[Auto] This Van With Two Front Ends Is Real and It's Ingenious

[-Sn!PeR-]

 

If you’re confused, even troubled, take a breath. The double-ended van is real, and it’s actually brilliant—and we’ll explain. But take a moment to appreciate that with everything in the world going on right now, we can find whimsy even in something as banal as a clever way to package and ship two commercial vans to upfitters. Because that’s what’s going on here: the Citroën Relay Back-to-Back isn’t meant to stay stuck together in this ridiculous arrangement. It’s ridiculous. It’s clever. It’s very, very French. (Kind of; the van is actually a rebadged Fiat Ducato, which you might know as the Ram ProMaster, but that’s neither here nor there—or here-and-there-at-the-same-time.)

 

 

We’ve already hinted that the vans are intended to be split up, so why bolt them together in the first place? Our colleagues over at The Autopian did the sort of deep, nerdy research on the subject that we love, and they were equally surprised to learn that the Back-to-Back isn’t some radical new configuration. Fiat’s been doing this for decades, for the simple reason that it can. The Ducato and its badge-engineered variants over the years have benefitted from the packaging advantages of its front-wheel layout. And that means, when the vehicle is sold in a chassis-cab arrangement, there’s no rear axle or driveshaft to worry about. The stuff that drives the van is concentrated up front. All that needs to be out back is something to support the rear wheels, eventually. 

 

And that’s something that an upfitter can figure out. Fiat/Citroën/whoever can crank ‘em out of the factory with no back end at all, leaving stubby chassis rails poking out behind its single-cab body. And cleverly—very cleverly, we have to admit—Fiat decided to bolt another one right on there. Why not? Saves the effort and inefficiency that comes with some sort of temporary dolly that you’d have to build and then discard. Or building the entire rear subframe and suspension that the upfitter may or may not want, if it’s interested in stretching the wheelbase or something like that.

Upfitters doing any sort of volume likely appreciate the efficiency of buying a two-fer like this, too. It simplifies transportation—just drive it up onto the transporter. Which end? I dunno, whichever one happens to be pointed the right way. Unloading? Hop in the other one. The more we think about it, the more brilliant it becomes. 

 

 

The Citroën version, in the U.K. at least, is only offered with a 2.2-liter, 140 hp turbodiesel I-4 with a 6-speed manual transmission. Or rather, two of them. And it’s just as fast going forward as it is going in reverse. 

So there’s your weird van news for the day. You can return to your boring single-headed-vehicle programming now.

 

https://www.motortrend.com/news/citroen-relay-back-to-back-double-van-ram-promaster-upfitter-camper-chassis-cab/