I have been driving to MTB races for 5 years now.  The first three in an 86 
toyota tercel the last 2 in an 87 syncro gl.  Both have their pros and cons.
Since it sounds like you are still considering what to get here are some 
observations...
Toyota pros:
 faster, better mpg, cheaper and easier to repair (no EFI or EXPEN$IVE 
parts), easier to drive
Toyota cons:
 not the cruising condo that my vanagon is, not the same coolness factor
Vanagon pros:
loads o' room one guy can sleep on a full size bed, while another is cooking 
breakfast on a coleman 2 burner, while the third drives and a fourth has Bud 
and cornflakes.  Also, the interior room allows one to lace, tension, true 
and dish a new rear wheel.
the Syncro mo-mo's thru snow, esp. with the diff. lock (all introduce more 
expense)
Vanagon cons:
expensive to maintain (check out the prices for a new exhaust, tranny, power 
steering pump, brakes, etc. etc.), kinda poor mpg, not to fast, especially 
loaded and up hill and more awareness is required to drive it, definetly not 
a plus when endorphined out after a nice painfully hard race.  Everyone 
knows you have the dream queen cruising machine (maybe named Pricilla, Queen 
of the Race Sceen) so your van will ALWAYS drive to the races.  But hey 
that's why you got it, right????  Plus if you have a girl friend along she's 
a far reach away across the cabin, unless the space between the seats is 
used instead <GRIN-SMIRK!>......but thats also where the cruising condo 
concept is nice.......

Geepers, from the above maybe I should sell my van and get an eagle talon.

                    Sacrilege

To load bikes, I put fork mounts (used front hubs held down with 'U' bolts) 
on a board across the sliding door opening and the bikes all just slot in 
nicely.  For multi person treks put bikes on top of van.  An idea that I 
have been toying with is to mount a yak rack for gutterless roof mount on 
the rear lid.  You'd have to remove the bikes to open the lid, but at least 
they'd be out of the direct wind (and resulting MPG reducing drag).  The yak 
mounts can accomodate non-parallel roof lines and the lines of the lid are 
curved.  Either that or put a trailer hitch on the van and put the bikes on 
a hitch mount rack.  Getting to bikes on the roof is a bit labor intensive 
and balancy.

|On Mon, 18 Dec 1995, Boudreau, Paul wrote:
|
|>
|> Mark,
|>
|> Thanks for the offer but I'm still unsure what I'm looking for. Right now 

|> I'm still trying to determine what exactly it is that I want/need (2WD,
|4WD,
|> Westie) to get me to mountain bike races in New England this coming 
summer
|> (loading up the '91 Golf can be quite the trick with  bikes, a passenger 
or
|> two, and misc bike and camping gear)!
|>
|A way to mount two bikes inside a Westie
|-get two fork mounts($30 each at a bike shop, or better, improvise) and
|attach them to the storage box
|face under the back seat.  Without the front wheels in place, this works
|pretty well for my Cannondale MT bike, but,of course only allows for two
|to three people to ride, and little movement in the cabin, ...but it's
|good for the bikes.
|-alternative is to put one mount on the box face below the back of the
|front passenger seat to put the bikes in alternating....
|
|Mark
|'85 Retrowestie
|