For a Toyota to qualify for Project Car Hell, it must be rusty, rare, and packed with impossible-to-find options. We've found all three with this 1989 Toyota 4x4 van (go here if the ad disappears), which has some body rot (in a refreshing display of honesty, the seller sums it up in a single word: "Rusty") and the super-rare-in-North-America 4x4 drivetrain option. There's an assortment of minor (you hope) repairs to do, and it's nearly certain possible that the overheating problem will be tougher to remedy than the seller implies, but it's a Toyota! That means you can't just get it back to factory condition. No, you need to make it into a high-powered, mud-slinging, mountain-climbing beast, just the thing to help you flee the burning cities of the Financiapocalypse in style! For that, you'll be exploring the power-handling ability of the drivetrain's components by bolting on a supercharger (preferably with air intake inside the passenger compartment, for added ventilation), then adding some gun racks and maybe a still. Hey, you'll need to be able to produce "whiskey" from fermented possum innards, once you've reached your compound in the mountains/desert/bombed-out industrial park, because barter will be king in the post-Financiapocalypse world.

Let's say society holds together just well enough to provide for a veneer of civilization, yet without the steady jobs and stuff of the pre-Financiapocalypse world- what then? You need to be ready to make money street racing! You see, the legions of the unemployed will need entertainment, and what's more entertaining than no-guardrails racin' action down Main Street, with paid-off cops refereeing and wheelbarrows of worthless fiat currency changing hands with each match? In order to roam from town to town, fleecing the locals like those guys in the '55 Chevy in Two Lane Blacktop, you'll need a serious sleeper to race… and you can't get much more soporific than a Chrysler minivan. We all know that you can get 12-second quarter-mile times just by going crazy with the boost in a turbocharged Voyager or Caravan, but they're a little hard to find these days. However, we're on the case, and we've found this 1989 Caravan Turbo for you (go here if the ad disappears). The price? A mere 400 bucks! It's an automatic, but you can get a 5-speed in one (preferably the nice Getrag out of a late Shelby Mopar)… but first you need to put it back together. You see, the seller alleges that it was running when he or she pulled the engine and transmission a while back. You might wonder why you'd want to remove the engine from a perfectly good runner, but sometimes you just get bored- next thing you know, the engine's on the driveway! Get it back together, add insane boost levels, and you'll be ready to take the money of those Camaro-drivin' suckas!

10.) Honda Odyssey

Despite the epic name, the Honda Odyssey has never suffered from the sort of pretensions which led unlucky Greeks to fits of eye-gouging. The original model was heralded in the press and among consumers for its car-like handling, attributable to the Honda Accord platform which underpinned it. What it gained in nimbleness it gave up in space and sliding doors, limiting its appeal to a narrow segment of buyers. Successive generations of Odysseys have corrected these problems while still retaining much of the first generation's charm, though we agree with karan1003: the original is still the best.

9.) Toyota Previa S/C All-Trac

In 1991, the Toyota Previa looked like the future driving down the street on its way to soccer practice or a flute recital. Boys were quickly jealous of any flautist carted around in the unique minivan. The novel profile is a result of the Toyota's mid-engine design, which placed the four-cylinder engine practically underneath the driver's feat. While this provided an attractive shape, it limited engine size. The solution? Toyota applied a supercharger with an air-to-air intercooler, pumping power up to 160 horsepower. For wintry climates the All-Trac model was offered, meaning a few lucky souls had a supercharged and intercooled AWD minivan to taunt grzydj with. They're even driftable.

8.) Ford S-Max

We may have envisioned the original minivan, but our hats go off to the Europeans for adapting the model to create gorgeous MPVs like the Ford S-Max. Built on a platform shared with Volvo, the S-Max is one of the best examples of Ford's "kinetic" design language. The stylish MPV comfortably seats five adults and two children in a car with a footprint small enough to weave through narrow Belgian streets. Commenter layabout is happy they're available on his side of the pond and we're looking forward to the possibility of Ford selling them here. Dare to dream.

7.) Toyota Van

Prior to the Previa, Toyota's minivan offered a unique drivetrain configuration, dual sunroofs, digital clock and small refrigerator large enough to hold a six-pack of soda. All it lacked was a proper name. The van, offered between 1984 and 1989, was simply called the "Toyota Van" in the United States. These three-door minivans are still a popular choice for campers, especially the four-wheel drive models produced in the last two years of the five-year model run. The cargo versions, though rarer, still see service. We bet DBD could make a new life in one should the economy continue to tank. [Photo: http://www.toyoland.com/trucks/minivans.html]

6.) Oldsmobile Silhouette

GM was, typically, late to the minivan party. It took until 1989 for them to offer a full-fledged minivan in the form of the U-platform Pontiac Trans Sport/Chevy Lumina and Oldsmobile Silhouette. With its long sloping plastic-roofed greenhouse the Silhouette was always are favorite version. It was like a German expressionist nightmare of the future. The strange minivan offered numerous unique-for-the-time features including reconfigurable seats, air hose kit and the first remote-controlled power sliding door. Chrysler famously made fun of the minivan's appearance in an advertisement, which may have encouraged GM to design the next generation with the least amount of style as possible. Thanks to the plastic body panels and resilient 3800-series engine, there are still a few running versions out there haunting AndyMarkel.

