Brian Long - a fascinating automotive author with wide-ranging interests

                                                                  Brian Long
 

Brian Long has a long and distinguished career as an automotive writer, and has written many books published by Veloce. With several new titles coming up, we took the opportunity to find out more about his background, interests, and what fires his passion for cars and engines.

Brian started out as a mechanic, working alongside his uncle, who taught him the game. He says was a super engineer, who lost his first garage in a huge fire. He lost heart and worked on aero-engines for a bit but soon got bored. When Brian left school (he says hated the place!), he got back into the world of repairs and sales. 

He moved into power transmissions and engineering trade supply before writing. This was an accident. He’d always been heavily involved in the classic car scene, and Andrew Whyte suggested the Jaguar-built Daimler guide he’d put together for his own reference should be published. He put him in touch with Rod Grainger (Veloce’s founder and publisher), and the rest is history.

Brian has written many books published by Veloce, and we asked him to tell us a bit more about his forthcoming new books in particular, the Lexus LF A Supercar (due to be published in 2027), and The Ultimate Book of the Mercedes Benz Pagoda (due to be published in 2026). 

The LFA book is being written with his good mate, Peter Lyon. It's a fascinating project, exposing the enthusiasm that exists in a company known for its conservatism. 

The Pagoda book is based on an old title but heavily updated with a ton of new pictures. It's his wife's favourite car, so he joked that she might actually look at this one!

We asked how does/did his career help to define what he writes.

Brian comes from a long line of engineers. His grandma's four brothers were aero-engine people, and his father's brother was a car and bike guy. Everyone in the family is a car or bike person - even his mother could strip a bike engine! In fact, she wanted to be an engineer, but grandad said it wasn't the done thing for a lady! 

He trained as a mechanic, but he observes that you can only do a project properly if you love the subject - it's more important than formal qualifications. A thirst for knowledge will soon fill in gaps, and he loves everything mechanical, from watches at one end to old aeroplanes at the other.

Brian has written about many different cars, so we asked if he has a favourite car and/or marque of car, and why? 

Brian answered that he’s always been a Jaguar and Daimler guy but has always run old Mercedes models and Alfas alongside them. He’s had a lot of Mazdas and love the RE. Old Porsches and Maseratis - all a bit predictable, really, he jokes...!

If he had to choose the one car he regrets selling, it would have to be the 1988 XJ-S HE he had, as he thought it was a magnificent all-rounder. He remembers driving from Pau to Coventry in a day and felt like turning around and doing it again. For a more intense experience, the FD RX-7 was quite something.

                                           Just a couple of the many books by Brian published by Veloce

We asked what Brian is most proud of in your writing career to date?

He replied that there are quite a few books that spring to mind, mainly because of the relationships he’s made through them. 

He says making the landmark 100th book would be his proudest moment. The subjects covered cars in the main (road/race/rally), but also motorcycles, bicycles and cameras. But there are other subjects he’d like to cover. We'll have to wait and see... 

Does he have a target reader in mind when you write? 

Himself! He often tackles a book because what he wants isn't available - he tries to include as much information as possible, because he wants to know himself. Ultimately, he’s an enthusiast, no different to our readers, which is why he’s happy to put the hours in. 

How does he decide what car/s to write about next?

It must be something that interests him – he spends an incredible amount of time on these projects and needs a certain thing (whatever it may be) to keep him going. He couldn't work long hours every day otherwise. 

He observes that it's getting harder to find new projects nowadays, with suggestions coming that he must turn down because either he can't get excited, or the manufacturer doesn't play the game (access to archive material is an absolute must). Likewise, some of the stuff he wants to do isn't commercial enough to be of interest to the publisher, which is fair comment! But we'll keep punting ideas back and forth, and see what happens.  

Recently, he’s started doing a few joint-projects with friends - a shared passion for a certain subject helps fuel enthusiasm, and the different skills and contacts will hopefully provide readers with something a bit special. The LFA book he’s doing with Peter was actually a reader suggestion, so if you have any ideas, please feel free to send them in.

Does Brian have time for hobbies?

