MY FEEDLY

A 1914 Ford Model T Motor Caravan – The Oldest Surviving Motorhome In The World

This is 1914 Ford Model T Motor Caravan is said to be the oldest known motor caravan in the world. It was built just before the outbreak of the First World War for a wealthy British family, and it’s based on a Ford Model T chassis.

The steel ladder chassis was extended and strengthened by Baico, then the caravan body was custom built by Dunton of Reading, a company well-known for their traditional travellers’ caravans.

Fast Facts – The 1914 Ford Model T Motor Caravan

This custom-built motorhome was completed in 1914, it’s based on the Ford Model T platform and it has a wooden caravan body built by Dunton in England.
It was built for a member of the Bentall clan, a wealthy family who had founded the British department store chain of the same name.
Power is provided by the 2.9 liter (177 cubic inch) Ford Model T engine which is capable of 20 hp in factory trim. The Model T had a top speed of 45 mph (72 km/h), and so it’s likely that this motorhome’s top speed would be somewhat lower than that due to the additional weight.
This unusual vintage motorhome is now due to roll across the auction block with Bonhams on the 10th of September with a price guide of £20,000 – £30,000, which is approximately $23,700 – $35,600 USD.

Motorhome: On The Origin Of Species

There isn’t complete agreement on who built the first motorhome or when, but we do know that the first production motorhome was almost certainly the Touring Landau model offered by the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company in 1910.

The Model T Motor Caravan has a functional wood stove which is used for both cooking and heating.

The Touring Landau was a motorhome in every modern sense of the word, it offered an onboard toilet and ample storage for camping equipment. It’s worth remembering that in 1910 there were no highways and relatively few sealed roads, so any cross-country journey was likely to be an adventure – which is why the Touring Landau was developed.

In 1915 the concept of the motorhome exploded into the consciousness of many Americans thanks to the custom-built “Gypsy Van” belonging to the Conklin family, who departed from Huntington, New York on a cross-country camping trip.

The Gypsy Van had been built by Roland Conklin’s Gas-Electric Motor Bus Company. The adventures of the Conklin family as they headed to San Francisco were covered extensively in the newspapers of the day, including The New York Times.

By the 1920s the concept of the caravan or camper trailer had been well established, and by the 1930s companies like Bowlus and Airstream were making their iconic all-aluminum trailers that took their inspiration from the world of aviation.

After WWII the concept of the RV exploded in popularity, the Winnebago company was founded in 1958 and by the 1970s America’s biggest automaker, General Motors, had the GMC Motorhome in production.

The driver’s seat is actually a chesterfield sofa that can be turned around 180º when not in use, to function as the primary sofa in the living area.

Today the RV industry posts sales figures in the billions of dollars annually, many Americans had holidays in RVs as kids and when they have kids of their own they repeat the experience.

The 1914 Ford Model T Motor Caravan Shown Here

The vehicle you see here is said to be the oldest surviving motorhome anywhere in the world, it dates back to 1914 which slots it in-between the 1910 Pierce-Arrow Touring Landau and the Conklin family’s Gypsy Van of 1915.

The Ford Model T had been released just six years earlier in 1908 and the automotive revolution it sparked was still gaining steam. The Model T was powered by a 2.9 liter (177 cubic inch) flathead inline-four cylinder engine producing 20 bhp which gave the car a top speed of 45 mph and a sustained cruising speed a little slower.

When a member of the wealthy British Bentall family was looking for a motorhome they started with a Model T which had its chassis professionally lengthened by Baico before its aforementioned caravan body was designed and built by Dunton.

The style of the body is somewhat akin to the railroad carriages of the day, though perhaps a little smaller of course. It’s almost entirely made of wood, with period correct fitting and fixtures throughout.

There’s sleeping space for four inside, with one double bed and two single bunks.

The driver’s seat is a plush leather sofa with seating for two, this can then be turned 180º to function as the primary sofa in the living area. Further back in the living area you’ll find two overhead single bunks with a double bed below, there’s a wood stove that’s used for cooking and heating, a folding table, an additional leather stool, cupboard space, and even a mail slot.

The early life of this unusual motorhome is largely lost to history but it is known that it was rediscovered in the 1970s by Mr Leo Smith who restored it alongside his friend (and talented cabinetmaker) Mr Robin Tanner.

Once completed the vehicle was entered into the 1976 HCVC London-Brighton Run, where it won seven awards including the concours. In the years since the motorhome has taken part in many more London-Brighton Runs, it has participated in various other rallies and historic vehicle shows, and it’s been featured on television.

It’s now due to roll across the auction block with Bonhams on the 10th of September with a price guide of £20,000 – £30,000 which is approximately $23,700 – $35,600 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.

Images courtesy of Bonhams

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The Bellroy Venture Duffel

This is the Bellroy Venture Duffel, it’s a rugged 40 liter duffel bag made from a water-resistant ripstop fabric coupled with water-resistant zippers, and it has an extra-wide zipper allowing easy access to its contents.

Bellroy is an Australia company that was founded back in 2010 around a kitchen table. The company name comes from combining Bells Beach with Fitzroy, the two key locations where the company has offices.

The Bellroy Venture Duffel is offered in both Midnight (black) and Nightsky (dark blue) colorways with matching clip-in shoulder straps.

