Skip to main content

Ratty Rescue: Green Work Machine

If you haven’t noticed, we’ve been pairing each week’s Find Of The Day with a matching Ratty Rescue. We try to find a lousy version of the nicer car that an enthusiast can fix up. But what do you couple with a Japanese faux Microbus? How about a European faux pickup truck? Well, it’s not a “real” pickup by American standards.

Volkswagen has sold work trucks since just about day one. A parts-delivery vehicle cobbled together from a Beetle chassis inspired the original Microbus. Myriad models spun off of the Type 2 platform including passenger vans, pickups, delivery vans, and even fire trucks. Volkswagen now has an entire commercial truck line offering buyers an array of models and body styles.

For a work truck, this 1992 DOKA (“doppelkabines”) is in decent condition. Like the old Rabbit-based Caddy pickups, it is front-wheel-drive. This DOKA has a 2.4 liter 5-cylinder diesel engine with 95,000 miles. While that might seem high, diesel engines of this era are incredibly reliable. A number of key elements have been replaced on the engine, so there’s plenty of life left on the motor. The diesel engine is paired with a 5-speed manual transmission.

[See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com]

Outside the truck has some typical wear; dents, dings, and light rust on the frame and rocker panels. For a knock-around commercial truck, it’s not bad. There’s one larger dent on the top of the cab. It has all three flip-down bed panels (note the integrated step in the tailgate) and while worn, they all work properly. Have we mentioned that this DOKA is very, very green?

The interior is also in good shape. Check out the killer seat fabric; it’s straight out of the 90s. It’s not perfect, but work crews are probably tough on vinyl seats. Even jauntily striped ones. It has a Clarion head unit that “works when it wants to.

It’s interesting to note that commercial trucks like this are just now catching on in America. Ford, Dodge (sorry, RAM), and Nissan are now offering front-wheel-drive work vehicles. But by American standards, this German truck will never be a “real” pickup. Front-wheel-drive? Five-cylinder engine? Flip-down bed panels? It’s all too strange by our standards.

So if you’re confident to rock a faux pickup, check out the eBay listing. Current bid: $9,084 and the reserve has not been met. Or you can buy it now for $11,995. This green machine is in Northampton, PA.

The post Ratty Rescue: Green Work Machine appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex https://ift.tt/2QrC3kP
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

Macau Gets Messy with 16-Car Pileup

The Macau Grand Prix is always good for an accident or two or 16— you may remember Audi’s race ending crash last year —and this year’s event didn’t disappoint. It didn’t take long for things to get messy on the tight road circuit. On the opening lap of the qualifying race a 16-car pileup caused the race to be suspended. Things kicked off when Daniel Juncadella hit a wall on the exit of Police bend, one of the tightest parts of the already tight circuit. The following car of Raffaele Marciello was able to avoid the carnage, but Laurens Vanthoor, who was in the upside-down Audi that ended the race last year, could not avoid Juncadella and together they blocked up the road pretty much completely. “I couldn’t see him [Juncadella] at first. Then I saw the car standing still,” Vanthoor told Motorsport. “I tried to brake but it was just understeering and I couldn’t do anything. There’s room for one car there and you’re blind.” Fourteen more cars would eventually crash into the corner c
Post a Comment
Read more

The First of its Kind: Integrated Engineering Releases Highly-Anticipated IE450T MK6 Golf R Turbo Kit

After two long years of development, the team at Integrated Engineering has finally announced the release of their IE450T kit for the MK6 Golf R. With their turbo kit bolted on right out of the box, the sport AWD hatch is transformed into a 450bhp monster, with hardly any noticeable increase in spool time. In fact, 435 ft-lbs of torque are achieved at all four wheels, at a mere 3300rpm! By now you are probably asking yourself how this is even possible on a 2.0L engine that made nearly half that power from the factory. By employing true twin-scroll technology into the cast turbo manifold and pairing it with a state-of-the-art BorgWarner EFR turbocharger, IE was able to keep spool time at a minimum and bring the fastest-spooling big turbo setup to the market. “We wanted to offer a kit that would dramatically increase the power output without making the car lose its amazing street-friendly drivability,” mentioned one of the IE engineers. We are told the IE450T leaves the car driving jus
Post a Comment
Read more