In the early 1970s when this advertisement appeared in Commercial Motor there were far fewer cars on our roads. The 'spy-in-the-cab' had yet to be introduced, smoking was still a perfectly safe and legal pastime, motorway services didn't charge over two quid for a cup of crap coffee and bacon sandwiches didn't come with government health warnings. It's no wonder they look happy! I suppose the Volvo does deserve some credit too.

I have to confess that on paper this Moskvich 1500 van sounds like quite a good deal. After all, back in 1975 who else was throwing-in dual-speed wipers, heater, two wing mirrors, a 21-piece toolkit and a claimed 35mpg in a £799 van? But, as we all know, you can't polish a turd. This was one of the worst vans ever built and not even an extensive advertising campaign in Commercial Motor was enough to shift these Russian relics.

A3 Renault Master looks rather familiar

Over the past few years the fields surrounding Britain’s motorways have been turned into a commercial vehicle scrapyard. It seems you can’t travel for more than a few miles without noticing a decrepit trailer, truck or van parked by the roadside and draped in an advertisement for some website, car dealership, or fast food restaurant.

Most popular choice of truck seems to be the 7.5-tonne Ford Cargo box van, although I’ve noticed a few Leyland Roadrunners too. The most common advertisement van appears to be the Mk3 Transit Luton, although if you look carefully you’ll notice a handful of Mk2 Lutons scattered around too. Panel vans are a far less popular choice, presumably because they offer a smaller billboard area. However if you are going to use a van, I guess the vast Renault Master is the obvious choice.

Anyway, this got me thinking. What’s the oldest vehicle currently being used as a roadside advertisement? I noticed a mid-1970s Bedford CF beside the M25 the other day. Can anyone beat this?

Check out this sorry-looking Piaggio Ape, photographed by a friend of mine in Italy last week.
“I love the micro-trucks of Italy,” he says. “It’s so refreshing that in this day and age manufacturers like Piaggio, Casalini, Bonetti and Effidi soldier on. This one seems to be Tuscany’s answer to the 60-tonne Scandinavian loggers.”

And how’s this for something a bit different - a pimped-out Ape people-carrier. It looks like it’s just come off the set of Quadrophenia – or should that be Trikeophenia?

This beautiful 30-tonne Atkinson Defender tipper is photographed on the Commercial Motor test route in the summer of 1973.
The test driver wasn’t overly impressed with the truck’s performance, which he describes as “adequate rather than startling”. Its average speed for the 196-mile test route was 33.8mph. Fuel consumption was about average for the day too, returning 6.3mpg. Today we would expect a figure somewhere between 7.5 and 9mpg.
Check out some of the other traffic on the road, which includes a Leyland EA van, a Jaguar Mk2, Viva HC, Renault 16, Triumph Herald and Rover P6.
Does anybody recognise where the picture was taken?

You are looking at the Rytecraft Scootatruck – a commercial version of the slightly more famous Scootacar. This bizarre vehicle was built by the London-based British Motor Boat Manufacturing Company, which churned out miniature vehicles between 1934 and 1940. They were powered by a 250cc Villiers engine, and could reach a top speed of 40mph.

According to this website I found, none of the vehicles had proper headlamps, so therefore were not intended for road use. However this one has number plates and lights, so presumably was road-legal.

The thing that really puzzles me about this terrible truck, is where is the driver supposed to put his legs? Any ideas? More to the point, what would happen to them in the event of a crash?

This has to be one of the crappest CVs I've featured on this blog.

Commercial Motor's associate editor Colin Barnett has been on his travels again, only this time he didn't need to take his passport with him. The question is, where is he today? If you recognise the Austin A35, A55, Gypsy and Bedford CA in this photograph then you probably know exactly where he is. Let me know and if you're the first with the right answer I'll see if I can dig out some sort of a prize to send you - but don't expect anything too fantastic!

Congratulations to John Comer from Volvo who correctly guessed that Colin is at the Goodwood Circuit. There's a 2008 Roadside Relics calendar coming your way.

Motor Transport's editorial team was forced to go to the Great British Beer Festival last night. Obviously we didn't want to, but we thought it was important to cover that story about the beer delivery truck that was stolen. And yes, it did require all five of us to be there!
Which leads me neatly onto today's blog photo - which comes from MT's archives.
A Leyland is unloaded of empty casks at Ansell’s Aston brewery in Birmingham. Directly behind it is another Leyland, and that appears to be a 3-tonne BMC being loaded with full casks in the background. And if I’m not mistaken that's a Scammell mechanical horse on the far right of the picture.
I love the 'Beer is Best' advertising on the front of the truck – not that anyone on Motor Transport needs convincing! (Even if one member of the news desk only drinks fruit beer!)

The year is nineteen-thirty-something, and Ford is putting on an event to show off its entire UK product range - which includes buses, vans, cars and trucks. What a great venue to demonstrate the line-up. If I'm not mistaken this is London's Albert Hall.

“The 1972 Commercial Vehicle Show will undoubtedly go down in history as the year the Europeans tried to muscle in on the British market,” declared Motor Transport’s technical editor 35 years ago. Continued below:

OK, so I know it’s not a commercial vehicle, but I reckon its worthy of a place on this blog anyway.

This is apparently a VW Bugeroo, the camper version of the Beetle. The car was photographed outside a garage in Arizona, and the owner told me it’s one of just a handful ever made. However I can’t find any reference to the vehicle on Google. Has anyone got any information?

