It’s been a while since the last ‘What’s in the Van?’, me, my wife and Meg the dog have been on a short holiday. We combined some family visits with enjoying the lovely countryside in West Cumbria. It is a less frequently visited and quieter part of the English Lake District, none the less a very beautiful area to visit. There are miles of lovely sandy beaches and the dog just loves to run free. The weather was wonderful too.
My mother’s family came from that part of the world so it was fun to track down where her father farmed in the 1920s and the little village school and church. All very smart and cleaned up these days. I had my photo taken outside the farmhouse on what would have been her 100th birthday.
The recent hot weather has been wonderful for holidays, less so for working. The warehouse can get a little warm. However my trip out to buy stock was pleasant enough with the aircon turned on in the van and good audiobook on the stereo. There was certainly a lot of very interesting traffic on the roads
My destination was New Romney in south east Kent, so on leaving Abingdon I had a choice, left or right on to the A34 which makes no difference really, I can get to the M25 via A34/M4 or round the Oxford bypass and down the M40. I chose left and headed for the M4. It was a sunny Sunday at the end of summer and all the classic cars were out, There were dozens and I’m sure I missed noting some of them. I lost count of VW bay window campers at 10, there must have been 6 or 7 MGBs, several Morris Minors, three Rover P6, all the usual suspects in fact.
My first classic came within minutes on the A34, a TVR on the back of a flatbed.
I wasn’t sure if it was a 390 like this or a Tasmin, it was very early in the day, this model is in 1:43 scale by Spark.
Google Maps decided that I should leave the M4 at Bracknell and cut through to the M3 to avoid the M4/M25 intersection near Heathrow and on the road through Bracknell there was some more interesting vehicles. There was a PGA golf event near the M3, at Sunningdale I presume, and I found myself following a convoy of step-frame artics, all exhibition trucks for sports and golf brands, six of them in a row. Another curiosity at the golf event was separate parking for BMWs, a sponsor I presume.
There must have been a custom car show on somewhere as I was passed in quick succession by three hot rods, all based on 1930s American Ford coupes.
This model is by Motor Max in 1:18 scale. The cars which overtook me were all in this style, some without roofs, but none had mudguards, I did’t think they would pass an MOT test in the UK without them. They all made a lot of wonderful noise, but I did notice that the big side pipes on one were blanked off with a more conventional tail pipe coming out of the rear. There were more of these on the M25.
I really don’t like the bit of the M25 London Orbital to the south of London. The surface is concrete for miles and in the van it is very loud. There must have been an event somewhere on the A3 as the exit was queued onto the M25 both clockwise and anti-clockwise. I would have said rugby at Twickenham, but the six nations championship is happening in France as I understand. The queue which I passed had both of these cars waiting to leave the motorway:
That is a very classy traffic jam for 9.00am on a Sunday morning. The Lotus Esprit is by Auto Art in 1:18 scale and the Jaguar XK120 is by Corgi Classics in 1:36 scale. The car I saw was stripped for racing too with the bumpers taken off and roundels ready for racing numbers.
Coming the other way on the M25 wan an MG which is not so frequently seen. The MG RV8
This model is by NEO in 1:43 scale. British Leyland dropped the MGB in 1980, but when the Mazda MX5 came along in 1989 and started to sell like hot cakes, even the (by now) Rover Group took notice. They had been producing MGB body shells for the restoration market and quickly started shoehorning Rover 3.9 V8 motors into a minimally modified version, still with leaf springs and drum brakes on the rear, and the MG RV8 was born. Just under 2000 were produced between 1992 and 1995, mostly shipped to Japan.
Next classic on the M25 was an old favourite, the Mercedes-Benz W123
The car I saw was the two door coupe, the model is by Minichamps in 1:43 scale of the 280CE version of the car. The W123 is usually described as one of the easiest classics to own, about 4 million of them were built across the various body shapes, coupe, saloon & station wagon, so they are not too hard to find and they last forever. I think a taxi in Greece holds the world record for the most miles covered by a car. I saw this one again on my return journey going the other way.
My route took me down the M26 to the M20 in the direction of the Channel Tunnel, which must be the busiest holiday route in the country, both for Brits going over to Europe and for enterprising and adventurous Europeans coming over here. As my terrible luck would have it there had been a major crash about a mile before my exit from the M20, right near a slip road onto the motorway meaning 6 lanes of traffic had to filter into one. It took me an hour to get through it.
The upside was that the road was full of people taking their classic car on holiday. There seemed to be a lot of old British cars with foreign plates and left-hand drive, these are just a selection of what went by:
This Alfa Romeo Giulietta Zagato is by Bang of Italy in 1:43 scale
Is the Austin Metro a classic yet? There are not so many around these days, until recently there was on parked in the street where I live. This is by Corgi Toys in 1:36 scale
Now this is more like it, a Ferrari 275 from the mid 1960s. This model is by ERTL in 1:18 scale. A dark blue on of these slid past as I was obediently waiting in the left lane and dived in farther along the queue. When you have a car like this someone always lets you in.
To go with the Ferrari there was a lovely early Jaguar E-Type, still the most beautiful car ever made. The model is by Spark in 1:43 scale
Next an early Citroen DS wafted by, this model being in 1:43 scale by del Prado.
