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Small Vans - favourite?


pogweasel

Which of these voluminous vans floats your boat most?  

68 members have voted

  1. 1. Which of these voluminous vans floats your boat most?

    • Bedford HA
      18
    • Ford Escort
      10
    • Morris Marina
      7
    • Chevanne
      8
    • Simca Fourgonette
      6
    • Sommert different - please tell us!
      19


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What about this? 25k from new one owner until 1990 then unused in a local garage since.......

 

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Again, aplogies to anyone who's seen this on RR. I suspect the random rubbish I take photos of might go down better here?

 

On the subject of vans, probably ex-White Arrow MkII Transit? LWB but single rear wheels. Ideal for delivering all those goodies from Great Universal spread over a year's payments.

 

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Anyone here want to guess at the yellow thing at the back? I'm stumped (it's not an UMM).

 

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You get two for the price of one with this, both belonged to my step-dad about 1985/86 IIRC. Note the inventive graphics.

 

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There used to be a Chevanne around my home village that was mildly customised with slot-mags and murals featuring Tower Bridge. Because panels were removable, he transferred them when he bought a newer one.

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Hey Baz wasn't that CX van the subject of a huge EEC row?Apparently they needed a van to transport the mountains of paperwork that Brussels/Maastricht/wherever generates between the offices.Instead of buying a VW LT or sommat someone persuaded them ( a French commisioner perhaps?) to customise a brand new CX to do the job ( much better for image of the EEC you see :P )Anyway once finished the damn ting was so heavy it could just about manage to carry a single box of A4 ... so was 'retired' to the parking lot and caused a lot of bad press about EEC loony overspends ( I can't beleive that :P ) The officials tried to hide it ( piss and tarp anyone) but were afraid that if it leaked that they had it crushed there would be even more bad publicity ( I have the feeling it cost about £80k in the first place ).ooh and if they crushed it it would go against EEC directive 2522637/88 regarding disposal of motor vehicles!!! :twisted:

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Don't know if it's the same one, bit I've read something in an old Autocar or Motor about a CX 6-wheel van that was used by some French bloke to deliver the Financial Times to various places around Europe. He had some manic schedule that involved high-speed drives to several countries in the course of a night.If he could do it right, why not the EEC? Oh, think I answered my own question there.May still have the article at home in the teetering piles I laughably call an archive.

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Hey Baz wasn't that CX van the subject of a huge EEC row?

 

Apparently they needed a van to transport the mountains of paperwork that Brussels/Maastricht/wherever generates between the offices.

 

Instead of buying a VW LT or sommat someone persuaded them ( a French commisioner perhaps?) to customise a brand new CX to do the job ( much better for image of the EEC you see :P )

 

Anyway once finished the damn ting was so heavy it could just about manage to carry a single box of A4 ... so was 'retired' to the parking lot and caused a lot of bad press about EEC loony overspends ( I can't beleive that :P ) The officials tried to hide it ( piss and tarp anyone) but were afraid that if it leaked that they had it crushed there would be even more bad publicity ( I have the feeling it cost about £80k in the first place ).

 

ooh and if they crushed it it would go against EEC directive 2522637/88 regarding disposal of motor vehicles!!! :twisted:

Yes, I think You're right....I remember seeing that one in a book...."Extraordinary Automobiles", I think it was called....Very similar to the one in the photo, but I think it was based on a series one CX, had GTi alloys, and a two-tone metallic blue paint job.... 8)

 

Hang on...Just found a pic of it....

 

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.... :shock:

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  • 6 years later...

Gotta to be the HA Van for me as i was a YTS trainee at a long gone VX dealer (G.Wells and Sons in Strood) and Philips bought a the last ones left,they were and on A plates.

 

They were ancient compared to the Chevanne and Astras with drum front brakes and transverse front leaf suspension,i remember one coming in with the driver complaining about a poor turning circle on right lock that turned out to be a broken spring leaf that had slid out and was jammed against the hub..

 

Also they were great fun on a road test (eg Paper shop on Frindsbury Hill to pick up your copy of 'trails and motocross news') 'cos they were so easy to get to back fire by turning them off coasting along still in gear then putting the ignition back on again...

 

A mate at the time started at BT and said some of the drivers would deliberately blow the silencers open just to get another van (new fangled Maestro) or to finish early.Yet one old boy loved his and would cultivate his bedding plant seedlings in the door pockets..

:wink:

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