Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Chrysler and Ford made forward-control vans, and so did GM.

Actually, GM made two different forward-control vans during the 1960s; first, there was the Corvair 95 (here's a DOTS example) from the 1961 through 1964 model years. The new G10 series half-ton Chevy van debuted in 1964, so there was a one-year period during which Chevy shoppers could choose a rear-engined/air-cooled van or a front-engined/water-cooled one. After that, the forward-control G reigned until 1970.


We've seen the Dodge version of this layout, but the only old-style Econoline in this series was a pickup version. I'll have to keep my eyes open for an early Econoline van.