Visiting the Van Nats

Belgians, sideways caravans, supercharged V8s and much more...

Today I paid a visit to the 'Van Nats' event, a classic and custom van show billed as "the original hippy happy van festival" and held in the village of Akeley, just a few miles down the road from home. The long-established Van Nats is a three-day 'extra-van-ganza' featuring a lot more than just vans, including live music, a barbecue and a vintage fair, and culminating in the 'show and shine' competition on Sunday. Apparently the reason for the location is that a senior member of the Transit van club lives in the village, and although it has been held here for a few years this was the first time I was able to attend. Given the hippy-themed branding I was expecting a load of trendy 'new age' types in air-cooled Volkswagens, but the reality was pleasingly different and more akin to street van shows of the 1980s.

This day van had come all the way from Belgium for the event!

A shrine to Swedish supremacy

Gaydon Truck Show report

Thanks to waning interest in the bus and coach scene, as previously discussed on this blog, I am finding myself increasingly drawn towards trucks. As part of this conversion, I paid a visit to the Classic Truck Show at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon on Sunday and found it a very interesting event, with over 200 real vehicles and countless fine models on display, so here I recount my experiences as a first-time visitor.

Stondon sale results

Following its closure at Easter, yesterday (Wednesday 10th June) marked the final end for the Stondon Motor Museum as the car and commercial vehicle collection was auctioned by Brightwells at Leominster, the motorcycles having already been sold in April. No-reserve auctions are usually interesting and unpredictable, with the possibility of a bargain but also potential for much competition between determined bidders, and that was certainly the case here. I didn't actually attend the auction for three reasons: it was on a weekday so I was at work, Leominster is a long way from here, and perhaps more importantly I would have probably ended up buying some piece of junk I have neither use nor space for! With the results now published on the auction house's website, I have crunched the numbers and present my analysis here.

Unsung heroes: Ford R-series

Today I pay tribute to a type of coach that was a familiar part of my childhood but seems to have been overlooked by many enthusiasts: the humble Ford R-series. While the heavyweight chassis built by AEC and Leyland, and later the flashy products of continental coachbuilders, got all the attention from enthusiasts, the R-series was the bread and butter, always there in the background quietly and reliably working away on less glamorous duties and no doubt earning its operator a decent income. These coaches were the mainstays of many independent operators until fairly recently, but having been discontinued in 1985, even the newest examples are now approaching thirty years old and survivors have become very rare.

One of the R-series chassis shortened to 8 metres by Tricentrol, this one still exists but hasn't been used for many years.