For the 1980s and into the 1990s, the vehicle of choice was the minivan. Thanks to the foresight of Lee Iacocca, the idea of shrinking down the cargo van into something the average family could use to shuttle around other people caught on like wildfire. Need lots of seats for lots of asses? You got it. Need a lot of covered room? Pull those seats out and boom, a rolling shed with license plates. It’s not hard to see why the general public loved these things…they are useful! But “cool”, they weren’t. You either saddled up to a front-driver that had all the sporting intentions of a well-worn pack mule, a rear-driver that was more truck than anything else, or you bought one of the all-wheel-drive variants hoping that those three letters meant that the AAA guy wouldn’t see your street-legal breadbox stuffed into the ditch when the snow started to fall.
The Chevrolet Astro and it’s GMC twin, the Safari, were well-liked over their run. Based on the S-10 platform, they could be anything from a bare-bones cargo van to a fully-decked out conversion van and everything else in between. It was only just slightly bigger than the typical “minivan”, but it was plenty capable. Towing was no problem with the 4.3L V6, but in the case of this 1992 Astro, the only thing being hauled is backside. Besides the LT1 swap that is providing a good kick in the back and the right exhaust note, you have an all-wheel-drive wonder wagon that has received the 1995 nose-job sheetmetal and a few custom touches that most shouldn’t have a problem with.
Where was this in the school parking lots when I was growing up?
I think it has a certain little bit of cool to it . It looks good , nice wheels, decent paint . Make a good second car or a work car . Hell , I would drive , and I have seen worse and owned and driven worse. It would be a bitch to work on though . Just my opinion .
I’d DD it. Although, I think that when it came time to work on it I’d farm it out or sell it. Can you imagine changing the plugs? My forearms are aching just thinking about it
I owned a 1999 Astro AWD. I really liked it for the most part. I’d probably still own it if I had swapped in a 4.8 or 5.3 LS. That would’ve fixed the thing I disliked most about it, the lack of power.
Did two of these swaps in the late 90`s.Start out easy but the details eat you up..Good 40 hour job.