Toby Clark adds:

I suspect it's actually a Bugaroo, and though I haven't been able to find any more information I did find this Bugaroo/Bugeroo picture (again from Arizona) and this restoration job on eBay (from Hertfordshire, of all places).

Will Shiers adds:
I've got a feeling that red one is exactly the same Bugaroo - just after a dubious coat of paint.

Who says we work in a sexist industry?

Back in 1972 Motor Transport’s technical editor Pat Kennett was lucky enough to get behind the wheel of the all-new Austin-Morris Marina van – the successor to the infamous Minor.
Now it’s no secret that the Marina, and the polished-turd (Morris Ital) that followed it, were absolute crap. It’s therefore interesting to see how he went about writing this test.
Continued below:

Left all alone in the world, an abandoned mid 1960s Chevy truck waits patiently in the hope that one day its owners will return for it. But we know they won’t!
When I drove through this central Texas town the following year I discovered that the only thing to have changed was that the truck had been robbed of its wheels and pickup bed. I would be surprised if this wooden house is still standing, and even more amazed if there’s anything left of the truck today.
And this seems like the perfect time to shamelessly plug my new Roadside Relics 2008 calendar – which is the perfect accompaniment for my book!

According to Ford van boss Steve Kimber - one of the biggest advantages Transit has over its rivals is the sheer number of different derivatives on offer. “Transit customers get a choice of three bodies, two powertrain configurations (front- or real-wheel drive), three roof heights, four load lengths, three wheelbases and even two side loading door sizes. It allows us to listen to our customers’ requirements, and react accordingly,” he says.
Well is was a similar story in June 1973 when this mobile lunch box was built specifically for one of its customers.

You are looking at Night Scotsman and Globetrotter, a pair of wonderful old Atkinson eight-leggers, which joined the Pollock fleet in the early 1960s.
According to the Pollock (Scotrans) website, the company started naming its trucks in 1963, along with that familiar Scottish tartan. Both traditions continue today.

Well it’s not often that a vehicle manufacturer will admit that its vans are ugly is it – so good on Ford for its honesty.
Meet the Fordmonster – otherwise known as the MkI Transit Parcel Van. Apparently “it makes up in duty what it lacks in beauty”. The small print goes on to say:
Continued below:

This is the truck that struck fear into the hearts of every parent – the BMC FG -
the paedophile’s favourite truck! Just look at the reaction it got when it pulled up in this 1967 suburban street. Anyone would think it was carrying a load of puppies!
Continued below

We are having a large-scale power shutdown at Roadtransport Towers this weekend, which means that you will not be able to add comments to entries on any of the Roadtransport.com blogs over the Bank Holiday weekend. The blogs themselves will still be available to read, but there will be no new entries or comments until Monday.

The blogs affected are:
The Road Transport Blog
BigLorryBlog
The Truck & Van Blog
The Operators' Blog
The Transport Law Blog
The World Trucks Blog

Meanwhile, have a great weekend.

I love this British Aluminium Company advertisement, which appeared in Motor Transport in the early 1970s.
It’s basically saying that old trucks were crap, built poorly, and rotted quickly.
“They used to build lorries with steel sheets, reinforced with wood and screws and finished with iron, steel and brass fittings,” it says.
“The result was a body that rusted, split and chipped. In the past there was a very good reason for building wagons like this. They had no choice.”
OK fair point, aluminium doesn’t rust, but I think they’re being a bit hard on what appears to be a late 1920s Ford AA. It’s over forty years old when this picture was taken. I can’t imagine that a 1967 Ford Transit would look any healthier today – even if it did have an aluminium body on the back.
And if you like photos of old American cars and trucks please check out my book Roadside Relics!!!!

I’ve been looking through my photo album, and thought I’d share this handful of Cuban trucks with you.

This Chevy truck is in remarkable condition considering that the country has been starved of spares for the best part of 50 years. GM cars and trucks are held in high regard by Cubans, having proved to be more reliable than both Ford and Chrysler products of the same era.
Having said that, the original petrol engine in this early 50s truck has been replaced by a Russian-built diesel that kicks out plumes of carcinogenic smoke.

Continued below

Here’s a blast from the past – the Bedford HA.
There can’t be more than a handful of these left on Britain’s roads, most having rusted away many years ago. I certainly can’t remember the time when I last saw one.
It’s hard to believe that these were still selling in 1982, some 18 years after their launch and 16 years after the Viva HA car on which it was based was discontinued.
Although I’ve got a soft spot for HA’s (and remember trips to Hastings in the back of my gradfather’s Bedford Beagle in the mid 1970s), I think it’s fair to say that it deserves a place in our crap cv list, even if they did only cost £9!

Motor Transport’s old technical editor Phil Reed tells me that the Bedford Chevanne was one of the worst vans he ever had the displeasure to test. Apparently during the course of a week both the front windscreen and the side window both broke!
That said, Phil did manage to find a few positive things to say, including “good ride and predictable handling”, “one of the most comfortable vans I have driven” and “great economy on two-star petrol”. But he was keen to point out a few criticisms too, most notably “a high level of mechanical noise” and “the smell of burning clutch”!

Back in the 1920s Leyland ran this advertisement in Motor Transport – announcing that the Iraq Petroleum Co was buying a number of its newly launched Beavers. Apparently it wanted them for “the transport of supplies on its colossal pipe-laying scheme”.
I’m looking forward to your comments!