Rolling through Monterey Car Week in a big white egg

Last week was a historic one at Monterey Car Week. The famously haughty bunch of car shows that for decades rejected Japanese cars suddenly had a change of heart. Nearly every major event included a Japanese class, and some truly amazing machinery was on hand. We’re sifting through our photos now, but in the meantime, Monterey Car Week isn’t just about the shows. Driving between events, auctions, and dining venues, most attendees want to be seen in something nice. Supercars are the default, but we had to haul three people plus photo gear and luggage. Our solution happened to mid-engined and supercharged as well: a 1996 Toyota Previa SC.

We didn’t plan this in advance. In mid-July I stumbled across an ad for a Previa, and despite my predilection for Mazdas and Nissans the Previa called to me. I drove an hour out to see it, and it was cleaner than I could have possibly imagined.

The van had belonged to the seller’s mother, who passed away five years ago. The car had been garaged and collecting dust since. She had used it to carpool with coworkers, so it never saw kid duties. As such, the seats were free of food stains, melted crayons, and fossilized crumbs fused to the fabric. It had 170,000 miles on the odometer. At this point they just wanted to get rid of it, and $3000 later it was mine.

Sure it’s not the ideal Previa trifecta, but at that price and in these days you can’t be too picky. The ideal specimen would have a supercharger, all-wheel-drive, and a manual transmission. Toyota offered all these options, but never all at the same time. One out of three ain’t bad.

After taking it home I gave it a good wash. Surprisingly, when I removed the rear license plate there was no grime. I can tell if someone has spruced a car up to sell it, and this wasn’t the case. The car really was that clean. I changed all the fluids, including the supercharger oil and bled the brakes. I used Cerakote to restore the black trim and molded plastics. The sliding door was sticky, so I gave it new bearings.

The only other bothersome thing was the ugly Walmart hubcaps that the van acquired during its three decades of dutiful service. I wanted something period and OEM, and came across an ad giving away a bunch of XV10 Camry parts, including seven hubcaps from an LE V6. I thought these were the ideal wheel covers for a van hailing from the same era, and they did a good job of covering most of the steel wheels. You can’t beat free, and now we even have three spares in case some jettison themselves during an 80s-style car chase.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. We’ve previously done Car Week a J80 Land Cruiser (but have you seen gas prices recently?), Lexus LS460 (we didn’t have a manufacturer’s teat to suckle this time), and an old Datsun, but the Previa was by far the most convenient. With car-like steering, low access heights for cabin and trunk, and a cavernous cargo hold, it couldn’t be beat on function.

But unlike other vans, it has form as well, a unique retro-futuristic shape that was unlike any other MPV on the road. It caused a sensation when it was revealed at the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show, and it was one of the few Japanese vans not sold with a decontented commercial variant. It was designed with pure people-moving luxury in mind.

The captain’s view driving position makes you feel like you’re in a delivery driver simulator. Visibility is superb from the spaceship-like viewport, giving you a commanding panorama of Monterey’s beautiful coastlines (as well as befuddled tourists and kids on two-wheeled e-devices stumbling into your way from the periphery).

You don’t so much as get in a car as you board a craft or vessel, especially since you can walk between the front buckets and into the second and third rows. You do feel a pang of hesitation as you walk over the mid-mounted engine but it’s just another reminder that you’re in a supercar shuttlecraft, especially in white.

Years ago, before the influencers descended on Car Week, you’d see truly interesting cars on the roads — post-war European obscurities, elegant valance-fendered American classics — but these days it’s hypercars that are locust-like both in their design and their tendency to swarm. Against this backdrop, the eggvan a bit of an enigma. Are we a family on vacation or enthusiasts with elite ball knowledge?

The Previa received a bunch of “you don’t see those anymore” type comments. A guy outside our motel commented on how amazing the condition was. And you want to talk about rarity? We didn’t see a single other Previa over four days, which is more than you can say about a half-million-dollar Ferrari 12Cilindri, of which we saw about eight.

The best nod was in bumper-to-bumper traffic on 17-Mile Drive on the way into the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. We were stuck in a queue with countless Ferraris, Porsches, Bentleys, a Lexus LFA, and mostly that caliber of car. A couple of kids had posted up roadside with a whiteboard, rating the passing eye candy. The Previa’s score? A perfect 10/10!

On Monterey’s lazy curves and rolling elevation changes, the Previa becomes a fun momentum driver. It’s easy to visualize where the front wheels are, and while the Previa is a big vehicle, it doesn’t feel tippy. And when we inevitably miss a turn on unfamiliar roads, its turning radius is amazingly small for a car of this size. In the city it feels underpowered, even with 161 horses and 201 lb-ft of torque on tap from the supercharger. But on the peninsula’s immaculately paved scenic routes the egg rolls along beautifully.

After a long day of hiking through endless rows of cars, taking photos, and rubbing elbows with millionaires, it felt great to return to our mobile basecamp. Even with a large SUV, you can’t really stretch out. The Previa gives you some breathing room and lets you unwind after a long day (it’s big enough for a M134 minigun). You can even crack open the expansive pop-out picture windows to let the sea breeze in.

So that’s it for the Previa preview. We’ll have more Monterey Car Week soon.