My take is that most owners wanted a Vanagon and didn’t realize how slow they truly are. 
I had an AC 81 Westy and rebuilt the engine, had the final adjustments done by a local VW shop with an emphasis on AC engines and they pronounced it as “having plenty of power”.
I excitedly jumped in and drove home figuring it would be markedly faster than my trip there. It wasn’t. 
On flat roads, it was fine. When there was a truck lane it was fine. 
On an uphill, limited visibility on-ramp, it was downright deadly.  A semi is not going to slow down, then here’s another one a few hundred feet later, you don’t have enough room to get in and get up to some sort of speed. 
I found in back roads, since every car has lots of power today, they have no idea why you are “choosing” to drive so slow. 
At one time you could buy a perfect AC Vanagon Westy for $6,500. And I mean really perfect-i knew of one that had over twice that money dumped into it, perhaps 3x, that was a candidate ripe for conversion. 
Still, I enjoyed rebuilding my engine, and they are simple and I know people who have them and love them. 
John