He’s really into history (industrial and political), and something of a music anorak. He loves old analogue stereos, to the point that he wants to write about them and finds researching the bands from the 60s and 70s fascinating. He’s also into horses in a big way (it's a DNA thing, duly passed onto his kids!), with single malts and Port wine keeping him vaguely sane after a hard day in the office. Not forgetting keeping his Rottweiler happy, of course. 

                                                                         Brian with his dog

Brian Long's books are available from Veloce and other retailers.

Julian Parish - Author, Francophile, car-lover and man of many talents

Julian Parish is a respected and long-standing author of many automotive books published by Veloce.

With another title soon to be published, Saab Cars A Pictorial History 1949 to 2011, we spent some time with Julian to find out more about his fascinating background, love of all things French, and his passion for cars.

                                             Julian Parish

Julian grew up in south-east England and went to school there. He read Modern Languages at university (Oxford) and has always been fascinated by other cultures. Altogether, he says that he must have visited more than 40 different countries, for work or pleasure. It is France, however, which has always had a special place in his heart: he has lived there for nearly 30 years and has had French nationality since 2008.

His first job after graduating was as a junior lecturer at the Sorbonne in Paris. After this, he moved into book publishing (schoolbooks and travel guides), before turning to international software development. He spent 17 years at Microsoft, based in the UK, Ireland, France and the United States. He remained involved in the software industry until 2018, and since then has worked full-time as a motoring writer, translator and event commentator.

Julian has always had a passion for cars and has been fortunate to own and drive a number of interesting models over the past 40 years. He say that he has a particular weakness for anything with six or more cylinders under the bonnet!

In his free time, he also enjoys landscape photography and he continues to travel for pleasure.

Julian's latest book Saab Cars 1949 to 2011 A Pictorial History

We asked Julian about his latest book published by Veloce, 'Saab Cars 1949 to 2011', an addition to the well-established and highly successful 'A Pictorial History' series. 

His last company car in the UK, many years ago, was a Saab 900 NG, and he has always been interested in the make. Its long history of technical innovation and many successes in competition led to some great production cars with a very distinctive appeal. He felt these models deserved to be covered in Veloce’s 'Pictorial History' series, especially as Veloce has no other titles covering the complete history of Saab’s cars.

As with my previous title in this series, Citroën Cars 1934-1986, he has tried to provide a concise but comprehensive introduction to all Saab’s production models, beginning with the 92 in 1949 and continuing until the company sadly went out of business at the end of 2011. As well as its top-selling models such as the 96, 900 and 9000, he has included some lesser-known vehicles from the Swedish company’s history, such as its Formula Junior racing car, the Saab-Lancia 600 and even the SaabO caravan!

He hopes that this book will make an informative and enjoyable read for committed Saab enthusiasts and newcomers alike. As well as telling the story of each model, the book includes detailed technical information, presented in a clear and consistent manner, drawing on contemporary road test data from magazines such as (The) Autocar. It also features 300 high-quality photographs, many of them from the Saab Car Museum at Trollhättan and Saab’s own historic archives.

Coincidentally, as he began researching this book, he was looking for a modern classic to add to his own garage, and hit on the Saab 9-3 2.8 V6 Turbo as a quick but discreet performance saloon. He found an example in lovely condition at a former Saab dealer in Luxembourg in the summer of 2024; you’ll find a picture of it in the book on page 97!

When we asked Julian if his career helped him with his writing, he said that if he looks back at his ‘corporate’ career, the short answer is that it didn’t! Although he had always been interested in cars and had written a few short features for club magazines and websites during his time in business, his transition into full-time motoring writing and translating was completely unplanned.

When he moved on from Microsoft in 2013, he found himself with the time to work up an idea for a book he had been thinking about for a few years; Veloce took a gamble on it and accepted his proposal. That book was France: The Essential Guide for Car Enthusiasts, first published in 2015. Building on his personal experience attending car events in France, it was a practical guide to 200 things for car enthusiasts to see and do in France.

This went better than he could ever have hoped and led to him writing a succession of other books, all published by Veloce. A combination of his own suggestions and requests from Veloce, these have included a guide to driving in Europe, five Essential Buyer’s Guides and the Pictorial History titles for Citroën and Saab. He has also contributed to a number of UK magazines, including Octane and Classic & Sports Car.

