1965-1970 Fungo Van 290 1.0

You can now drive Vanzilla in BeamNG.drive! If you are huge fan of The Loud House and have access to this game. Then, this is the mod for you.

In 1965, the Fungo Van would be introduced and the project was spearheaded by Fredrick Fungo Jr himself. He came up with the idea of making a vehicle for the bigger family since his current vehicle didn't have enough room to travel them. The project was started all the way back in 1958. 8 years and $4,000,000 later, the Fungo Van was finally introduced in 1965 and Freddy himself took a gamble by discontinuing every product line to make room for the Van and the Fungo Miramar which was to be the future of the Fungo Motor Company and costed less money considering that it is a North-American Spec Ibishu Miramar. All that needed to be done was make it left-hand drive and have it pass safety and emissions testing in North American countries. Final assembly of the Fungo Miramar was done in Fungo's Canadian plant in Brantford, Ontario in order to cut down on import costs.

The 290 is the mid-range model and unlike the 186 and HE models, it came available in two-tone paint. Now, this is the most well-known version of the Fungo Van known to date and the reasoning for this is because of a certain family driving around in one and still owning it to this very day. Despite the now hard-to-find crank starters, the Fungo Van had been a staple in the state of Michigan. The reason why the crank starters are hard to find is because they are often used for other Fungo vehicles using this same V8 engine. The 290 "Muncher" V8 is infamous for it's reliability. But, some owners have managed to make it last more than 30 years. And, one van is still on the road even as of 2023. Some Fungo vans including the one known as Vanzilla often had their "O" letters fall off. Nobody knows why. But, it is believed that years of abuse is the reason why the Os fall off. It's not particularly a great vehicle per-se. But, it'll still get any big family moving from Point A to Point B and that's all this van was designed to do.

The Fungo Van 186 is nothing really special. It is the 2nd cheapest model of the Fungo Van and still retains the unpainted metal gas gap to cut costs. It uses the venerable Fungo "Monster-Six" Inline-6 engine which is often regarded as the Fungo Motor Company's most reliable powerplant. And unlike the 290 c.i. "Muncher" V8, it was updated to produce 172 horsepower. However, top speed of the Fungo Van 186 was still not great. It could barely reach 83 miles per hour. However, that's to be expected as it is not meant to be a sporty vehicle and is only meant to get you from Point A to Point B. However, it did come with a muffler where as the Fungo Van HE never came with one and the lack of a muffler. Fungo never included a muffler on any of their HE models and this was done to cut costs.

Like every other model of the Fungo Van, the Fungo Van 186 would be discontinued in 1970 when the Fungo Motor Company was forced to shut down and filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. However, the unsold 1970 Fungo Vans would be sold in used car dealerships after the Fungo dealerships were closed down. The HE and 186 models of the Fungo Van would eventually be all sold off in 1973 right when the oil crisis happened as there was a demand for more fuel efficient vehicles at that time. But, the 290 and 420 4x4 models would still sit in used car dealer lots even well into the 1990's where they were well past 20 years old by now.

A lot of these unsold vans were often sold with heavily-discounted prices and some never made it past the original Fungo factory due to the fact that they were being overstocked and the Fungo family themselves had nowhere else to store them. The last Fungo van to be sold off is a light blue Fungo Van 420 4x4. This mint condition van was sold off in 2001 and it is owned by the owner of the Royal Woods Municipal Church. When the church was closed down in 2015, the van would then be sold to a collector. It would not remain in service when the church would eventually be bought by the Hunnicutt Family.

Even if it has it's haters, the Fungo Van was an important piece in automotive history and it is a tale of one CEO betting the whole farm and then losing the lot. Had it been introduced later, it would've been more successful as passenger vans became popular in the 1970's. But then again, the several of the Fungo vans would remain unsold during those times.