Let’s start with the name Bilbo’s—not named after the founder, or a combination of their initials. In fact, it comes from Bilbo Baggins a character in the Lord Of The Rings books who drives around in a T6—or something like that. I’ve never read the book—too many long words and not enough pictures in it for me, but I’ve heard Hollywood have also made a film based on the book too, so I might give that a watch. Anyone seen it and spotted the VWs?
David and Moira Latham started converting ex-post office vans into VW campers back in the 70s when they were living in Holland. “David is a former car mechanic, while his wife was an interior designer,” explained the company’s communication manager, Les Barnes. They moved to the UK and started Bilbo’s Motorhomes in 1977 and are still going strong. In fact, at a meeting with VW a few years ago the manufactured confirmed to them that Bilbo’s were the largest VW conversion company in the UK, and by quite some margin! Forty-three years on the founding couple are still very much hands-on when it comes to running the company.
Esta historia es de la edición Issue 96 de VW Bus T4&5+.
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Esta historia es de la edición Issue 96 de VW Bus T4&5+.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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The Evolution of Van
To mark 100 issues of VWBus, David takes a look back at how updating the humble ‘Box on Wheels’ has gone from concept to reality
Wild Times
Perhaps a sign of the wild times we’re in and a telling sign of how fast we’re adapting to the ‘new normal’. I decide to take a U-turn and zoom out on how things looked as that ‘new normal’ was taking hold, along with how that’s effecting our little sector
Story's Story
With The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden under our belts and barely two weeks on the road, we were heading to the ultimate van life destination; Norway…
Karmann-Go
When you own ‘The fastest motorhome in the world’,getting to the campsite on time shouldn’t be a problem
Gran Tourettesmo
This is a very cool and interesting project, but the question is,is this the ultimate eBay build?
CBBA
If there was such a thing as Cool Bus Builders Anonymous, then each meet in Leicestershire would start with the words. “Hello, my name’s Andy Stretton and I can’t stop building seriously cool buses.”
Honey I Shrunk My Bus
When Grant Gwyn walked into a VW dealership to buy a Viper green Caddy, little did he know his future was about to be very orange...
Milk Float Influence
Nicknamed Ernie, we discover this custom-created T5 pickup won’t be doing the early morning milk round any time soon
Impossible Solved
A while back we brought you a basic sketch of a proposed project, it was both wild and eminently practical. Well it’s finished now and already in service as a daily driver for a very special lad
An Alpine Summer
In the concluding instalment we pick up Richard and Jackie Pickles’ story of their eight-country Alpine summer adventure on the shore of Lake Como in Italy
