camperfanatic

"I can't remember the last time I saw one of those" , sound familiar? It's a saying we hear often in relation to once popular vehicles, and I've said it myself on more than one occasion. Camper vans and motorhomes were produced in even smaller numbers than family cars, so the survival of examples from the 1950's and 60's is even more remarkable today. Those of a certain age will recall those light commercial vans of the 50's which were converted to campers, such as the Austin-Morris J2/152, Ford Thames 400E, Bedford CA and Standard Atlas; but what became of the thousands of examples that were produced on those base vehicles? Well, they have survived with varying degrees of success, but in the case of the Standard Atlas, I doubt more than a handful still exist, ands I have not seen one in use in the UK since the 1990's. The two pictures above, show the Dormobile camper van conversion based on the Standard Atlas van. First released in 1958, the ...

I decided to have a quick scan through my Blogger stats the other day, and was quite surprised to learn that a blog which I did some time ago about Austin-Morris based campervans was by far the most popular to date as far as viewing figures were concerned. Why I should be surprised that the Austin-Morris blog was so popular I don't know, because of course the marque was famous around the world, and the classic Mini-based campervans I featured were something of a rarity! With small British campers in mind, I've decided to bring you a selection of other 'micro' models which might be of interest from the classic era; those based on such vehicles as the Ford Escort, Morris Marina and the like. Pictured above is one of the rarist of all British 'micro' campervans, the Mini Wildgoose, produced in small numbers during the mid-1960s down in Worthing, Sussex. The only other small camper from that periopd to sell with any degree of success was the 'Roma', by...