How it all started ! Or how long a story have you got time to read ?
History is 10% fact and 90% fiction.
October 1972 seems to be a good time to start this story and that’s as far back as I can track it. Like all hobbies ,this date is a stab in the dark as who really knows when the first custom van hit the roads? I had a bed in the back of mine as early as 1968 and tried to make it as different as I could but with no add on bits or ideas floating about it basically stayed looking the same. And I was not alone in this as I had a good friend from the USA based in High Wycombe with the USAF who had a nice Dodge and we were both doing the same sort of stuff ,driving to the coast, and
enjoying ourselves. But 1973 seems to the big year when it all kicked off with “Hotrod” magazines article that blew the whole thing out of the water and within a year the N.S.V.A was formed and a thousand clubs popped up all over the world. Since then a lot of bits of the history has been forgotten and a lot added. You would need 600 vanners from all over the world in one room for a month to get somewhere near the real story as every country has its own story and every vanner has his bit to add.
Pictures are the best way to look at history as they show the past with just one look and catch the moment in a flash.
The Wow!! Factor
In the early days before the World Wide Web magazines were always the life line for vanners to see what other vanners were doing with their vans. This picture was one of the first and it kick started the van scene in the UK and all over Europe and was revolutionary at the time.
Within a few months the change in the way things were looked at was amazing. Wheels, windows, paint jobs and captains chairs were available and the whole vanning thing took off at breakneck speed and clubs were popping up all over the world.
The rest is history......
MORE HISTORY FROM RAOUL
