Our story is probably not at all typical of your members – all amazingly enthusiastic about their old campers!
My husband and I rather fell into the purchase of our first campervan, Penny Lane, a 1975 T2. Jamie is a 4th generation farmer running a big business on the Norfolk/Lincolnshire border. We’ve been thinking over the years of how to diversify and how to make the most of old buildings no longer suitable for modern agriculture. Not quite on the tourist trail, and not convenient enough for a business park.
Then a friend mentioned that they knew of a local couple wanting to downsize their campervan rental fleet, knowing that our son is a classic car enthusiast (his first car at 17 and all through university was a 1969 Imp – and it’s still running). We were intrigued, and met the then owners of Retro Campers Norfolk, which has been running since 2011. Their main issue was storage – they had to pay silly money for inadequate, often damp and not very convenient winter storage of their 5 classic campers and decided they needed to sell at least two of them to continue with holiday rentals of the others, and we agreed to buy Penny Lane. They then started to think they’d sell the whole business, and we thought why not? A new adventure, we have lots of space, and our enthusiastic son could help with maintaining the vehicles. We could do this!
By autumn 2023, we had ourselves a new venture on the farm, and we became the proud owners of Penny Lane, Buttercup and Mr Blue Sky – all RHD 1975 T2s in excellent order, plus Good Thing, a funky 1989 T25 – perfect for the holiday rental market. We spent much of the winter (and considerable expense!) converting a redundant building into their new home. Plenty of space for customers to get the hang of the gears and non-power steering in our farmyard and along quiet country lanes before they reach the main roads around King’s Lynn, ready for their camping adventures. Whilst we don’t have a mileage limit, we do ask customers to stay within a 60-mile (as the crow flies) radius of King’s Lynn, so most explore the Norfolk coast and Broads, but our area also includes Suffolk, the Fens, Rutland and Lincolnshire.
As you can imagine each camper has its own little quirks, and each new customer has to be carefully taken through how to drive and live in a classic camper. But our first major set-back was Buttercup needing a new engine! Despite having a pre- and mid-season service each year, you never quite know what’s round the corner with old vehicles. We are lucky to have Jason at Dubs and Classics nearby, and he put a new VW Engine Company engine in, plus various other tweaks. Despite being reasonably mechanically-minded on the farm, we are very much novices when it comes to old VWs, and feel reassured to have Jason and other local experienced guys to call on. The vans have to be in tip-top condition to hire out.
And running the new business has been quite a learning curve too! I’ve had to learn how to run a website, booking system and social media, but they say learning something new keeps our brains younger…
Personally we’re looking forward to a long weekend away with friends very soon – we’ll take two campers to the Norfolk Broads, so look out for us on the roads!
If any members of the T2 Owners Club would like to hire a camper for a few days (maybe yours is off the road, or you have friends who’d like to join you?), please get in touch – we can offer a 15% discount off any booking by members. Please see www.retrocampersnorfolk.co.uk or email info@retrocampersnorfolk.co.uk.