Since 2020 the company has grown quickly, they now have retailers in 120 countries around the world, they employ 70 people, and they make an extensive line of wallets, bags, smartphone cases, key covers and more.

The Bellroy Venture Duffel was developed as a 21st centry version of the age-old duffel bag. It’s made from water-resistant, rip-stop material and inside you’ll find a detachable water-resistant stuff sack ideally suited for holding your shoes without letting them get everything else in the bag dirty.

Each bag comes with a detachable water-resistant stuff sack that is ideally suited to containing dirty items that you want to keep separate – like muddy boots or wet clothes.

You’ll also find elevated mesh zip pockets inside to help keep your stuff organized, and it has an external quick-access pocket with a key clip. The bag has reinforced, rolled-edge grab handles and detachable padded shoulder straps with two mounting positions.

Bellroy offer the Venture Duffel in Midnight (black) and Nightsky (dark blue) colorways and they retail for $179 USD. Huckberry is currently offering the bag with free US shipping and free 60 day returns.

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Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertible – Ex-Maurice Gibb Of The Bee Gees

It’s probably safe to say that every example of the Rolls-Royce Corniche that was ever made has an interesting story to tell, but this one is more interesting than most – it was bought secondhand for triple its original asking price by none other than Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees.

No other car on Earth were as desirable for newly minted pop star millionaires than those made by Rolls-Royce, and arguably the most desirable of all was the two-door Corniche convertible.

Fast Facts – The Bee Gees Rolls-Royce Corniche

There is likely no other band other than the Bee Gees that can lay claim to creating the sound of the 1970s. They turned out disco hit after disco hit, even today decades later they’re still one of the most successful pop-rock groups of all time.
Rolls-Royce is a British luxury automaker that requires no introduction, they have been producing some of the most opulent cars in the world since the company was founded back in 1904.
The Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible is a two-door droptop first released in 1971 and sold (with many updates) until 1995. With a length of over 5 meters (16.4 feet) and a curb weight of 2.5 tons the car became synonymous with luxury travel.
The Corniche you see here was bought by Maurice Gibb off the showroom floor of H.R. Owen in London in 1979 for £35,000 – over three times the original purchase price when new. Gibb kept the car for the rest of his life, and his family kept it for many years after his passing in 2003.

The Rolls-Royce Corniche

The Rolls-Royce Corniche was a development of the Mulliner Park Ward two-door version of the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. Production remained at Mulliner Park Ward, a highly respected British coachbuilder and wholly owned Rolls-Royce subsidiary, with the new Corniche name being applied from 1971 onwards.

There are few (if any) convertibles with an interior as opulent as the Corniche.

A Bentley version of the Corniche was also built, known as the Continental. Interestingly the first Corniche was a Bentley, it was built in 1939 and it’s historically significant as it was the car that introduced streamlining to the marque.

The body was built by French coachbuilder Pourtout in 1939 and fitted to a Bentley chassis. Unfortunately 1939 was also the year that WWII began in Europe, after a traffic accident with the 1939 Corniche the chassis was sent back to England and the body was sent to new stored in the town of Dieppe in Normandy, France.

A German bombing raid on Dieppe would destroy the body, but thanks to the many surviving photographs Bentley resurrected the car in 2019.

Production Begins, And A Queue Forms

The Rolls-Royce Corniche entered production in the early 1970s, an immediate queue formed and there was a years long waiting list to get one during much of the 1970s. As a result of this, they often changed hands on the secondhand market for considerably more than they had cost new.

This is the L-series Rolls-Royce 6.75 liter overhead valve V8. Rolls-Royce never liked to specify horsepower figures, deeming them uncouth, they simply describe power output as being “adequate.”

Despite the fact that it was a two-door, the Corniche didn’t have an appreciably different wheelbase from the four-door Rollys-Royce Silver Shadow it was based on. The Corniche had longer doors and comfortable seating for four, maybe five in a pinch.

The car was powered by the same Rolls-Royce L-series V8 engine as the Silver Shadow, a 6.75 liter overhead valve V8 that offers plenty of torque for comfortable highway motoring, power is sent to the rear wheels via a three-speed automatic transmission.

The Corniche is now among the most collectible Rolls-Royces of the era, and they typically change hands for considerably more than their four-door counterparts.

The Ex-Maurice Gibb Corniche Shown Here

The Corniche you see here is a 1973 model, by 1979 it had been traded in or otherwise sold by its first owner (after they put 30,000+ miles on it), and not was being offered off the gleaming showroom floor at H.R. Owen in the wealthy London borough of South Kensington.

Above Video: This is the original music video for the Bee Gees smash hit single “Night Fever.” Some claim this is the quintessential song of the 1970s, there can be no denying it was one of the most influential.

As the story goes, Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees saw the car and decided to buy it on the spot, despite the prodigious (for the era) price of £35,000 – over three times the original asking price.

Gibb must have become quite attached to the car because he would keep it for the rest of his life. He tragically passed away suddenly in 2003, his family would keep the car until 2013 when it was sold on for the first time since 1979.

The car is now due to roll across the auction block with Silverstone Auctions on the 27th of August with a guide price of £100,000 – £115,000, which works out to approximately $119,000 – $137,000 USD.

If you’d like to read more about the car or register to bid you can visit the listing here.