and rugged cars.
I’m talking about the GMC Rally, which was the GMC-badged version of the G-series Chevy Van. The GMC versions were called the Vandura for the cargo variant, and Rally for the passenger version.
Now, Vandura is actually a pretty good van name – combines what the car is (van) with some made-up suffix that suggests a known word with positive connotations pretty readily (-dura/durable). It’s the Rally name I want to talk about now, because while I get that “rally” as a concept in the automotive world is an exciting one but if you think about the cars that are known to be great rally cars – Lancia Stratos, Ford RS200, Audi Quattro, Mitsubishi Lancer Evos, and so on – these are cars that share almost nothing in common with vans. Even passenger vans.
“Rally” just seems like such a mis-applied name for a van like this, which is primarily a passenger van. You know, like a church van, maybe, or a van for a big family, pretty much among the last sorts of vehicles you’d want to take on a rally, unless maybe that was an experience you just had to share with 11 of your closest friends.
I suppose in terms of people-per-rally stage, this thing could be quite competitive, one driver and 10 co-drivers and maybe an on-board mechanic, too.
This 1983 brochure has a lot of interesting stuff once you get past the strangely off-base name. Like what seems to be the motto for GMC’s line of passenger vans:
“It’s for going place and doing things.”
This motto is fantastic because I think you should be able to apply to pretty much any motor vehicle ever made, except perhaps for really specialized things like airport luggage trolleys or maybe mining trucks. But even then, it kinda works. What vehicle of any type isn’t for going places and doing things? A horse-drawn chariot is for that. So is a tank. So is an autogyro or hovercraft or a 1985 Honda Prelude or the presidential limo. They go places, so the people inside can do things. Things at places.
It’s a tagline that almost incorporates the definition of a noun: it’s for [people] going places to do things.
It’s really incredible in its powerful non-specificity.
This brochure has some other subtle and fascinating details. Like that seat up there, which, when folded down, somehow looks more like a person attempting to limbo than any seat I’ve ever seen, and I’m not certain why, exactly.
Or these paragraphs, which really feel like some copywriter was desperately trying to pad out the text in the brochure:
I feel like a picture with labels would have done this better. It’s odd to see trim level details like this spelled out in such a straightforward way? I mean, I don’t mind having the brochure walk me through headlamp and parking light sizes, number, and location in words, I’m just not used to it.
This is a great cutaway, though.
Oh, and here’s something I can’t recall ever seeing in a brochure before:
So, we currently talk about EVs and how long it takes them to recharge, but I can’t think of another example where a carmaker has touted the time it takes to fill up a fuel tank on a car before? And, in this case, I think I see why they’re so excited: 20 gallons per minute? Holy crap that’s fast! But doesn’t that depend on the rate of flow of the pump? And, how are they doing this? Is the fuel filler diameter the size of a watermelon?
I can see how this would maybe be an issue for a commercial truck, but for a private passenger vehicle? Anyway, fascinating!
You still see these vans roaming the National Parks in the west, filled with Mennonites on vacation.
Dodge had the Tradesman and the Sportsman for their B-Series vans; unless that was a trim level rather than a model? I remember my aunt & uncle had a mid-70s Sportsman in a mixture of avocado green and rust.
Yep, trim levels. I was carted around in a custom 77 Dodge Sportsman 2 tone van in the late 80 to early 90s. My mom let us sticker bomb the rear bumper with skater stickers and was the coolest skate van in the early 90s. Died of rust in 93, we got a Caravan. Sportsman was way cooler, and had a Thrush glasspack so it sounded bad ass.
Thanks for the memory, Heidi Vantura was a close friend years ago, from groupie to roadie to lead bass with Hertz Van-Rental she rocked, her current job as an influential part of the Belgian ministry of planning does not really allow her to express herself fully.
I hate how somewhere around 1999 most manufacturers cut off the fun van names.
Club Wagon? Gone. Vandura? Gone. Ram Van? Didn’t hang around much longer.
