When is a minivan not a minivan? When it accidentally becomes a sedan by welding two front halves together, back-to-back. That’s how Zach Sutton created “Bak2Bak,” reports the Detroit Free Press, a unique vehicle that’s so wrong, it’s right. “There is no reason to do this,” Sutton told the Detroit Free Press. “The only reason for this is to be silly and fun.”
Sutton and some friends built this two-faced travesty in just three days at i3Detroit, a community maker space in nearby Ferndale. The boxy design of these old Chrysler minivans lends itself well to this project, with no awkward curves that need to be blended together. The two donor vehicles were a 1993 Dodge Caravan and a 1991 Plymouth Grand Voyager, each purchased for a mere $1,500. (Such low prices for these minivans have been our experience as well.) Each end retains its original color and brand identity, making the subtle styling tweaks to differentiate the Dodge and the Plymouth more obvious and amusing.
The Dodge half still powers the car with its original 3.3-liter V6, which has traveled almost 200,000 miles. The Plymouth half brings up the rear, with a gas tank and a trunk area where its engine used to be. Its headlights are now red taillights. Sutton says the police haven’t bothered him and have only been positive about his creation. The rear half’s steering is normally locked out so it can drive straight down the road, but after releasing it with a switch labeled “Pull for a good time,” a rear-facing passenger can share steering duties with the driver, enabling a Hummer EV-like crabwalk mode and the tightest turning radius a Chrysler minivan has ever seen.
Dual citizenship
Sutton does more than just mash car parts together for fun. He’s an active participant in the Detroit Freakbike Experience, and has enjoyed building wacky pedal-powered creations for the event. He’s also one of us when it comes to cars, entering the Detroit Gambler 500 in cars like a Mercury Capri done up as RC Car from “Toy Story” and a rusted-out Subaru DL wagon with street signs replacing the floorboards. His daily drivers are a manual Honda Insight and a lifted Toyota Sienna with all-wheel drive.
The CBC points out another interesting aspect of this creation: it’s a dual citizen. While the Plymouth Voyager was built in Fenton, Missouri, the Dodge Caravan was made in Windsor, Ontario, just across the border from Detroit. Sutton may not have had international diplomacy in mind when he chose the donor vans, but it’s something he gets behind. He works as a manufacturing engineer for Detroit Diesel, alongside many coworkers who commute from Windsor.
“It’s a model for what we could want to be, in a weird way,” said Sutton, after driving to Windsor to speak with CBC News.
“Working well together as brother and sister countries.”
That’s how things used to be, and would still be if the U.S. government weren’t playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes in international relations. As Sutton told USA Today, “There’s a lot of bad stupid in the world right now, and I think the world needs more good stupid.”