Over the past decade, he has gone back to his original training as a linguist and built up a portfolio of work as a specialist automotive translator. Most of his translation work is from French into English, but he has also translated four books from German into English for Veloce: two Essential Buyer’s Guides (on the Mercedes-Benz W126 S-Class and W124) and two Restoration Manuals (How to Restore Classic Car Interiors and How to Restore & Improve Classic Car Suspension, Steering & Wheels).

Alongside his writing and translation projects, Julian regularly works as an official French-language commentator at several leading events in France, including the Tour Auto, Le Mans Classic, Sport et Collection and the Coupe des Alpes. He has also helped organise several motoring events, including the last edition of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Euro Classic in continental Europe, a Koenigsegg owners’ tour of the Champagne region and a classic car rally in Iceland.

Where his experience in book publishing and software development has perhaps helped him is with the skills and values he has tried to bring with him to his new career: keeping to schedule, respecting his clients’ specifications and turning in clean, professional copy which requires minimal editing. 

Another of Julian's books, Citroen Cars A Pictorial History

We asked Julian if he has a favourite car or car marque, and this is what he said...

Although he has enjoyed many different cars over the years, the marque to which he keeps coming back is Mercedes-Benz, and especially its modern classics from the 1980s and 1990s. He loves the engineering quality of these cars and Bruno Sacco’s timeless, elegant designs.

He has owned three models from this period. The first two were an R129 SL500 and a W201 190E 2.6, and he wrote Veloce’s Essential Buyer’s Guides for both these models. His current Mercedes, and probably all-time favourite, is a W124 E420 from 1995. This was produced only in left-hand drive and it combines an effortless ‘small’ V8 (i.e. ‘small as in 4.2 litres!) with a completely understated appearance.

Although he has not personally owned these two models (so far at least!), he also wrote Veloce’s Essential Buyer’s Guides to the Mercedes-Benz W116 S-Class and W123. The latter was even translated into German and published by Heel Verlag.

When asked what he is most proud of in his career, Julian answered that without a doubt, it would have to be his very first book, France: The Essential Guide for Car Enthusiasts. He says this for two reasons:-

First, nobody else had come up with anything similar, and thanks to Veloce’s design and editorial teams, he feel it turned out very well. It was the first title Veloce ever released simultaneously as a printed book, eBook and mobile phone app and was selected as ‘Book of the Month’ by Classic & Sports Car magazine in May 2015. It went into a second edition in 2017 and was also translated into French and published by ETAI.

Secondly, it provided him with the springboard to develop an entirely new and unexpected career as a full-time professional motoring writer, translator and event commentator, to the point where he gave up his IT consultancy work in 2018.

Julian's first book, France: The Essential Guide for Car Enthusiasts

Finally, returning to Julian's latest book on Saab, we asked him why he would recommend the book, and who is the target reader? 

He said: there are few books available which cover the complete history of Saab’s production cars, especially in a concise format at such an affordable price. Many commentators on the marque struggle to conceal their disdain for Saab’s later cars, but he has tried to provide a fair and factual treatment of all the company’s models.

Its comprehensive content and the wealth of high-quality period photographs make Saab Cars 1949-2011: A Pictorial History a great buy for any enthusiast with an interest in the marque. It should appeal both to diehard Saab fans looking for a single reference work and to newcomers intrigued by these sometimes quirky, but always interesting cars.

There are strong communities of Saab fans in both the UK and US, historically two of the marque’s most important export markets, and this book should be well received in both countries, as well as in places such as the Netherlands, where English is widely read.

You can pre-order Saab Cars 1949-2011 here. (Published 14 October 2025).

                       Julian at an automotive event in France, the Coupe des Alpes in Evian

Designing Dreams author Dick Ruzzin - his fascinating career in America's golden age of car design

 

Ahead of the publication of Designing Dreams Essays on the inside story of GM, Harley Earl and America's Golden Automotive Age by Dick Ruzzin, we spoke to Dick to find out more about his fascinating career in car design during the US's 'golden age' of motoring.

