Banana Van

The man behind the Van that made Brembo post a safety warning on its social media feeds surrenders its secrets

- Gordie Woollacott

Ferrari wheels, brakes painted with Bananas in Pyjamas and a sound system fit to make your ears bleed. Just another regular VWt feature ride, right? Of course not, what do you take us for?

When Dutch VW importer, Ben Pon, threw down the sketch that went on to become the VW Transporter, nobody could have imagined, 70 or so years later, that someone would be fitting alloys from what at the time was an up and coming sports car builder – that’s Ferrari by the way – to the humble box on wheels. But that’s where we are, and what a time to be alive.

As with most great ideas, this one came about in a bit of a right moment, right time kind of style. The man at the centre of it all is Iain Dickinson, otherwise and from here on in known as Dicky. Dicky runs Evolution Paint Works in Carlisle, specialising in custom builds but with a few restorations thrown in. “We like to take what people think of as unachievable and make it happen,” he says with a smile. “One of our main tricks is doing it all whilst keeping an OEM look. It’s not easy, but we’ve done over 200 Vans since we started so we must be doing something right.”

On this particular occasion, he was painting a set of 8.5J Ferrari wheels for a customer. If you think that sounds a bit narrow for a supercar, let Dicky explain: “The customer had bought two full sets of genuine wheels just to get four 8.5 fronts to fit all round on his Audi A3. The two pairs of 10.5J rears were no good to him, so I offered to buy them. When he asked just £600 for all four, I obviously bit his hand off.”

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