American-French Workhorse

• 
• 
• 

Apart from the annual London to Brighton Commercial Vehicle Run in the UK, how often do you see old trucks and vans on the road. Unceremoniously used and abused by their first owners, most elderly commercial vehicles went to the great scrapyard in the sky long before their car contemporaries. For the few that survived, it is much more difficult to find a loving new owner who will lavish the same care and attention on them as they would a motor car. Let's face it, an old pick-up truck is never going to be as desirable as a sports car, after all.

We're happy to publish these photographs of the fine Ford Vedette camionette now owned by The Automobile magazine. Canny readers will have spotted the V8-engined Vedette was never offered with this body by the factory. The Americanised Vedette was a flop in France, and stocks of unsold cars built up around the country. A few clever dealers had the bright idea that they might shift faster if they could be sold to farmers and tradesmen – less demanding customers, on the whole, than Parisian families. By cutting off the rear part of the body and replacing it with a simple wooden pick-up bed and canvas tilt, they managed to offload a few more examples of the troublesome Vedette before Ford-France finally pulled the plug in 1954.

This example had been in dry storage for decades, which explains why it has survived so well, in remarkably original condition. After a lightning-fast recommissioning it transported The Automobile's editorial team to the Vintage Revival at Montlhéry in May. You can read all about that fabulous event, and the humble Vedette, in the latest issue, which is out now.

(Photos & text Scott Barrett)

  

Plaats een reactie...