Your'e on the money Flamingo, it's about the story, or the story behind the story. As far as the van's go, the factory would just build what they wanted, henceforth the column mounted shift. They would have been built very strong, mechanically and structurally, to enable them to get to the remote area's required. Basically area's more suited to a four wheel drive at the time. My guess is they were built on the production line as special order's, to the requirement's of the rally participant's. The whole team were representing GM, so you can't have the support guy's breaking down.

Cheer's.