Back to Alien's original Statement, there would never have been a 350 option on a W size commercial as there was none on the base vehicle. The idea was a "sports" optioned commercial, not a "performance" optioned commercial. So van-wise a blank canvas behind the seats for custom paint and decked out back and GTS from the seats forward. This is what Bagshaw got out of his round table discussions with vanners of the day. Sandman idea was for ute mainly (you see this reflected in Be-ute and the Ewe't), but the van interest was rapidly growing and obviously GMH (most likely Bagshaw himself) recognised this and acted. They also probably saw the sales figures for up-specced vans and utes too (4spd, buckets, sports instruments, rally or wide rims etc).

It is also surprising to see the evidence of dealers sitting a new LS350 or GTS350 side by side with a ute or van and doing a driveline swap. Very cool stuff.