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Chris Hafner at Car Lust Blog comments on and links to suspiciousvans.com.
CLB is some of my favorite writing on autos. Its like these guy were inside myhead in the1980s & 1990s, car-wise.
http://www.carlustblog.com/2010/03/march-8-weekly-open-thread-suspicious-vans-edition.htmlWe tend to be van fans here in Car Lust country. I wrote a heated defense of minivans a few years ago in which I wrote that "popular culture is so anti-minivan today that driving one is so counter-culture, so in the face of popular biases, so keeping-it-real, that it's almost punk rock." A little later, as part of Inappropriately Named Chrysler Products week, I ran a piece both ridiculing and adoring the Dodge Sprinter. Cookie the Dog's Owner wrote a paean to his mini-mini-van Mazda 5, Big Chris and I debated the merits of the Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia, and David Drucker wrote a scorching piece titled, "A Minivan is Better Than What You're Driving." Someday, I'll get around to putting into print the Custom Van Lust piece that has been rattling around in my head for the last few years.
So, given all that, it was with more than a usual level of interest that I learned of SuspiciousVans.com, which features, well, vans that are suspicious. Vans, of course, have a reputation of being frequently involved in shady activities of all kinds, and SV's gallery of entertaining and unsettling images of incredibly creepy vans shows that this reputation is pretty well-founded. SV's mission statement:
"Leash your pets and small children; suspicious vans can be found in even the safest cities. From the rape-wagons to the intravenous-drug-use vans to the parked-out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-for-no-reason VW buses, this site is an ode of respect, fear, and appreciation for them all."That sounds like a worthy mission to me.
--Chris H.
