RE: Driven: Ford Transit SuperSportVan

[stevenr]

Rotrax said:

Goodwood Festival of Speed regulars will know that Justin Law's XJ220 powered Trannie would blow this into the weeds.

Well yes i would hope an XJ220 powered van would.I don't think Ford had any intention of racing this new one against it though.

Although if you were to put the two of them on a short track with lots of tight bends i'd say the diesel would do rather well.

[rtz62]

Th phrase "like a rat with a gold tooth" comes to mind.
Sorry to any inhabitants of Essex who read this, but that's where this heap belongs.

[Notsofastfrank]

Great, soon to be seen 2 feet from the car in front on a motorway near you.

[crackthatoff]

i'll never be late for a job again... a roof rack full of carpets might add a bit of drag though !

[EDLT]

Deranged Granny said:

a) Wouldn't the camber mean the steering would be lighter as less of the the tyre is in contact with the road?
and b) Can anyone explain why axle-tramp occurs? Thanks.

Edited by Deranged Granny on Thursday 3rd May 21:50

I think it is the change of castor angle that makes the steering heavier, although I'm not sure why they would do it apart from to give the steering "more feel".

The axle tramp is due to the Transit's rear axle being located leaf springs so when accelerating hard the torque effect on the rear axle plus the rear end squatting under acceleration bends the springs into an S-shape causing the axle to bounce up and down.

[soad]

jbi said:

prefer fords effort for the american market TBH



365 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque

That's more like it.

[VictorMeldrew]

Nothing to see here, move along.

I can''t beleive it's 27 years ago when a mate of mine picked me up from Santa Pod in his RV8 powered Trannie after I grenaded the clutch on my [brand new] '85 GSXR750.

[garypotter]

Years ago a friend of mine bought an ex ford rally works team transit van which was powered with the granny 2.9 cossie engine, he said it was a special order for the team, he had no problem towing a car and trailot + spares, tolls, equipment etc

[grumpy52]

I sometimes drive one of two transits at work both loaned from fords both with 5cyl turbo D one 250bhp but has eco mode which must be set at all times. this is quite pleasant to drive but in E mode will not exceed 70mph the other has approx 300bhp this is mental and a pain in the ass to drive round town ! On the motorways in the wee small hours it is much fun.especially chasing boxters and scoobys.both vans are plain white and un-labelled both have no model tags just ford and transit badges.both drink like fishes at speed and both have traction control fitted which is wound up to the max.beleave me i have tried !.

[Forbes82]

I don't think its power lives up to its name. To anyone used to remotely nippy cars this will feel slow, and given the monster transits that have come before it just all seems rather tame.

[School boy]

The thing is this one is road legal and apart from wheels and probably suspension the mechanicals are off production transit's so it wouldn't be that difficult to produce these and it would be fairly practical.

[Chickentonight]

Feel slow? Really? With all that torque? Though I must say, bit sad that it isn't a V8

[sc4589]

I like that.

Might see if I can persuade the boss to drop some hard-earned on it. Good to see a moderately quick diesel van on the go... it's interesting to see Ford going a slightly different direction. Whereas the prior Supervans were nutter-bastid vehicles that you know you'd never see on the road, this actually has the potential to be released as a limited-edition, slightly quick van.

Good rival to the VW Transporter Sportline. I see plenty of those on the road, so there is potentially a market for such a machine.

[Kev T]

That's the engine out of the new Ranger 3.2.

[beetroute]

Ford has missed the most obvious performance ugrade with this as they still own the van.

Register it with a rental fleet instead - hire vans are always 20mph quicker than anything else ....

[dvs_dave]

soad said:

jbi said:

prefer fords effort for the american market TBH



365 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque

That's more like it.

A quick chip tune and it's up past 400 bhp and 500 lb-ft.

[cheddar]

Kev T said:

That's the engine out of the new Ranger 3.2.

Well spotted Kev.

Highly tunable unit too, gearbox is rated to 600lbft torque.

[djdestiny]

It's a disappointment compared to the old ones!

You can tell from some of the comments that some on here aren't familiar with the Supervan series....

[Boults]

SAW THIS ON THE MOTORWAY IN SWINDON ON SUNDAY