>Hi all,
>
>I was in Santa Cruz, CA this morning and noticed this very nice little
>Mitsubishi camper van.
>http://www.mindspring.com/~chrisrgroups/mitsuwesty.html
>
>Basically, it is equivalent to a Syncro Westy with, of course, a 2.5 TD.
>These Swiss folks, Markus and Christina, are on a year long trek that
>started in Salt Lake city (they shipped their van from Hamburg and had it
>drive by friends to SLC).  They'll be in San Filipe, Baja Mexico, for
>Christmas (lucky them) and don't plan to put their vehicle back on a boat
>home for 10 more months!
>
>Wish them luck, and Feliz Navidad all...

That's a second-generation Delica 4WD. As you can see, it's a fairly
serious offroader, unlike other 4WD vans.

I have driven these extensively. on dirt roads the tailgates leak
copious dust because there is an opening in the latch mechanism which
channels dust into the door,m and the trim panel is not designed to
seal (a Hiace, in contrast, has a closed latch mechanism, with no way
for dust to enter the doorskin).

The 4WD is short-wheelbase-only, and is intermediate in size between
a Liteace and SWB Hiace. The gas engine is 2.4 EFI and can reach
165kmh; unlike many Mitsubishi engines, the gas 2.4 appears not to
suffer from premature bore wear. The diesels however are notorious
grenades, even without turbos.

The 2nd-gen Delica diesel is normally a 2.7, the 2.5 having been
offered with the boxy 1st-gen (which I believe was sold in the US in
the 80s, and resembles the T3 quite a bit).

The 3rd-gen is more of a high-roof wagon than a van, with a high
floor and low roof and front-engine rendering its cargo volume
extremely small... hence its lack of popularity here in NZ as a van,
though quite a few peoplemover variants are around (which proves that
you can sell ANYTHING).
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut

HUMANITY: THE ULTIMATE VON NEUMANN MACHINE

DEMOCRACY: RULE BY THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR