Part 1.      Part 2.

More vintage vehicles, there were a fair few!

In 1947 the VW Type 2 Bus was born. Dutch importer Ben Pon got the idea from the motorised trolleys used to transport parts around a VW factory in Wolfsburg.  They were made from stripped down Beetle chassis.  A year later when Heinz Nordhoff became the Chief Executive of Volkswagen, he took on this idea.  The first VW van was launched at the Geneva Motor Show in November 1949.

Rover was a British car manufacturing company founded as Starley & Sutton Co. of Coventry in 1878. It is the direct ancestor of the present day Land Rover marque, which is now a brand of Jaguar Land Rover, in turn owned by the Tata Group. The company traded as Rover, manufacturing cars between 1904 and 1967, when it was sold to Leyland Motors.

The Mini is a small economy car produced by the English based British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered an icon of 1960s British popular culture. Its space-saving transverse engine front-wheel drive layout – allowing 80 percent of the area of the car’s floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage – influenced a generation of car makers. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th century, behind the Ford Model T, and ahead of the Citroën DS and Volkswagen Beetle.

Vauxhall Motors Limited is one of the oldest established vehicle manufacturers and distribution companies in Great Britain and has its headquarters in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. It is a subsidiary of the German company Opel Automobile GmbH which is part of Groupe PSA since 1st August, 2017. The Vauxhall Victor is a large family car which was produced by Vauxhall from 1957 to 1976. And also used by the Ambulance service in the ’60’s.

The Maserati Sebring was a two-door 2+2 coupé made by Maserati from 1962 until 1968. Based on the Maserati 3500, the Sebring was aimed at the American Gran Turismo market and named after Maserati’s 1957 racing victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring. This is a 1968 version.

Bibendum, commonly referred to in English as the Michelin Man, is the symbol of the Michelin tire company. Introduced at the Lyon Exhibition of 1894 where the Michelin brothers had a stand, Bibendum is one of the world’s oldest trademarks.

The car he sits on is quite famous, and started out life being built on the Traction production line in Citroën’s Paris factory on the 17th December 1952 before being delivered to it’s 1st owner in France in 1953. Citroën Conservatoire in Paris have confirmed from their records that the car was built in December 1952 before being delivered to it’s 1st French owner.  It has it’s own fascinating little page on google which can be found HERE

MG, the initials of Morris Garages, is an English automotive marque registered by the now defunct MG Car Company Limited, a British sports car manufacturer begun in the 1920s as a sales promotion sideline within W R Morris’s Oxford city retail sales and service business by the business’s manager, Cecil Kimber. Best known for its two-seat open sports cars, MG also produced saloons and coupés.  This particular car was first registered on the 1st December 1955 and left the factory in Island Green with Green leather trim. The MG Magnette ZA is a RHD home market car that was built between the 10th-15th November 1955 and was despatched on the 17th November.It was registered new in Devon and stayed in the South West of England until 1999. Link to this car’s details HERE

That’s it for today but stay tooned there’s more to come!