Whilst most of
the world spends its time souping up flash, curvaceous cars adding in body kits
and ridiculous spoilers, painting in crazy colours and dousing it in more neon
than the Vegas strip; we tend to forget about the modifications enthusiasts
everywhere are making to vans. Whilst the hobby is much smaller than the
bustling, community-encumbered world of car modding, there is plenty to be said
for the wild modifications the Japanese have been adding, and better than
simple modifications, what about the world’s most luxurious van, drowned in the
latest tech and made to feel like you’re flying in 1st class. We explore all
these in this very blog post!
But of course, you say ‘modded vehicle’ to anyone and the normal image immediately conjured is a rather masculine world of huge subwoofers, impossibly shiny alloys and rims, aforementioned copious portions of neon, and all that suspension chopping that has you worrying if you’re about to go through the floor anytime speed picks up over 30mph. Things aren’t quite the same over in Japan however, as one quick glance in their direction on the subject and you’ll simply see, for the want of a better word, a collection of utter monstrosities. Loveable monstrosities, but monstrosities nonetheless.
Yes, opposite to the glitzy world of sublime, tiny and shapely supercars, the Japanese simply append huge juttering kits to their vans that add superfluous wings and bonnets and platforms and general plastic accessories that look utterly insane, naturally.
And there’d be no point having a vehicle quite as brash and overtly appendaged if it didn’t have a colour scheme to match. From giant solid Lego-style colours, to deep metallic paint jobs, the colour is really just the beginning for these mad-machines as many are often painted with huge effigies of cartoon characters, pop stars, and other gloriously detailed designs.
Back
home then, and leaving behind the wacky tacky world of the hilarious, we go
right to the other end of the spectrum with this, the pinnacle in cutting edge
luxury.
The
JetVan, forged from the humble origins of a simple £30,000 Sprinter Van, is one
of the world’s most illustrious options for business men travelling in style.
The £280,000 finished article is a sight to behold, although certainly more so
from the inside.
Designed
to look and feel like traveling in a private jet, right down to backward facing
seats toward the front end, passengers are treated to a relaxingly smooth
journey in the chunky, cream comfy seats. The van is crammed full of technology
and features a 40” TV, a 1,300 watt surround system and a sprinkling of
marvellous extras. Displays in the arm feature controls for every aspect of the
vehicle’s inbuilt tech whilst a wired phone is tethered to the rightmost
pillar. The TV is used as a monitor for a computer, allowing the passenger to
surf the internet and continue business work whilst travelling.
With
its wood finishing, blacked out windows and supremely stately visual, there’s
little wonder the van has attracted customers including Tiger Woods, Denzel
Washington and Will Smith.
So
there we have it then, some of the craziest vans you’re ever likely to see. Who
knows what will come next in the world of luxury business class travel, or in
the unending Japanese universe of the wacky and wonderful.
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