850-HP Father and Son 1961 Ford Econoline Is a Genuine Neck Snapping Machine

It's easier to walk into your local dealership and order the latest off-roader available – they are plentiful, and you'll be spoilt for choice. The more challenging and gratifying path is building your van from scratch and exploring the great outdoors in your creation.

Today's featured story isn't about chasing sunsets in the comfort of a hammock. It's an incredible father-and-son van project that brings two eras of car lovers together in the most out-of-the-box build – an 850 hp (862 ps) 1961 Ford Econoline built to shred rubber.

Shawn of AutotopiaLA recently featured a father and son 1961 Ford Econoline project. I know what you are thinking. A van is supposed to be a reliable hauler or work hand. The idea that a 62-year-old box-shaped van could be anything other than a camper or hauler sounds outlandish.

Not your regular father-and-son duo

Well, Doug and Brad Deberti aren't your average father-and-son pair. Their build projects and sense of humor say a lot about their fun-loving character and thin-lined boundaries. One of their popular builds is a lowered 900 hp (912 ps) naturally aspirated NASCAR-powered V8 Toyota Tacoma.

"Everything that we build, we drive. You've gotta have the horsepower. You gotta have everything, all the way back, so it'll run. But when this van takes off, it'll literally ascend, almost scraping the ground; it almost does a wheelie," Doug said about their built 61' Ford Econoline van.

To remind you. The Ford E-Series line of vehicles were the most iconic full-size vans out of the blue oval marque in its time in the United States.

Developed and produced between 1960 and 1967 to compete against the European competitor, the Volkswagen Type 2, the Econoline was the most spacious and powerful of the E-Series vans. It was based on its older, much smaller hauler sibling – the Ford Falcon.

They had to rip off the entire body of the Ford Econoline

As millennials scramble to find meaning, scouting the untapped earth to feed an inner need for gratification – these classic vans are back in demand, almost achieving a classic collector car status.

Doug first brought up the idea of doing the Ford Econoline build. As expected, his son, Brad, could have been more enthusiastic about the project. In his own words, "he did not want to build it." But the smile on his face presenting the car to Shawn for this incredible feature paints a different story.

According to the duo, getting the van to their vision wasn't a walk in the park. Their initial idea was to change the engine and a few things. But what they didn't know was that the classic van was a unibody. Simply put – it was a single molded unit comprising the chassis and body.

To fix that, they put it on a four-post and cut out the floorboard, ripping the entire body off. According to Doug, they rolled off the body and threw it in the garbage. The whole project took about three months (90 days).

Fully customized racing chassis ridding on Accuair suspension

Underneath this rig is a fully customized race car chassis built from scratch by the duo. The result was unlike any classic 60s van you've seen – a race van with incredible take-off power.

According to Doug, the 60s van is riding on an Accuair suspension (three different settings). It's also sitting on a custom Scotts Hotrods chassis. On the rear end, they installed a Ford 9-inch to hold up all the power the van makes.

A big chunk of this 1961 Ford Econoline's character is on its exterior design. It's painted in a metallic shade with peace signs, smiley faces, and gear designs that give a rusty patina illusion (a ploy to kill all the imperfections on the paint job).

However, the most exciting feature of this classic van is what lies under the hood. And according to the father and son duo, it's a factory crate Coyote engine paired to a Reid racing 4L80-E transmission with an ATD reverse manual valve body, making a whooping 850 hp (862 ps).

Custom-designed interior with a torture seat at the back

They used a Gibson exhaust that comes out of the sides for the exhaust setup. However, they had to customize the headers due to the low nature of the van (to sit above the body of the build).

"When you are building custom things like this, you don't want to have like a lot of drive shaft plunge. So the way we had to position everything because of how close it is and how short it is, we really had to do a lot of cycling with the suspension to make the drive shaft actually work," Brad explained the intricacies of the build.

On the interior, it has a customized dash (this era of vans had a blank utilitarian design) and handwoven interior trims, and instead of Recaros, it has custom seats. There are only three seats, two up front and one on the rear (torture seat), complete with a racing harness to keep you planted when it goes bye-bye.

"I don't think I have stopped smiling since I sat here. My face is beginning to hurt," Shawn confessed after riding along with the adrenaline junky duo.

Curious about how this race van rips down the road? We recommend catching that action and more in the video below.