Andy
06-17-2009, 07:08 PM
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/06/Bedford_1.jpgA mysterious British customizer proves even the lowliest of vehicles — a Bedford ice cream van — can transform into objects of desire.
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/06/Bedford_2.jpg
The 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (http://jalopnik.com/366250/cadillac-eldorado-brougham), the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 (http://jalopnik.com/5037293/2009-corvette-zr1-first-drive) and now this: a Bedford ice cream van. All vehicles which have sprung forth from the garnantuan corpus of General Motors (http://jalopnik.com/tag/general-motors/) over the decades. They all are awesome. The Caddy and the Vette by default—the Bedford by the copious application of vehicular art.
Bedford Vehicles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Vehicles) used to make trucks as the commercial subsidiary of Vauxhall, GM’s British offshoot, before dying a slow, ugly death. Scratch that: it’s lorries, not trucks. Military lorries, ambulances, mobile cinema lorries and the ice cream vans which still dot the British landscape.
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/06/Bedford_3.jpg
Except they generally don’t look like this one, bagged on Prince of Wales Road (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.784549,56.601563&ie=UTF8&ll=51.546976,-0.148745&spn=0.01217,0.027637&t=h&z=15&iwloc=A) in Camden Town, around the edges of a council estate (that’s British for project housing). Bedford vans don’t usually come in rich slatherings of bianco fuji paint with a hint of pistachio. Nor did the British commercial vehicle industry ever harbor an especially wholesome relationship with huge-ass chrome dubs. Or screw-on dual exhaust tips.
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/06/Bedford_4.jpg
This lovely van was parked behind thick metal bars, so unfortunately, this is as close as I could get. And no, I had nothing to do with that discarded cone of ice cream. Sometimes, circumstances simply conspire to create car art. I’m sorry, scratch that: it’s lorry art.
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vPzurNpHUVrHSSYgfCpU5DCIFbA/0/di (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vPzurNpHUVrHSSYgfCpU5DCIFbA/0/da)
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vPzurNpHUVrHSSYgfCpU5DCIFbA/1/di (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vPzurNpHUVrHSSYgfCpU5DCIFbA/1/da)
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?a=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?a=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?i=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:D7DqB2pKExk (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?a=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?i=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:V_sGLiPBpWU (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?a=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/jalopnik/full/~4/uQS2P92IZdo
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/jalopnik/full/~3/uQS2P92IZdo/behold-the-pimped+out-bedford-ice-cream-van)
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/06/Bedford_2.jpg
The 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (http://jalopnik.com/366250/cadillac-eldorado-brougham), the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 (http://jalopnik.com/5037293/2009-corvette-zr1-first-drive) and now this: a Bedford ice cream van. All vehicles which have sprung forth from the garnantuan corpus of General Motors (http://jalopnik.com/tag/general-motors/) over the decades. They all are awesome. The Caddy and the Vette by default—the Bedford by the copious application of vehicular art.
Bedford Vehicles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Vehicles) used to make trucks as the commercial subsidiary of Vauxhall, GM’s British offshoot, before dying a slow, ugly death. Scratch that: it’s lorries, not trucks. Military lorries, ambulances, mobile cinema lorries and the ice cream vans which still dot the British landscape.
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/06/Bedford_3.jpg
Except they generally don’t look like this one, bagged on Prince of Wales Road (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.784549,56.601563&ie=UTF8&ll=51.546976,-0.148745&spn=0.01217,0.027637&t=h&z=15&iwloc=A) in Camden Town, around the edges of a council estate (that’s British for project housing). Bedford vans don’t usually come in rich slatherings of bianco fuji paint with a hint of pistachio. Nor did the British commercial vehicle industry ever harbor an especially wholesome relationship with huge-ass chrome dubs. Or screw-on dual exhaust tips.
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/06/Bedford_4.jpg
This lovely van was parked behind thick metal bars, so unfortunately, this is as close as I could get. And no, I had nothing to do with that discarded cone of ice cream. Sometimes, circumstances simply conspire to create car art. I’m sorry, scratch that: it’s lorry art.
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vPzurNpHUVrHSSYgfCpU5DCIFbA/0/di (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vPzurNpHUVrHSSYgfCpU5DCIFbA/0/da)
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vPzurNpHUVrHSSYgfCpU5DCIFbA/1/di (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vPzurNpHUVrHSSYgfCpU5DCIFbA/1/da)
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?a=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?a=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?i=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:D7DqB2pKExk (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?a=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?i=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:V_sGLiPBpWU (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/jalopnik/full?a=uQS2P92IZdo:D6UKCyUV0qo:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/jalopnik/full/~4/uQS2P92IZdo
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/jalopnik/full/~3/uQS2P92IZdo/behold-the-pimped+out-bedford-ice-cream-van)