Original Ford SuperVan powered by GT40 V-8 resurfaces [Video]

In 1971, Ford revealed its first SuperVan and started a tradition of hot-rodded vans that continues to this day. Now that original SuperVan has been found and is undergoing restoration.

As explained in a Ford press release, the current caretaker of the original SuperVan has actually owned it twice. U.K. car collector Andy Browne knew the builder of the SuperVan, Terry Drury, and bought the van’s bare shell in 1973. Browne got the van roadworthy, but later had to sell it, only to track it down again decades later.

Drury’s Terry Drury Racing outfit combined the body of a Ford Transit Mk. 1—a van as ubiquitous in 1970s Britain as the Chevy Express is in the U.S. today—with the chassis of a Cooper Monaco race car. A V-8 from a Ford GT40 was mounted in the middle.

Once the van was done with its promotional tour, it went back to …