THE TRANSPORT-R

Engine swaps remain few and far between in the world of Transporters. Those venerable TDi motors are so damn reliable, capable, economical and so surprisingly tweakable that hardly anyone bothers messing with VW’s well-trodden path. There’s good reason that for more than 30 years Volkswagen decided to hedge its bets on the dominance of the derv. Sure, they threw in the odd wildcard petrol engines here and there, none of which really gained any popularity because ultimately, those dirty, NoX producing, smoke machines have totally stolen the show – even with all the emissions scandal of the EA188 / EA189 engines.

Despite headline figures that really shouldn’t make them as entertaining or as flexible to drive as they are, the derv slurpers have been the mainstay of Transporters since 1990. Current, some might say inevitably ill-fated, government guidance on electric vehicles