This Condor II showed up recently in an alley near my house; I knew that there was something special about it other that reverse-slant windshield, and eventually it hit me: it’s what cousin Eddie showed up in when he came to visit the Griswald’s in “Christmas Vacation”. That made the Condor II famous, and just about the only one of the many motor homes being built back then.
Here’s Eddie and his family when they first show up. Surprise!
And here’s that famous scene of Eddie dumping his sewage tank into the storm sewer at the curb: “The shitter was full!”
The poor Condor II. Did it deserve that fate?
Unlike the Dodge motorhome chassis that was so common back then, the Condor used a Ford panel van chassis (P Series 500). That included a medium duty 330 FE V8 backed by an automatic.
This one seems to be just sitting here without occupants, so I won’t start worrying about our storm sewer being polluted by raw sewage, yet.
It’s not Christmas with out see the Griswalds family disaster gathering ! lol lol lol ho ho ho
Are you sure it’s just there for a “visit”? 🙂
Motor homes obviously got a second lease on life during the pandemic and of course are serving evermore as permanent housing for some people, I haven’t looked to see if prices have come down a bit since on these and other more van-life-ish things (i’d expect so?) but I’m a bit surprised to see that genuine vintage RVs aren’t seeming to be restored and fetching eye-watering sums as of yet like cars such as Grand Wagoneers and VW Busses are doing.
Stuff like this, the Winnebago F17 especially and others of that ilk seem like they’d be ripe for that. Can’t you just see an F17 plodding down the aisle at Barrett-Jackson and the auctioneer pulling a lawn chair off the back to sit on while giving his schpiel?
It obviously belongs to the guy who lives just to the left side of this alley, and who is a hoarder of sorts, including old BMWs and Audis (’90s) that are in various states of running, and not. For some odd reason, he parks some of his cars (or this RV) on the other side of the alley, which would appear to belong to his neighbor. Odd.
I haven’t seen an extension cord running to it yet, but nothing would surprise me with him.
There is already a pretty good market for vintage RVs; especially trailers, as they don’t require dealing with the greasy parts.
Well to add the GMC 6 wheel was the motorhome at its best & should land up there with the grandwagon & VW bus too well just my opinion
Well, Cousin Eddie would be lucky to have one in as good a shape as your neighbor’s. I like this one, even though – or maybe because – it has a strong bookmobile vibe.
Am I the only one here who has never seen a single Vacation movie?
dman, there are at least 2 of us.
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Whew, I feel vindicated. Between these movies, The Flinstones, and Donna Summer, heck even a car (the Honda CRV), this week my path through popular culture is looking un-American. However I did voraciously read the National Lampoon print magazine for a few teenage years. And I did see a lot of John Hughes movies, in theaters when first released.
I’m in the middle ground here; I saw the original “Vacation” movie but not “Christmas Vacation” or any of the other sequels.
I was a regular reader of National Lampoon magazine in my high school & college years. I recommend reading John Hughes’ original story “Vacation ’58” that was published in the Sept. 1979 issue; this was the basis for the 1983 movie. It’s a LOT darker than the movie – Dad is not a cheerful bumbler as depicted by Chevy Chase, but more on the psychotic & scary side.
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I’m generally clueless about a whole lot of popular culture, but thanks to our kids at the time, the Vacation movies made it into our lives, and we have been deeply enriched by them. 🙂
And the automotive content was a bit better than average, what with the Family Truckster and the Citroen DS in Europe.
Yeah, our kids are just enough younger than yours; it makes a huge difference. If the vehicles on Thomas the Tank Engine were real, not animated, that would be more up my alley.
Pop Culture hits everyone differently, so there’s never any guarantee that particular things will resonate the same. I’m constantly running into that problem as I try to communicate to people of different ages and origins. And I’m sure it goes both ways.
I’m in the same boat as Paul on this one. I’d probably have never watched the Vacation movies on my own, but my kids were somehow at the perfect age to get attracted to Christmas Vacation, and now it’s a seasonal favorite in my house. I have also grown fond of the first Vacation film (the one with the Wagon Queen Family Truckster playing a staring role…and the unfortunate crushing of a lovely 1970 Vista Cruiser). Those are the only 2 I’ve seen or really care to see. (plus Juliette Lewis is only in the Christmas Vacation one…)
There’s a Citroen in the European vacation one? Hummmm. I may need to watch that one.
This old beast doesn’t look bad .
Sadly there are toxic waste RV’s parked all over Southern California with people in them that make one wish for Cousin Eddie .
They park on major roads and sooner or later get hit, they still don’t move until they catch fire and burn to the pavement .
I grew up with many people like Cousin Eddie so I find his hi-jinks humorous .
-Nate
Christmas Vacation has been our family favorite holiday movie. We all gather and watch it, and laugh at it as if we never saw before. It’s not Christmas until we watch Christmas Vacation.