Yeah, how is using a bone stock bumper from another make of vehicle being original?

 

i live in northeast wisconsin - which isn't too far from "Fargo" country. i gotta tell you, all the posts i've seen of people putting wrx bumpers on their cars (mostly in hawaii / bay area / etc..) forums, is pretty forward thinking!

heck, my buddy nick down at the farm been doing that wit his 82 fairmont hemi conversion fir years! he done even make it FOUR wheel drive too... shoot, he's got 28" of ground clearance under him. them wheels is da biggest i ever seen, and shoot, they's got treads so deep he kin drive oe'r a sodi can and not crush it flat!

no kidding guys, i saw this raised blue fairmont the other day! hahaha... apparently he was out muddin with it. hahaha...

actually this previa looks kind of cool, kind of mad-max like.

 

If you gave me a stock previa they only thing I'd turn it into is a down payment on something that was actually cool.

 

I think you need to read what you wrote, go offline and think about it and come back when you realize what you just said...

 

OK, I'll take a shot at it. :Et's see what I'd do with a Previa and a moderately large budget for mods (nothing super crazy like Supra TT drivetrain conversion or anything, just off-the-shelf or easily fabricated stuff).

First, let's address the front bumper. Part of the reason some of us jump to the conclusion that it sucks is that it appears primered in the pics rather than actually painted to match the rest of the cladding. Cladding. Yuck. First thing I'd do is paint them to match the sheet metal, or have a body shop remove them and fil in any spaces or holes left. If it looked normal after that, I'd move on, otherwise I'd look for some aftermarket stuff that was very low-key and sleeper-like (my personal taste anyway, mild rather than wild). This shouldn't be hard if Minivan bodykits are as popular as you say.

Next, minivans are HEAVY. 5 star safety doesn't come lightly. So, I'd find some tasteful, non-chrome 18" wheels, because I'll have to go at least that big to get performance tires that can carry 4,400 pounds of vehicle on them and still be called 'performance,' since they're intended for NBA players' SUVs. Assuming there's sucha thing as an 18" Volk TE37 in Gunmetal and say, Pilot Sports in about 245/50ZR18, we're good to go there.

Next, suspension. This would be tough. Unless the van suspension is VERY closely related to another Toyota vehicle, namely wither the Camry or Avalon, we're gonna need custom coilovers, unless of course the aforementioned asian aftermarket can hook us up. Springs and perches wouldn't be hard (I'm sure Ground Control and Eibach could hook us up), but struts would be tough to come by in the proper valving and length.

Okay, now we can turn, let's go faster. Does the Previa come with the same 3.0 liter V6 that most other Toyotas do? If so, very very good, we can easily adapt the TRD Tacoma/Solara supercharger to fit it. Otherwise, we'll have to be more creative. Either a homebrew turbo kit for the existing engine or maybe another Toyota swap, like a 3SGTE (engine only, not RWD convert). The only true difficulty I'd see with the drivetrain would be finding out what 350+ lb.-ft. of torque pulling around 2+ tons of steel does to the tranny. Maybe it can take it. If so, we can probably find a Quaife diff to slap in there. I also seem to recall that Toyota adapted the AllTrac system to the Previa, but I'm not sure. Even if so it may not be suited to high torqueloads either, but then again, it would be pretty sweet.

Alright, we're going and turning, now to stop. Easy as pie. I'm sure the Previa shares hubs with either the Camry, 4Runner, or a Lexus, so some major brake company will make a big rotor kit. Stainless lines are easy enough even if they aren't mass produced.

Well, now we've got a minivan that's ready to take on a decent WRX, and that's really ll I know about. I'm sure we'd put a kickass stereo and maybe some DVD screens, gotta have a PS2 and XBox... oh, ok, I'd definitely put like a mini-fridge in there! That would be awesome man. Maybe give it a really loud paint job, like M3 Yellow or something, and hopefully find where somebody makes a semi-useful spoiler.

You know, you crazy furriners may be on to somethin' here...

 

Who are you trying to fool??? Yourself? Its not working.

Puting a primer color subaru bumper with gold mesh on a toyota minivan isnt cool ANYWHERE on the planet, not even Afghanistan.

Even in Japan they know this. Even on the modified previa's they have body kits DESIGNED for the car, painted to boot.

If you want to sit here discussing how "cool" it is to have primer color mis-matched body parts on different model cars, feel free, but you will be the butt of the jokes rather than being the "cool" guy

 

Personally I think the Previa is just plain ugly. The Mazda and Nissan vans look a lot better. Honda vans just look to weird to me. Like the Chevy ones that looked like a Star Trek shuttle. Rear wheel drive more than makes up for it though.

 

It's a Sienna now, and it won't hold a candle to the new Quest due to get here for this model year. Check it out on Nissan's website.

 

i want a previa now... hahahhahahah

 

how about a previa with an ej20 swap????

 

EJ20 wouldn't really have the proper character for such a large vehicle, not to mention you only have 4 options for Subaru swaps- other Subarus, Porsches, VWs, and tube frame buggies and the like. But good news- SCC did a Toyota 3.0 V6 swap with the TRD supercharger this month- INTO A SECOND GEN MR2! I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that a 400 hp blown V6 Previa is out of the question, or even that difficult.