In 1971, Ford revealed its first SuperVan and started a tradition of hot-rodded vans that continues to this day. Now that original SuperVan has been found and is undergoing restoration.

As explained in a Ford press release, the current caretaker of the original SuperVan has actually owned it twice. U.K. car collector Andy Browne knew the builder of the SuperVan, Terry Drury, and bought the van’s bare shell in 1973. Browne got the van roadworthy, but later had to sell it, only to track it down again decades later.

Drury’s Terry Drury Racing outfit combined the body of a Ford Transit Mk. 1—a van as ubiquitous in 1970s Britain as the Chevy Express is in the U.S. today—with the chassis of a Cooper Monaco race car. A V-8 from a Ford GT40 was mounted in the middle.

Once the van was done with its promotional tour, it went back to Terry Drury Racing, which stripped everything of value from the vehicle. Browne, who was then an apprentice at Ford, gradually rebuilt the SuperVan with some secondhand parts, and others fabricated at the automaker’s machine shops.

Browne installed a 4.7-liter V-8, had the van’s cracked magnesium wheels repaired, and somehow got the modified van—which had never been registered before—certified as a road-legal vehicle. However, other expenses forced him to sell the van in the later 1970s, after which he lost track of it.

Decades later, with more time and money available, Browne considered building a replica of the SuperVan. But then he was put in touch with the owner of the remains of the real thing, and has now begun what Ford calls a “sympathetic rebuild” using original components, but with some changes for usability.

Ford has since built three more SuperVans. The second version debuted in 1984 with a fiberglass body styled to look like the then-new Transit Mk. II and the 582-hp Cosworth V-8 from the Ford C100 race car. The third SuperVan, based on the Transit Mk. III, followed in 1994 with 641-hp Cosworth HB Formula 1 V-8.

In 2022, Ford unveiled an electric SuperVan, with four motors producing a combined 1,972 hp. That was later dialed down to 1,400 hp for the 2023 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, where driver Romain Dumas set an impressive time of 8:47.682. Dumas beat that time in 2024 with the Ford F-150 Lightning SuperTruck, which was designed with lessons learned from the electric SuperVan.