Ford vans have become off-roaders, but not like this.
How drunk did they have to get at Ford to think that creating a low-slung ‘safari’ van was a good idea? Why did they give it leopard print craphics, or steps up to the roof in order to have Dick Tracy’s mom pose for the press materials?
I don't know. It was the late ’60s, man.
Look more closely, however, and you’ll realize this is no hack job.
Those leopard graphics follow the van's character lines; although beige paint is beige paint, the result isn’t the worst I’ve seen. (This hue is officially ‘Bush Jacket Beige’.) A fully-loaded van in the middle of nowhere would need serious firepower to get it out of trouble, so the Kilimanjaro is fitted with two winches, a roof-mounted spare tire, rifles, and a fold-out side panel.
Y’know, for shooting things — not, however, shooting in the same way the Citroën-based concept for wildlife photographers would have approached Kilimanjaro.
The Econoline Kilimanjaro at the Chicago Auto Show in 1969 • via Chicago Auto Show
Speaking of, evoking the name of Africa’s tallest mountain to slap onto a Ford van is gauche at best, and simply not needed — the U.S. is chock full of van-worthy names such as…actually, thinking about it, many place names are already appropriated from other cultures. Hmm.
The most exotic name I can come up with for a leopard-lined party van is the Ford Las Vegas.
Econoline Kilimanjaro press materials • via Ford
In 1969, the Econoline Kilimanjaro was quite novel because of its four-wheel-drive system. In a conceptual way, it occupies a strange place between a Sbarro Windhound and more modern Ford Econoline ‘Sportsmobile’.
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