Sometimes when you’re poking around CraigsList ads for masochist-level nightmare projects, you stumble upon a perfect pairing of hellacious vehicles. While perusing the local Chicago ads for beater wagons, I happened upon a pair of perfectly matched terrible Yurpean (nee European) wagons of insanity-inducing doom. I wondered aloud what sad soul—myself included—would find it in their crispy, blackened hearts to spare these machines from the crusher.
On the one hand, there just aren’t very many extant Hillmans Huskys (Huskies?) like this ‘57 example. It really looks like someone chopped about four feet from a normal-sized wagon to create a British proto-Mini. Of course, Hillman was not part of British Leyland like Mini/AustinMoris were; it was instead part of the other British conglomerate of hammer-fixable hoopties, the Rootes Group.
Nevertheless, this Mark 1 Husky comes with original running gear, ostensibly a 1265 cc four-cylinder engine with a four-speed manual gearbox. But let’s be honest: If you’re buying this thing, you’re absolutely going to chop it up into a Ford Anglia-style gasser because this would be a rad wheelie machine.
Sure, the interior is a little…seasoned…but if you’re making a gasser, you’re going to be doing a bit of sheet metal work anyway. What could possibly go wrong with a $950 Husky?
On the flip side is this ‘73 Volkswagen Type 3/Squareback. Among wagons, this one is fairly unique in retaining the standard air-cooled VW layout with the engine behind the rear axle, accessible through a hatch in the cargo compartment’s floor.
Those rear-quarter vents aren’t just for show; that’s how that air-cooled engine gets its air for, you know, cooling. The seller claims the engine turns over, though the car hasn’t run for a couple decades. Knowing typical air-cooled Volkswagens, there’s a reasonably chance it might fire up with a solid knock from a dead-blow hammer so this could be a sweet deal for the air-cooled VW fan. The body’s seen some hard times, but replacement panels are included for the most-rotted ones, apparently. And for $1,000, it seems like it might be a fun time.
So if you had a grand lying around for a wagon, which would it be? Me, I’d take the Husky just for the sweet center-mounted speedometer.
Fit a Scooby WRX motor in the VW and slot an Ecoboost in the Husky. Upgrade the brakes and suspension but leave everything else as is to create a pair of ultimate sleepers!
How about “neither”? Both of those turds should be crushed.
Hillman by a long shot.