Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Yeah, they're just down the road from me.

The West Country is full of those fucking vans...

Yeah, they're just down the road from me.

Wait, what?
When?
How?

Thanks. And you are right. I’ve had three black cars.

Just got fed up with living in London...

Spotted this 1968 Cadillac Coupe deVille today being used as a 4 wheeled advert for a new steakhouse. 7.7 litre V8, average of 9 MPG apparently, but on the upside its exempt from ULEZ.

On brand really

Love the 68s. They were the last of the elegant Caddys.

That is utterly amazing.

Pure filth. What a fucken heroic car

Fuck the steakhouse stuff but that is just epic. Great spot dude

Van update - one of the two sold last night, likely the silver one. That answers the colour choice question - there isn't a choice, it's whatever is left.

I bet the hearse version of that could stow a few mountain bikes... 😉

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334215307186?hash=item4dd0c8dfb2:g:N5MAAOSwHSRhSNsf

Just found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz7tXhZ7To0

If you're going to go for a V220, isn't a marco polo more suitable?

V220

Had to do a bit of a double-take there. Thought we were suddenly suggesting picking up one of these:

Ha yes i actually had to double take my own typing.

I'd quite like one of those also

If you're going to go for a V220, isn't a marco polo more suitable?

I'd say maybe.

The original goal was to get a vehicle that the bikes could go inside.

An example - we went mountain biking yesterday, stopped at services on the way there and the way back, one of us had to stay with the car whilst the other went in so that the bikes could not be stolen.

When we got home we were both knackered - but bikes had to come off the roof, be put back together, be stowed away securely before we could make dinner.

It would be great to have the bikes inside a vehicle so that things are just more convenient.

The other thing that sticks in the mind was when we drove up to Scotland - there was literally one place that had some secure storage that we could put the bikes in (in Yorkshire, handily next to Dalby forest, so it's an ill wind...), but that meant that of all the B&B's, hotels etc in the middle of the UK we could use one.

Bikes inside the vehicle - this is no longer a problem.

But! That original goal become subject to a lot of feature creep - easy to do when you go down the rabbit hole of custom MTB/campers.

The V220 can stow the bikes, and in some configurations can have a kitchen/workshop and some beds, but in general use it can just get the bikes in the back on the extending tray.

I think it works for what we actually need, rather than the bells and whistles that we ended up looking at. Although I do wonder whether a Marco Polo Horizon as the base, with the same Blok Pod stuff in the back would not be a more flexible vehicle - but we could always get an EV one of those in three years.

Can't remember who pointed it out earlier, but you can see here that the bottom trays are the bike ones, rather than the ones for the bed-pod (they're a lot longer):

This all makes sense. It's not the same, but when traveling with surfboards I hate leaving them on the roof for fear of theft. A few boards and the there's easily a few thousand in cash for tea leaves.

I think you’re on to a winner with something more like this.

Although you’ll maybe want to get the windows blanked out / extra heavy tinted if you’re planning on leaving bikes in there overnight and not sleeping in it at the same time, it’s not uncommon for vans to get broken into just for the bikes

This one could have the Blok Pod stuff added.

Does seem sensible to have the roof tent to allow for more space for bikes / kitchen etc in the van.

That is in my saved search folder, and it would be a decent shout - just 10k or so more than the V220 to get to spec.

Don’t they fit in the boot of your estate? I can easily get two MTB’s in my golf. Allen keys for wheels and five minutes of your time are much cheaper than a V class…

Not with other stuff in there, no.

Warning: MTB’s being stolen out of vans at service stations is a very real thing - I’ve heard several stories of people returning from bike park wales, and having bikes nicked out of van whilst stopped at services on way home. Possibly targeted at bike park car park and followed.

A good friend of mine uses his work LWB transit Kombi van for taking bikes to the bike park, and the cargo section has full bulkhead between it and rear seats. He always purposefully reverse parks with back of van against a wall or something static so that the rear doors can not be opened. He had 3 bikes nicked out of the back of his van at a services on M4….. didn’t even realise the were gone til he got back to Bristol, as thiefs had somehow unlocked the front doors, released hand brake, rolled van forwards, removed bikes, put van back and locked all doors leaving no obvious sign of entry.

Yes your bikes will be safer in a van, but leaving them locked in a van overnight/hours at a time unattended is a very bad idea….. especially a £70k LWB van that shouts expendable income, and a taste for outdoor activities. You may as well have a sticker on the back window that says “£20k’s worth of bikes inside, please don’t steal them”