After yesterday’s peek at the street/strip Astro van we thought we had found the pinnacle of mini-van bad-assery. By complete chance a couple of key strokes on RacingJunk.com netted us this find, a 1986 Dodge Caravan done in the classic Pro Street style, retina melting paint and all. The dirty little secret that this van is hiding lies beneath the hood…and halfway into the damned passeger compartment.
The van is powered by a 383ci SBC, not a Mopar mill that purists would love to see. Wait, are there actually Pro Street minivan purists? We hope not, but you get where we are going. The motor has a bumpstick from Comp, roller rockers, iron heads, a Scat crank, Eagle rods, and Keith Black pistons. It is a pretty standard and snappy mouse motor.
A Turbo 350 sends power back to a narrowed 10-bolt rear end (guess drag racing is out of the picture unless you feel like having a 9-inch on call!). Interestingly the van sports an “11 point” cage. There are no interior photos so, the elusive 11th point is anyone’s guess.
The motor is set way back, so the dog house inside the vanimal must be really pronounced. We’re literally dying for interior photos of this thing. The amount of tweed happening must be record setting. Anyone want to take a bet about some sort of logo being embroidered into the door panels? Anyone?
If we bought this van, the first thing to go would be the honkin’ PRO STREET sticker on the rear window. Pulling that off would totally upgrade this van into sleeper status, right? Hello?
RacingJunk Find: A Chevy Powered 1986 Dodge Caravan
Wow, that is very similar to a local van out here, even the colour is the same. The one out here is Mopar powered though with a 360 and also has a full cage in it.
Why?