Home » This Turbo Porsche Minivan That I Just Designed Would Have Been Perfect For ’80s Greed-Is-Good Families

This Turbo Porsche Minivan That I Just Designed Would Have Been Perfect For ’80s Greed-Is-Good Families

Porsche Turbo Van Ts
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There are people who fear flying sharks above all other imagined, non-existent things. The only reason that this tops their list is that they don’t know about the 1988 Porsche 967 Panorama Turbo van, a fictitious object that makes airborne Great Whites seem like one of David’s cats.

If you weren’t around in the late eighties, you probably can’t imagine how things like the TV show “Alf” and Moon Boots ever existed. You’d also find it hard to conceive how minivans were a market as hot as crossovers are today. The practicality of the concept was impossible to ignore by families, particularly those that had no interest in cars and just wanted the maximum amount of cargo and people-space in the most space and fuel-efficient package possible.

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Unlike sport utilities today, there were essentially no manufacturers offering performance-oriented minivans, unless you count examples with shiny wheels and dealer-added SPORT VAN stripes as valid enthusiast propositions. For example, you were not going to see a minivan on the floor of a Porsche dealership. Seriously, can you imagine what a German engineered, rear-engined flat six minivan would even look like?

Actually, you could imagine it quite easily. Honestly, there was much more precedent for a Porsche van than ever existed for the sedans and sport utility vehicles they make today. Except for the “six cylinder” part of that earlier description, Volkswagen had been building that exact machine for nearly forty years as Dr. Porsche’s own Type 2 “VW Bus”.

The “bus” was in its final days by the late eighties in the form of the T3/ Vanagon, really the only other vehicle on the U.S. market that shared the same drivetrain layout as the vaunted 911 (rear engine, rear-wheel drive).

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Launching a Porsche non-sports car actually would have made even more sense in the late eighties than it does today. Porsche was in the midst of a crisis then; sales went from 50,000 units in 1986 to a paltry 14,000 by 1993, a dramatic drop that nearly killed the company. The fact is, Porsche was turning into a boutique carmaker with nothing profitable to offer the masses. The company’s entry-level car during this time was a rehashed 924S which to many seemed like a poor value next to ever-improving Japanese things like a concurrent RX7 (or the later crypto-928 Nissan Z32 300ZX). The Boxster helped turn the tide for Porsche in the nineties, the best-selling Cayenne really cemented their return, but could a minivan have turned it sooner?

Just like the Touareg begat the Cayenne, the Vanagon could have been a good starting point for a Porsche van. Many enthusiasts have done engine swaps on Vanagons by putting in six-cylinder motors from Porsches (or even from other manufacturers, most commonly flatties from Subaru). Oftentimes these owners add Porsche wheels to their builds to take them up a notch. Porsche themselves have made such concoctions, include this white one in the images below that was up for sale a little while back which they’d constructed to chase 959s or other machines back in the day which a standard van would have been hard pressed to keep up with (and supposedly made seven copies of at around $150,000 a piece). However, I wanted to see what it would look like if the VW Group went all-out on making the performance minivan of their dreams, or more like nightmares.

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To turn a Vanagon into a 1988 Porsche Panorama, we start by adding the air cooled 3.2 liter six in the back of our Vanagon, hooked up to a five speed manual transmission (Tiptronic might be available after launch). That would be nice, but not scary. For that, Porsche would also offer the ultimate family hauler (and we mean hauler): the Turbo Panorama.

Taken right out of the fabled 930, the flat six in this monster would be bored out slightly and have the KK&K blower (talk about a turbocharger company that needs to change their name NOW) to pump power up the 290HP for some serious people moving energy. Also, I think (beefed up) Syncro all wheel drive might be a must for winter driving or even just balancing power delivery out somewhat to help in the end-swapping-resistance department (I know it will be a deathtrap but I’d rather it not be THAT much of a death trap). The high center of gravity could be offset by the time-honored engineering trick called “making the damn thing wider”. Huge 245/45R16 back tires on signature Fuchs rims and wide rear track will also help to keep the tail from switching places with the nose. Steering, suspension, and brakes will all get the Porsche treatment in an effort to make this thing about as far from a Dodge Caravan (or stock Vanagon) as possible.

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Outside, old 928-style light clusters for fog and driving lights sit where the original Vanagon turn signals lived, and covered headlamps mean that the low, squinting, menacing “eyes” will signal other motorists to get the Hell out of your family’s way. Blacked-out side window pillars clean up the greenhouse. I’m also thinking that the sound and feel of a sliding side door is just too much of a juxtaposition for a performance machine, so there will be hinged rear doors (with roll down windows) on either side of the van, like on a first gen Mazda MPV and not unlike on the VW Transporter “Doka” crew cab pickup truck. A smooth, body colored lower body is flared to accept the bigger tires; extra engine cooling intakes feed the beast below (including the intercooler which is mounted vertically next to the cargo area and unfortunately encroaching slightly on the luggage space of Turbo models).

