We’ve covered GM vans of all sorts here at CC, but here’s a variant we haven’t seen in a while: a Bedford CF, from GM-owned Vauxhall’s Bedford commercial division in the UK. Last time I visited the Old Continent, old cars were not as common as they are in the Americas, and I doubt that situation has changed much since. So it’s nice to see an old survivor of the working kind, though in the Netherlands rather than in its native UK land.
This CF van may be an ocean away, but its overall lines look clearly familiar to us in the Americas; no way to avoid seeing the shape of a 1971 Chevy/GMC van in its contours, though it arrived a couple of years earlier. But as a recently republished post mentioned, GM’s styling had a way to find its way across the company’s worldwide output, regardless of which of their outlets was the original creator.
Leaving aside my GMC/Chevy van notions, there are enough styling touches on the CF that do make it feel like a product from the British Islands. Either that or I remember them as a background item in some British show from those days…
I’m not versed enough in utilitarian vans to know to which specific line of trade/lifestyle the louvres and other minor traits that this CF has belong to. Perhaps someone in the comments will expand on that. In the meantime, I enjoyed looking at this UK spin of what are otherwise familiar styling cues.
Related CC reading:
GMC Vans: Bedford Blitz CF2800 and GMC Vandura – Guess Which One Came First
This looks like a professional camper conversion to me. The pop top and vent would support that. These were a popular choice for ice cream van conversions in the seventies and eighties, and that’s just about the only way you’ll ever see one now, I can’t remember the last time I saw one that was just a straight van.
The CF always played second fiddle to the Transit and VW Transporter, despite being a decent design from Wayne Cherry’s talented team. GM seemed to be half hearted about keeping it fresh however, whilst competitors updated and improved their products continually.
GM then left that market entirely- the Arena and MIDI were not in the same class – for years until re-entering with the hugely successful Vivaro which, contrary to popular belief was not just a “rebadged Renault Trafic”, but a proper joint venture between GM and la Regie. The chosen design theme came from an Opel designer (me) – you can see the “Jumbo” roof in the first sketches in the picture. The Trafic/Vivaro won van of the year and was best seller in its class in Europe for a number of years.
There’s a lot to be impressed about with a survivor like this, but just one small detail is the GM sticker on the rear window. Somehow, over the last half-century of van use, that never got removed.
I think these stickers came on a variety of European GM vehicles. I was able to find a Netherlands-based decal reproducer who sells the inverse of this (white letters on black background), but it’s good for getting an idea of what it originally looked like.
Here’s the link to the decal reproduction:
https://www.marceldeijkers.nl/index.php/shop1/stickers/w202-c-klasse/gm-window-detail
In the old Britcom “Decreasing Circles” with Richard Briers as a neurotic nut named Martin and his suave neighbor Paul (played by Peter Egan, later of “Downton Abbey” and “Hold the Sunset [with the inimitable John Cleese in the latter], Martin drove a light blue ’80s van that may have been a Bedford, with 3 or more rows of seats.He always called it “The Dormobile” for some reason. Not knowing much at all about thevans of Britain, it may well have been a Ford, or some other make unknown? Anyone?
Dormobile was the name used by Martin Walter, a leading producer of caravan/motorhome conversions from the mid-fities on. They later branched into minibus conversion work; presumably his was one such. Maybe he called it ‘The Dormobile’ because another company was contracted to supply vehicles for the show – but then, why not call it ‘the bus’?
In the ’60s and ’70s Dormobile for camper vans was like Hoover for vacuum cleaners.
A proprietary eponym…
Camper conversion, very cool.
Back around 1986 I owned one, also converted by myself to a simple campervan. Me and a friend who also had one travelled all over Europe in those, and we even went to Israel and Egypt with one.
As well as ice cream vans and campers the CF was also a popular choice for ambulances.
These used to be so common in Australia.
The 2000/2300 OHC motors were unique to the van – we didn’t get Vauxhall cars by then. LC/LJ Torana fours only got the Vauxhall ‘small block’ pushrod 1256cc, with the 1600/1760 OHC as the ‘big block’ upgrade. The 2000/2300 were van-only here. So Holden eventually fitted the 173 six (not sure about the 202) – thus making the van more competitive with Ford’s Falcon-engined Transit, and minimising the demand for those oddball big Vauxhall engine parts.
I have a vague recollection of the 202 in these. I worked on a few as an apprentice in the late 70s/early 80s. As far as I can recall the manual versions were the only GM-H vehicles with three on the floor.
It’s been over 40 years, so I may well be wrong.
Another interesting and rare in the U.S.A. rig .
-Nate
More CF wonderfulness here. Vauxpedia is an oracle for Vauxhall history and images.
http://vauxpedia.net/bedford-97000—cf-cf2-part-1