As of last week, this is now the vehicle I've had the longest in my current fleet. I bought it in March 2019.
It is a 1993 Ford Spectron XL-T!
It is a rebadge of a Mazda Bongo, which was a very popular van in the East, but not so much in the West. No version of the Bongo was ever sold in North America.
It has the Mazda RF engine, a 2.0L turbodiesel 4cyl engine with (I believe) 75hp and around 120 ft-lbs of torque. It is a very, VERY old school diesel engine, with an IDI/pre-chamber injection setup, no intercooler, and no emissions control whatsoever. I don't even have a Check Engine Light!
It is a 2WD model, which is rarer than the 4WD models, at least these days. It sends all its "power" to the rear wheels via a VERY, VERY short-geared 5spd manual transmission.
And yes, it is a RHD vehicle I drive regularly in a LHD country
When I first got it, it was on Nissan Bluebird (or maybe Nissan Prairie Joy) wheels... the fact that it had Nissan wheels on a Mazda van badged as a Ford bothered me
So I replaced the wheels and tires... I ended up getting steel wheels on eBay from mainland Europe for a Daewoo Lacetti, of all cars
and I put a very specific set of aluminum wheel covers on it... from a Fox-body Mustang! `83-`84 only!
My Spectron and I have been featured in Hagerty actually:
https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profi ... f-america/
I've had it almost 7 years now and have put over 15k of its current 45k kms on it myself.
Hope you enjoy it!