We’re stuck with “Express.” “Savana”. “Sprinter”. And “E-series”. And “NV” for a few glorious years. Who said van names can’t be punchy? Vandura is easily my favorite, but I have a whole list of van pun names.
Separately, I knew about the name Vandura, but I didn’t actually know the Rally was a thing. Wild name, regardless of misapplication. But now that name’s long gone, too.
The only one that was an improvement was going from “Econoline” to E-series. The one exception to me hating alphanumeric code model names. “Econoline” is so horrifically boring. At least E-series slots in nicely next to F-series, and has a similar, simple application (higher number = higher capacity, towing, etc.). Not like so many others (BMW, Mercedes, etc.) where you need to know what era before you guess what they mean.
I always liked Econoline. It was so evocative – this isn’t about anything other than economy, but it still has a dash of oldschool automotive style.
I get the E rebrand, to match Ford’s then “if the cargo is covered it starts with E” rule, but Econoline just sounded more, I dunno, real.
Now Transit is a fantastic name, but why not Transit, with Super Transit for the big one?
Eh, while I also hated the “Transit Connect” for the small one and just “Transit” for the big one, it sure looks like every single participant in the compact van market used that same method to try to keep brand/model cache with the “new” compact models. (City Express, ProMaster City, NV200, etc. With basically the sole exception being the Metris.)
To be fair, yeah, I would’ve liked an actual word, too. I just wasn’t a fan of “Econoline” specifically.
But as far as the F-series and E-series are concerned, Ford gets points for consistency. As opposed to, say, Mazda, whose models will take me a while to get right, if ever.
Don’t forget, Chevy had the “Bonaventure”. Whatever that is supposed to mean.
That fold down rear seat bed came standard on the Bonadventure
I had to look it up, apparently Bonaventure was a 13th century Catholic Bishop.
Why you would name a van after a 13th century bishop, I don’t know.
Its also a fancy hotel.
Where the 80’s TV show “It’s a Living” was set!
TIL LOL!
Deacons probably ordered a few for their Bishops now and again, for church camps and missionary positions.
And there was also a Chevy Beauville too… which was the highest trim version. And there was also the Chevy SportVan.
I figured when he started with his friend Beau, this is where he was going. My mom drove a Beauville.
Short-lived mid line trim, the Sportvan was equivalent to the base GMC Rally and the Beauville was the top series, same as the Rally STX seen here. The Bonaventure had nicer side panel trim than seats because its’ door and side cards were shared with the Beauville and STX while its’ seats were shared with the base model (that didn’t have any interior linings at all other than the rubber floor mat) and work vans.
This Autopian vans.
Collected car brochures as a kid. I think I still have this one in storage.
Hell yeah; I LOVE doing things!
Things are what I like to do!
Sometimes I like doin thangs
“Available travel bed seat”
It’s either one or the other, but not both simultaneously!
With regards to the name, perhaps they meant it in a “rally the troops (kids) and get ’em in the van and off to school/game/recital” kinda way?
If not, then yes, the name is stupid and inappropriate. But at least it went places to do things.
Perhaps a play on ‘bedsit’?
That is what I was thinking, a different connotation of rally than the race. Was the word rally used differently 40yrs ago? I’m old enough to know these vans but I was a youngster back then.
“…pretty much among the last sorts of vehicles you’d want to take on a rally.”
Unless it’s a political rally.
Or “The Gumball Rally”
https://www.imcdb.org/v013368.html
Then it’s perfect.
Pee bottles and 150 gallon fuel cell.
My family had a 1979 Chevy van when I was a teenager, and one of my biggest regrets in life is that I didn’t put a wing on it and paint it like the A-Team van.
I supose you could fit an entire motocross rally team, plus bikes in one.
I imagine if you asked someone in the 70s when GMC was starting with the name what “rally” meant with respect to cars, they’d say a wheel design before a championship race. Pontiac Safari wagons may not have been that well-suited for a safari either. GMC Safari moreso actually especially with AWD.