5.) Ford SHOStar

Sadly, some of the best minivans are the ones we'll never be able to drive. The SHOstar was a concept car developed by Ford to test some alternative uses for their Yamaha V6 and, possibly, to test the waters for a performance minivan. Ford engineers directly transplanted the 220 hp V6 and five-speed gearbox out of the 1989 Taurus SHO into a second-generation Ford Windstar. Other touches include a tasteful body kit and what maxforrest32 will likely agree is a not-quite-tasteful backlit blue oval logo. Though it never saw production, the SHOstar is one of the hottest and strangest Ford concepts in recent memory. [Photo: DadyTypes[

4.) Mazda Mazda5

The Mazda5 is what you'd get if you tried to turn the Mazda3 into a minivan. Literally. Built on the same platform, Mazda3 + two sliding doors = Mazda5. It's a winning equation as the Mazda5 is one of the few minivans available with a manual transmission and the only modern minivan we'd be excited about driving. It not only outruns a Caravan at a stoplight, it bests it at the pump. As with PeterSternCan, our only complaint is we can't buy aMazdaspeed version. Hear that Mazda?

3.) Renault Espace F1

What kind of lunatics drop a formula one engine into a minivan? French lunatics! The Renault Espace F1 was designed to celebrate both the company's ten years of the Espace minivan and the company's participation in formula one. Possibly in order to save money, the two ideas were combined and you suddenly had a V10-powered minivan paired with a six-speed transmission capable of reaching 60 mph in 2.8 seconds with a top speed of 194 mph. With this van Device's kids will never have the desire to ask "are we there yet?" [Photo: F1Fantatic]

2.) Turbo Dodge Caravan

Of all the Chrysler Minivans built, the Dodge Caravan Turbos of the late 1980s are perhaps the most coveted. Designed as a temporary move until V6 engines were available, they're sleepers in the truest form. If you were lucky enough to buy one with a stick shift you'd be sitting on a collector's item. Though the non-intercooled turbochaged vans aren't known for their reliability, with a little tuning they can do a 12-second quarter mile, a feat unrivaled by most vehicles with wood paneling. WheatKing fantasizes about smoking kids in Civics with one of these bad boys. [Photo and info: TurboVan]

1.) Ford Supervan

There have been three generations of the Ford Supervan, each more ridiculous than the last. Though the first generation is only sort of a minivan, the GT40-sourced V8 makes us forget the distinctions. The second generation was upgraded with a Ford-Cosworth F1 engine mounted below the rear cargo floor. The final generation now features a Cosworth V8 crammed into a European Ford Transit package. The retro paint job and commitment to insanity make this van a rolling classic to people like RacerX [Photo: NSVA]

Follow along with the rest of our Maximum Minivan Day coverage!

What is the age cutoff for DOTS? While it may not be old, it deserves a look for sheer lost-a-bet-in-the-womb homleyness.

I spotted this odd creature in the wilds of Austin Texas today, and I'm thinking third generation Nissan Tsuru, wagon, manufactured in Mexico, of course. I've never even seen one in Mexico. Note the Texas plates, so someone loved this little monster enough to import the thing.

Points for the Pomegranate orange paintjob and the 'Fear This' sticker right above the Department of Public Safety (Texas State Police) booster sticker.

I'm thinking repainted white with a 2.0 L SR20DE I4 engine, lowered 2' on 17''s, a surfboard permanently attached to the roof, with a girl you met last night in the passenger seat and a bag of mescaline in the center console.

What is about a best friend's older sister young teenage boys find so alluring? They have the same acne, dental hardware and awkwardness. There's just something magical about those two years of separation. Her name was Deborah (maybe) and she had our number. What she lacked in grace or physical beauty she more than made up for with the possession of a driver's license. One afternoon while playing N64 with her brother and friends she singled me out to take the family's Caravan for a pizza run. Just me. Already focused on the video game an unable to divide my attention I shrugged off the request. She asked again. She need my help, and only my help, to gather the pizzas. Whether her request was out of pure boredom or a lingering attraction I'll never know — because I decided to stay behind and play Golden Eye. It wasn't until later someone else at the party pointed out my mistake, sympathetically explaining to me "she totally wanted to bone, dude."

I doubt she actually wanted to do more than kiss in the sloppy and overenthusiastic manner most teens engage in, but the memory of my blown opportunity haunted me. I'd actually forgotten about the experience until I came across her performing in a Rocky Horror Picture Show tribute group in college. All of a sudden I realized I maybe dodged a bullet. Of course, this realization didn't save me from the awkwardness of having Deborah try and do all of her dancing right next to me and my new girlfriend.

(QOTD is your chance to answer the day's most pressing automotive questions and experience the opinions of the insightful insiders, practicing pundits and gleeful gearheads that make up the Jalopnik commentariat. If you've got a suggestion for a good "Question Of The Day" send an email to tips at jalopnik dot com.)

You think an 18-year-old minivan doesn't qualify for this series? Sure, I could have shot any number of mid-80s examples, but come on- look at the patina! This van has been taking a beating ever since Saddam Hussein crossed the line in the sand.


Also, it's clearly a parts runner for the primered Hell Project Alfa in the driveway. One of the side windows is a duct-tape/garbage bag combo, and some of the other windows are left open 24/7, rain or shine.


You could get a 100-horse 2.5 inline four in '90, but the emblems on this one indicate that the Mitsubishi 3.0 or 3.5 liter V6 (packing 142 or 150 horsepower, respectively) motivates this Alfa-parts-haulin' machine. And, yes, that's an early-60s Impala in the driveway next door.

There's something to be said for the 1989 Turbo Dodge Caravan SE, with woodgrain or without, which combines the comfort of a van with the fun of forced induction. The turbocharged Caravan was only available for two years and is now considered a collectors item. Even rarer, you can get a 1990 Caravan with the 150 hp turbo 2.5-liter fourbanger and a five-speed transmission. Anyone in Vegas can pick up this one for just $400.

(QOTD is your chance to answer the day's most pressing automotive questions and experience the opinions of the insightful insiders, practicing pundits and gleeful gearheads that make up the Jalopnik commentariat. If you've got a suggestion for a good "Question Of The Day" send an email to tips at jalopnik dot com.)

[Photo: CarDomain user Nicholas