Heritage Commercials Magazine - capturing the spirit of vintage days

Welcome...

It’s been quite a job putting together this first issue, as it’s on a completely fresh subject – and it didn’t help that I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody what we were planning! However, I’m pleased to say that thanks to our superb contributors, I think it’s come out excellently with some cracking features. I’ll just pick a few out at random

We all know of the sad demise of Scammell back in 1988 but what is often forgotten is that their designs did carry on for a while under the Unipower name. This innovative firm also came up with some unbeatable vehicles for the military. You can read all about the company and what happened to them in ‘Son of Scammell’ by Ed Burrows.

We’ve also come up with a lightweight – but all is not what it seems! This ordinary-looking 1989 Transit is actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing – or more correctly a big cat in sheep’s clothing – and it’s capable of doing almost 180mph!

But don’t dismiss this as a custom van, as it was actually built by TWR as a development ‘mule’ to allow them to secretly test on the road the engine and running gear for the Jaguar XJ220 super car – although how secret a Transit that spits flames from its exhausts and does 0-60mph in 3.6 seconds can be is a bit of a mystery! It does make you wonder what else is out there being tested under the cover of being an ordinary commercial.

Bob Tuck has come up trumps yet again with a superb piece on the restoration of a Volvo F12 heavy haulage tractor which has been undertaken by 21-year-old Leanne Booth. I thought this was a fantastic story and even better in that despite what some say, it shows that some of today’s generation are seriously interested in older vehicles – we definitely need more people like Leanne.

But these features are just some of what we’ve come up with. I’ll leave you with the request that if you know of an emerging classic commercial out there that should be in these pages, please contact us – it’s time that they and their owners got the recognition they deserve.

Stephen Pullen
Editor