How did Plymouth get away with Rallye as a trim package on Voyagers then? I guess GM just cared that little about the name as they were about to switch to Savana, there was a year or maybe two of overlap when Plymouth started using it.
On the other hand – a Citroen DS Safari might have been fairly well suited to an African safari.
*lift suspension to full height*
This thing sounds like Ron Swanson came up with the ad.
“GMC Rally, it’s for going places and doing things. Possibly going to Food and Stuff.”
That was my first thought too, a very Swanson-esque statement.
Having owned multiple “Quick-Fill” fuel fillers, I can confirm that it’s a full-size, unrestricted filler opening connected to large-diameter tubing. Completely open, no flapper. Quite useful for diesels as you can use semi pumps. Not sure why you’d want one on a gasoline rig, though…
What about GM’s use of “Rallye” for various questionable performance stuff?
I’ve always liked its kinda but not really feel, something that both sounds a little cool but also makes the lawyers happy.
Hear me out:
Put a spoiler on the back of an all black one. Paint the spoiler red. Add a red stripe following the angle of the spoiler down the side until grill height and then have it go all the way to the front.
Sounds like a rally vehicle to me. Oh, wait, we can call the driving team the A-Team. That has a nice ring to it.
I love it when a plan comes together.
I pity the fool who thinks this is a bad idea!
That’s a very distinctive design. It would be good for everything but staying out of sight. Poor choice for anyone wanted by the government.
I need some comparison pictures of the diesel grille v the gasoline grille. And yes, I am too lazy to look it up on my own. Spoon feed me, dammit!
Topshot is the high-series gasoline grille, “Going places and doing things” shows the diesel version, also used on low-series gas vans but without the chrome surround molding.
The copy was basically saying that if you ordered your plushed-up (cloth seats! Door cards instead of bare metal!) Rally STX with the diesel engine you wouldn’t get the full-fat quad headlight deluxe grille, only the extra bit of chrome. I think the reason why might have to do with the turn signals on that blocking off a bit of airflow through the actual grille part.
Weird. Diesel trucks and suburbans got the same grilles as their gasoline counterparts. And that space behind the turn signals is blocked by sheet metal, not used for cooling anyway.
I suppose the vans could be different, but I’ve always assumed GM just borrowed the entire basic grille arrangement from the pickup line. The external differences are pretty minor.
Cold Start is extra fascinating today. Good job, Torch!
“It’s for going places and doing things.”
*sees illustration of travel bed*
Ah yes. I get it now. Things. *wink*
Username checks out.
The current GM full-size vans are the only passenger vehicles left without a screen.
Depends if the Slate makes it to market!
“By Grabthar’s Hammer, tough quality trucks with value.”
Never give up, never surrender.
Don’t do that. I’m not kidding.
Rally’s is also the name of a terrible fast food restaurant.
“Rally” can also be used to identify a gathering of people – a political rally, “rally the troops”, etc. – which I think is what the ad-writers meant.
The proud owner of An Van could rally eleven friends to go watch a rally event, but the Rally van would not be a rally vehicle per se.
If only it were sold in Scotland, the Clan Rally Van could have been the market leader instead of the Highlander.
Wait, what?
Well, it was sold in Alabama, where their clan rallies are spelled a little different.
And can certify that many red MAGA hats are worn when they are in daylight or public…
I sincerely wonder just what ‘high-mileage’ meant. 12 MPG with a stiff tailwind?
It means your brand new van came with 162k on the clock already.
62k since the odometer doesn’t go into the 6 figures.
That’s a weird term. I instinctively read it as “reliable” (ie, can handle high mileage)
Ok but it needs to be two-tone black and grey with a red stripe leading up to a roof mounted spoiler.
Pretty sure that was a Vandura, not a Rally.
Yeah, the windows ruin the paint job.
Is the 20 gallons a minute for the diesel version? That’s probably so you can use the pumps that are specifically for eighteen wheelers – I believe those pump very quickly.
“We made lunch in my
ChevyGMC Van, and that’s alright with me.”–Jimmy Johns