Both of these classic Triumphs had foreign plates, the TR3 was German, the TR6 was Belgian. The TR3 was being driven with the top down (naturally in that heat) by a guy on his own and wearing the correct tweed cap. He was brave to drive it all the way from Germany.
The TR3 is by Kyosho in 1:18 scale, the TR6 is also in 1:18 scale by Minichamps.
I still think the first of the 911 models looks the best. This model is by Atlas Editions in 1:43 scale
I eventually got off the M20 and headed cross country to New Romney where I was meeting Matt to pick up his collection of Formula 1 cars.
The season is changing again. All the crops are harvested and the ploughs will be coming out again soon to turn the ground over ready for the winter wheat. This is sown in the autumn to give it a head start when the warmer weather comes back in the spring.
The leaves on the trees are all looking a bit tired, the only ones changing colour so far are the Horse Chestnuts and that tends to be more to do with disease than seasonal change. The hedges are changing colour though with the autumn fruit coming ripe. There are bright red rose hips from the dog roses and red berries on the hawthorn. Blackberries and elderberries are deep purple, the sloes will be there too on the blackthorn, but less visible from the van being black. The other sight you see more these days are apples strewn on the ground at the side of the road, where a thrown apple core has taken root and grown into a tree. There is no-one to harvest the apples so they fall into the grass verge. The fruit crops have been amazing this year, despite the cold, wet summer.
Matt had offered to sell his collection of mostly Formula 1 cars in 1:43 and 1:18 scale, we had agreed a price beforehand from his lists and photos. There is a full set of the Official Ayrton Senna Collection, the Panini Formula 1 part-work set and Matt had collected one of every car raced by Damon Hill, there are a few American classics too in 1:18 scale.
Matt told me that he had been recommended to approach Little Wheels to buy his collection by his father Manny, who had sold us his collection of heavy haulage trucks in 2022. Manny had been pleased with the deal he got and the way he was treated. It was good to get that feedback.
The journey to New Romney should have taken two and a half hours and it took four hours. I set off home expecting a late lunch, which is how it turned out as the M25 was solid for much of the way.
When I got back on the M20 they were still fixing the central barrier after the accident, so it was still one lane and there was still a massive queue, on the opposite carriageway now thank goodness. However there were loads more classics to look at.
This pair of Swedes had nearly got to the front of the queue. The Saab 96 is by Corgi Classics in 1:43 scale and the Volvo 121 Amazon is a Minichamps, also in 1:43 scale.
They were closely followed by a Shelby Cobra (or more likely a replica) in red. This is a 1:18 scale model by Kyosho.
Next came a pair of elderly Brits. An early Bentley in British Racing Green followed by a car of similar vintage I did not get a proper look at, it being a low car hidden by the central barrier, it could have been a Lagonda. This car is by Corgi Toys in 1:43 scale.
For me the treat of the day was a Citroen DS Cabrio by Henri Chapron, driving along in the sunshine with the top down. So pretty. The model is by Norev in 1:18 scale.
Back on the M25 they just kept coming.
There are so many Triumph Stags on the road, they hardly count as a rarity any more. This model is in 1:18 scale by Jadi.
My first company car was a Mk IV Cortina. Mine was a 1.6L, not a nice 2 litre Ghia like this Vanguards and the one on the M25. Those letters on the boot lid meant a lot in terms of company car pecking order. If you had metallic paint or a sunroof, you knew you had made it. At least my 1.6L was a step above the field training managers who got Escorts.
It has been a real classic car fest today and I’ve only logged about half of them. This last was my own car at the time when I had the Cortina as a company car.
My 2CV6 was the Club model in Jade Green, I spotted a Charleston with the yellow highlight colour like this one, it also came with maroon or grey. I recently found the brochure from when I bought my 2CV, it has a Tin Tin on the Moon theme.
My next trip, later this week, is to Croydon to pick up a van load of Matchbox Collectables, so expect classic American muscle cars, pick-ups, steam power and all the rest turning up on the website soon.
Thank-you for reading and if you have enjoyed this week’s tale please scroll to the bottom and click the ‘Like’ button.
What’s in the Van? – Home
24th August – Shrewsbury
17th August – Airedale, Gainsborough & Leicester
3rd August – Bedford
27th July – Worthing
13th July – Chatteris, Hinckley & Nuneaton
6/7th July – Magor & Westbury
15/16th June – Newcastle upon Tyne
8th June – Bournemouth, Ringwood & Bracknell
1st June – Diss, Stewartby & Brackley
25th May – Rickmansworth
12th May – Kingston & Fleet
4th May – Witham
21st April – Staines
12th April – Dereham
6th April – Warminster
30th March – Doncaster, Gainsborough & Peterborough
18/22nd March – Bedford & Epsom
15/16th March 2023 – London, Hemel Hempstead & Stafford
8th March 2023 – Warwick & Solihull
5th March 2023 – Huntingdon & Bedford
23rd February 2023 – Little Wheels Museum
16th February 2023 – Devon & Dorset
9th February 2023 – Nottinghamshire & Lincolnshire
2nd February 2023 – Gloucester & Hereford
What's in the Van? 
Leave a comment