Redneck DoD

[Supercharged111]

It's a 7,000 lb brick with wheels. What aerodynamics?

Same reason your fuel economy is gonna suck no matter what.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

My best friend growing ups parents had a diesel Rabbit. All it did was blow smoke, no acceleration at all.

Yeah, my Father-in-Law bought a VW pickup with a diesel in it, maybe the same engine as the Rabbit? He did a lot of trips from our ranch in Oregon and the ones in Chowchilla CA. I rode with him one time, he'd be going ~65 MPH, when the A/C kicked on, all of a sudden we were doing ~55! It got ~50 MPG but, couldn't haul 10 boxes of baling wire without bottoming out. What a POS!

 

[L31MaxExpress]

It's a 7,000 lb brick with wheels. What aerodynamics?

I would say it likely has better aerodynamics than my 7,000 lbs brick on wheels. The suburban actually has better aerodynamics than a truck.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Same reason your fuel economy is gonna suck no matter what.

I have seen a 2500 4x4 suburban on 35s get over 20 mpg. It had a 4BT in it that was turned up a bit.

 

[Keeper]

My grandmother had a diesel olds. I remember riding in the backseat and she'd have it floored constantly. Austin has a couple serious hills and I remember it would just slow down going up hills and never accelerate or even maintain speed. It was actually dangerous. You'd be going 20-25 and everyone else was doing 55.

I had a maroon with white interior cutlass with the diesel. White interior was almost instantly gray. Loved the car, hated the motor, so I swapped in an interceptor motor. I let my sister take it to work, and forgot to tell her that the linkage didn't line up with the shifter. She put it in D and took off. She was actually in first gear. It made it a lot longer than I thought it could. The story that she tells now is an interesting insight to the female brain.... sure wish we had cellphones back then.

 

[RichLo]

You can put one of these air dams on it

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Road Trip]

Yeah, my Father-in-Law bought a VW pickup with a diesel in it, maybe the same engine as the Rabbit? He did a lot of trips from our ranch in Oregon and the ones in Chowchilla CA. I rode with him one time, he'd be going ~65 MPH, when the A/C kicked on, all of a sudden we were doing ~55! It got ~50 MPG but, couldn't haul 10 boxes of baling wire without bottoming out. What a POS!

@PlayingWithTBI,

Back when I was living in the mountains of VT and driving a series of "1 car payment / last owner" '78-'80 Fiestas,
there happened to be a handful of VW Rabbit pickups also still on the road, all in similar condition to my
well-worn rides.

You know what the cool thing was? As a group, they were pretty much the only other drivers that would dignify me
in my own angular sh!tbox du jour with a wave as we passed each other. Possibly they perceived a shared reverse snobbery?
Or that they were fellow fans of funky functionality?

Anyway, a couple were gas, and a couple were diesel. The diesel ones always had a 'darker around the edges' homegrown
sooty goth look to them. (Even before that word became part of the everyday vernacular.) And every time I saw one of those I
couldn't help but start thinking about what it would be like to stuff a VR6 in one of those, yet studiously maintain a
stock look?

Man, I'd love to find a barn find a diesel VW pickup with a 1/4" of dust on it for the right price. I'd immediately stuff a VR6
in it, and it would become my DD. And of course keep the 8-lugger C2500 big block. Nothing like having a couple of bookends
like that in the old truck hobby. :0)

And of course in the perfect world the dust covered diesel could be lovingly wet-sanded and carefully buffed out in order to
bring it back to look something like this gem:

(photo credit: Hotcars.com article)

You must be registered for see images attach

Not so desirable with the original diesel -- but what a cool hauler this would be with a sharp VR6 under the bonnet.

My only fear is that with my warped sense of humor I couldn't help myself but to start finding perfectly Ridonkulus loads to
carry with it. (High volume/low weight) The visual shenanigans would be fun - I can see me driving around with a poker face
while wearing bib overalls and white hair flying in the breeze... (See attached.)

...apologies for getting a bit sideways on these old Rabbit pickups. With 20/20 hindsight, probably a good thing that I didn't
get to act on most of the things I used to carry around as (marginally justifiable) power/weight ratio thought experiments. :0)

Anyway, thanks for the diesel rabbit pickup comments -- they triggered a flood of fond memories of bombing around in the hills
of VT in 'cash on the barrel head' cars without a care in the world.

Cheers --

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

Not so desirable with the original diesel -- but what a cool hauler this would be with a sharp VR6 under the bonnet.

Not with the 1 piece body - not enough flex for any kind of a load.

 

[Road Trip]

Not with the 1 piece body - not enough flex for any kind of a load.

They claimed an 1100 lb payload? Seems a tad optimistic. And with a torquey
VR6, the front tire(s) would spin easily with any real load in the back. No doubt would
need to upgrade to a Quaife LSD in the front to help tame the predictable iffy
dynamics?

But it would literally haul the groceries. (Just gotta make sure to secure the load
so that it doesn't slide around and break the eggs in the turns. :0)

Best of all, if driven like an adult it would double the MPG of the big block? (25 MPG)
And given the light wt of the design (~1934 lb) you could probably touch 30 MPG
during a highway cruise even with the VR6. (The diesels got ~50 MPG.)

EDIT:
Even so, sometimes it's all about the payload vs the MPG. And that's why I'd keep the
8-lugger in reserve. Like Jethro Tull used to sing, sometimes you just need the Heavy Horses.

Dag...I haven't thought about one of these Rabbit pickups in years. Fun stuff.

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

I had an idea for OP. Delete the neutral safety switch and you can make your own Redneck Start/Stop too.