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The round headlamp covers move out of the way to allow 911 style headlamp units to protrude, or they could rotate around 180 degrees:

Headlights

This thing looks serious. This thing WOULD have been serious. In the rear, a Porsche has to have a “Heckblende” with a giant script on it, and our van moves the license plate up into the tailgate. The oil filler and dipstick would be in the door jamb, not behind a flip-down license plate as on the Vanagon where more than one full-service gas station was known to accidentally pump fuel into the crankcase. The overall look in back (and front) ended up surprisingly and unintentionally like the late and unlamented VW 412 wagon. Still, the Type 4 is right there in the VW Group family (and where the late Bus/Vanagon got its motor from anyway):

Back 4

The Vanagon interior would get spiced up with a new dashboard featuring the iconic five-circle Porsche cluster. There’s a center console for the shifter that would make it impossible to walk into the back of the van from the front seat but this is NOT that kind of van.

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The console also features controls for the air conditioning system, a car phone, and the Syncro pictogram display for the all wheel drive system. There’s also a place for a CD player unit to complement the eye-wateringly-expensive Blaupunkt Berlin stereo system (which, based on most old German cars I’ve driven, likely sounded worse than a Kraco head unit with Sparkomatic speakers from K Mart). That Berlin had the later version of the “controls on a stick” design:

Blaupunkt
Blaupunkt

Porsche 911 seats are used in the first and second rows, while the third row is upholstered to look similar. Door panels also emulate Porsche sports cars. True gangstas would choose four or six optional Recaro seats and an available Blaupunkt television to live between the seats (but six Recaros would mean that if Beau came along for a ride in a dilapidated thirty-year-old example found on Cars & Bids today, there’d be no room once David, Jason, Mercedes, Matt, Patrick, and Thomas were seated).

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Vanagons with air conditioning used a T-shaped overhead console for the vents which we’ll spruce up more with overhead reading lamps and aircraft-style FASTEN SEAT BELT warning lights. Believe me, you sure as shit better buckle up.

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Now, the Vanagon was never exactly cheap, so clearly the Porsche Panorama would cost a pretty penny. I’m imagining around a $45,000 entry fee for the base model with a normally aspirated Carrera motor, rear drive only, slightly-less-flared fenders (or no flaring at all), and perforated vinyl seats. I even thought about a bored-out or turbocharged four-cylinder Panorama model to start out the lineup but I’m afraid that would be too much like the slow, very early V6 Cayennes that end up on “worst Porsche” lists.

The Turbo model would sell for nearly twice as much; if that means around a hundred grand in 1988 then that’s about $250K in today’s money — right up there where the top-level Cayennes are sitting. Also, the only possible competitor for this thing in period, the AMG Mercedes ‘Hammer’ V8 wagon, cost even more and wouldn’t have offered nearly as much interior space (and it had merely a joke rear-facing fold-up third row).

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You’re a stockbroker with three kids that survived the 1987 crash and are still going strong? What are you gonna buy as a family car? A Chrysler Town and Country or a Toyota ‘Monorail’ van? I think not. Also, considering that the Volkswagen group ultimately sold a Chrysler minivan under their own brand, I think that upgrading a VW to a Porsche hardly counts as a travesty. Ultimately though, the idea of an overpowered Volkswagen bus for the price of a Mercedes is absurd. A tall loaf of bread with a sports car engine seems to be a recipe for disaster, regardless of the amount of German engineering behind it. If I had the means to buy a fancy family transporter at the time, I’d obviously never, ever buy a Porsche Panorama van like the one in the image below.

No, I’d get a Metallic Graphite Black one instead, right? I’m not stupid.

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1988 Porsche Panorama Turbo

Description:
4 Door, 7 Passenger, Rear-Engined, All Wheel Drive Minivan

Base Price: $89,765
As Shown:
$98,458

Options On Photo Car:
upgrade Blaupunkt Berlin IQR88 Stereo
Blaupunkt Compact Disc Player
Cellular Phone
Hard-wired Escort Radar Detector
Finish-to-Sample Metallic Blue Paint

Drivetrain:
3480cc air cooled turbocharged flat 6 cylinder 290HP
Getrag 5 speed manual transmission

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Chassis:
Independent front and rear suspension- coil springs
Front disc/rear disc brakes
Rack and pinion steering

Performance:
0-60:  6.3 seconds
Top speed: 137 MPH

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David Hamilton
David Hamilton
5 months ago

Something that I think is left out of consideration too often for “rear engined” vehicles is the center driving position. I think, especially given that this is a van with three rows, it’d be a prime opportunity to place the driver in the middle.

Not only is it the optimal driving position, but it’d give more room for a sort of “battleship bridge” experience for the driver, not to mention space for crumple zones/crash structures and other safety-enhancing stuff like a some HUGE airbags to encase the driver in the event of a front-on or offset collision.

After all, the easiest way to get a cabover approved for crash safety is to make it slightly less of a cabover in whatever way you can.

Oh, one more thing I’d add, much like you guys had in another concept van: A ragtop or some kind of huge multi-sunroof system like the Scion tC.

Unclesam
Unclesam
1 year ago

More of this sort of thing.

Derek van Veen
Derek van Veen
1 year ago

I love this entirely too much. Needs to come in green, brown, and orange colors as well. I’d probably want the non-turbo version (fuel economy, general risk-aversion on my part), but I love how you pulled elements from the entire VW/Porsche family tree for this (including the 411/412 rear light clusters).

Well done!

Derek van Veen
Derek van Veen
1 year ago
Reply to  Derek van Veen

Oh, and just to complete the VW 411 to Porsche 911 handshake:

https://www.facebook.com/VwPorsche612Rs/

Glutton for Piëch
Glutton for Piëch
1 year ago

I stg if I had fk you money, I’d build half of the cars you dream up, some because they just should have existed (this) and some because the absurdity would just be hilarious. I’ve always wanted to throw a pcar engine in a bus, just didn’t realize it was a Vanagon. well done, as always, but as was said before needs whale tail somehow.

Zeppelopod
Zeppelopod
1 year ago

I was wondering where Stef Schrader was, but now I realize she’s busy installing a tesseract generator in her 944 to bring one of these back from the reality where it exists.

Church
Church
1 year ago

Is that price adjusted for inflation because if that’s 1987 dollars, holy crap!

Also, and this is my only note (well done!), in true Porsche fashion, the last row of seating should have zero leg room.

Flatisflat
Flatisflat
1 year ago

I cannot properly elucidate my anger toward the fact that this vehicle wasn’t actually put into production.

Torque
Torque
1 year ago
Reply to  Flatisflat

I 100% agree I’d love it if this had been made; in reality? Porsche would have likely sold dozens, so the ‘fair’ option is for the enthusiasts to build their own.
Richard from Electric Classic Cars built out a cracking 4 door vw type 3 pickup ev, frankly looked more fun & interesting than the RT1

Silent But Deadly
Silent But Deadly
1 year ago

As someone who is considering the possibility of dropping a Porsche Boxster (or better still, Carrera 4) driveline in the back of my old T4 DOKA Syncro…this is in my wheelhouse.

Flatisflat
Flatisflat
1 year ago

Do it. As it will make your Suzuki semi-redundant and you will have no other option but to finally GIB. ;P

StillNotATony
StillNotATony
1 year ago

What?!? No whale tail? Is this the 80’s or is this the 80’s?

Marlin May
Marlin May
1 year ago
Reply to  The Bishop

Just imagine it surviving into the present and being handed over to Singer for an update.

MiniDave
MiniDave
1 year ago

Would this design pass current crash safety regulations?

MiniDave
MiniDave
1 year ago
Reply to  The Bishop

BTW, I like the little bell notifier at the top of the page – first time I’ve seen that!

86TVan
86TVan
1 year ago

The Toyota Van was your answer. We had an 86 LE in burnt sienna growing up (hence my handle). Sitting in the captain’s chairs, you could put your feet up on the engine hump (this thing had a mid-mounted inline 4…it was not fast but sooo nimble) or swivel around to face the rear bench. There were two sunroofs, the one in the rear was massive. And there was a mini fridge in the center console…and it made mini ice-cubes. Voyagers/Caravans could pound sand…this thing was the pinnacle of 80’s mini-vanning.

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
1 year ago

Nah wouldnt work. Sports vans, sports truck, sports wagons even speedy and well designed and attractive have never worked. This redesigned Eurodisney monorail car is neither. Best case build a Porsche Toy Hauler. Use it to haul around 911s and other Porsche racers. Then sell it as Team Porsche haul your team around like we haul ours around. You get the Porsche cache because team. Otherwise fast van slow.

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
1 year ago
Reply to  The Bishop

My point exactly the van will only be a fast van. As a team hauler it is a member of team porsche. The 911 is the QB you need linemen even in soccer right? A lot of people identify with the support staff.

Theresatimetocomment
Theresatimetocomment
1 year ago
Reply to  The Bishop

Feral pigs are surprisingly fast, can turn on a dime, and are assholes. What’s not to love? A Porsche Van is spot on.

Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
1 year ago

This to thread has gotten boaring.

Zeppelopod
Zeppelopod
1 year ago
Reply to  Canopysaurus

Hardly, it’s aged like fine swine.

Torque
Torque
1 year ago
Reply to  The Bishop

There IS the fellow that built out a T1 as a track van & frequently (or used to) frequent the Ring.
If I remember the build, it was I think widened by 12″ to better fit the particular 911 running gear he had selected, overall nicely done!

Phuzz
Phuzz
1 year ago
Reply to  Mr Sarcastic

Counterpoint: These days Porsche are basically an SUV company, with a sideline in sportscars. Just because an expensive ‘Sportsvan’ makes no sense, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have sold like gangbusters.

Iain Tunmore
Iain Tunmore
1 year ago

I love this and the B32 would be a lottery win purchase if I could find one.
We are in the process of fitting a new engine into our T25/Vanagon panel van after the old Wasserboxer died last month.

I really liked the Porsche Rennsport ID Buzz derived concept shown last year too, I’m sure that and a T25 derived 80s equivalent would sell well.

Jakob K's Garage
Jakob K's Garage
1 year ago

Looks like the Skoda van from last century.

Tim Beamer
Tim Beamer
1 year ago

You were just born too late. Between this and your AMC send-ups, the automotive industry could have really used your talents in the ’80s and ’90s.

Howard Rieter
Howard Rieter
1 year ago

Wow.
As one who just sadly sent our 05 Sienna to pasture, if i had the cash I would buy one of these now. Minivans are so sadly underrated.

Fire Ball
Fire Ball
1 year ago

How is this not named the Carreravan?

Beer-light Guidance
Beer-light Guidance
1 year ago

Christ, you don’t need a quadraphonic Blaupunkt! What you need is a curveball!

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
1 year ago

I was so into it until you flipped up the headlights and it said Der Hurr.

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
1 year ago
Reply to  The Bishop

I’m ok with the 928. I think it’s the combination of overbite and missing teeth.

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
1 year ago
Reply to  The Bishop

I didn’t mean to bash your otherwise exemplary design, I just saw what I saw. Anthropomorphized expressions matter.

Taco Shackleford
Taco Shackleford
1 year ago

I wish this actually existed, but now I sadly live in a reality where it doesn’t. One of my favorite vans of all time is the mid engine supercharged Previa. This design dials that up to 11, and I’m all for it!

Lockleaf
Lockleaf
1 year ago

Somehow, this just vaulted to the top of the “best Bishop creations” list in my head. This thing is cool enough I kinda started pricing out what it would take to build one…

Torque
Torque
1 year ago
Reply to  Lockleaf

$30-100k easily & could just as easily go more; as is said in racing… ‘how fast do you want to spend?’
Wide range for how much work are you willing / able or willing to learn, to do yourself?

Lockleaf
Lockleaf
1 year ago
Reply to  Torque

Oh if were to take it on, I’d be doing every bit of it myself. Metalwork is my jam, and to cut costs from obscene down to just ridiculous I would do like the Bishop suggested, run a Subaru drivetrain for power.

Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
1 year ago

Just imagine the vacuum vortex trailing this thing. Cool look, regardless.

Robert M. Graham
Robert M. Graham
1 year ago
Robert M. Graham
Robert M. Graham
1 year ago
Reply to  The Bishop

Interesting … I actually looked for that … must have missed it. I was also thinking of the Golf with the 928 chassis. Had a custom wider windshield and looked like a Golf!

Howard Rieter
Howard Rieter
1 year ago

So glorious.

Adam Rice
Adam Rice
1 year ago

I would drive the hell out of one of these. And I don’t even have kids.

Tad Rivenbark
Tad Rivenbark
1 year ago

“Also, the only possible competitor for this thing in period, the AMG Mercedes ‘Hammer’ V8 wagon, cost even more and wouldn’t have offered nearly as much interior space (and it had merely a joke rear-facing fold-up third row).”

Bite your tongue. The tailgunner rear seats in old wagons were awesome.

Howard Rieter
Howard Rieter
1 year ago
Reply to  The Bishop

We had a 70 Chrysler Town & Country wagon and since my sisters would take up both rear seats, I usually sat in the space between the 2nd and 3rd row.

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