                                Dick Ruzzin, author of Designing Dreams

Dick grew up outside of Detroit after World War II, when the automobile industry was coming into its own. He lived on a farm near Detroit and learned to do many things and to become self-sufficient. That served him very well when he became a car designer for General Motors as he could see emerging challenges and problems to be solved. He has an engineering background as well as an aesthetic one so could visualize design solutions that were possible. He thinks that, and his willingness to ask for help, was the foundation for his success.

Designing Dreams is a series of essays orientated around his career as a car designer in America and Europe. While creating the book, he realized, based on his understanding of design and the industry, that the creation of the profession of automobile design by Harley Earl was an important factor in that story, and that it was not sufficiently known and appreciated.

The cover of Designing Dreams by Dick Ruzzin

When Dick started work at General Motors as a part of the styling staff, he felt blessed after being told that only one in 200 applicants were hired at that time. As his career developed he was given the freedom to put forward what he felt was the correct design direction, and to then follow up and execute those design proposals in the form of clay models that led to production cars.

The engineering release of those clay models resulted in the manufacture of hundreds of thousands of cars, as created by his small studio team. Car designers that work for a big company rarely have the chance to do an entire car design on their own, as the only designer. Dick had that opportunity, twice. 

We asked Dick what his favourite design was, during his career. 

He considered it and commented that he worked in America for the great majority of his career, but also spent, in total, five years working in Europe. It's hard to reduce that experience to one design, but he would say that the cars in Europe were the BITTER CD in 1971 and the Opel MAXX in 1996. In the United States, there were several Chevrolets, but the hardest cars to do and the most satisfying for him, and everyone in his studio at the time, were the 1992 Cadillac Seville and Eldorado, both done at the same time. The Eldorado was so successful that it was built for 12 years.

Dick considers that there was a 'quantum leap' during his design career...

There is no doubt in his mind that my work for nine years in helping to convert General Motors from rear wheel drive cars to more fuel efficient front wheel drive cars was absolutely, and without question, a quantum leap. The proposal of that enormous, cultural engineering change, was done by a very small, talented and highly motivated group of people. They all knew the significance of the concept that they were developing. They were very excited about it, and designed the vehicles that were presented to the GM Board of Directors that demonstrated the logic and intelligence of that massive industrial change.

That could not have been done anywhere else within the Corporation, other than at GM Design Staff.

   A montage of images from Designing Dreams

When we asked Dick what his favourite piece of design work is, he considers it carefully then answered that there are so many beautiful cars that have been designed in different parts of the world. One that comes immediately to mind is a car that he first saw when he was 11 years old. A Harley Earl Motorama Car, the Cadillac Cyclone. It became a strong influence, not only on future Cadillacs, but also on cars designed by the Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Corporation. When he saw a car like that, he thought about what the designers looked at as a future expression of an automobile. He has great respect for those designers who are able to remove themselves from the moment and create a design that belongs far into the future. The Cadillac Cyclone is an amazing car to him, both in its basic theme selection and it's execution as a piece of art.

Dick thinks other automotive designers have been as influential as Harley Earl, and comments that certainly Pininfarina in Italy as well as Giorgetto Giugiaro had a great impact upon automobile design as art. Sir William Lyons in England was able to build on dramatic proportion and create an aerodynamic form language that was unique. And in Germany, Tony Lapine, who came from General Motors Styling, did great work in designing cars for Porsche that represented the German aesthetic. It cannot be forgotten that Harley Earl created the automobile design profession and also invented the clay model in the late 1920s to visualize automobile design in three dimensions. The clay model is still used today by all car manufacturers in the world over 100 years later.

   Pages from Designing Dreams

In conclusion, Dick commented...

When he came back to the United States after working in Germany, people would often ask him: "What is the difference between designing a car for America and designing one for Europe"? At that point in time, in the early 1990s, his answer was, "Very little". The reason for that response was that the automobile design profession and all the people who were part of it had matured to the point of easily handling the difference. The needs of all customers could be addressed through the expression of automobile design as a functional art form. Design had evolved, as a profession, it could address all customer needs with equal functional and aesthetic quality. Globally, automobile design started to trend toward industrial design, but it is hard to suppress the dynamic emotion that has historically been part of the automobile as it was originally applied by Harley Earl.

Designing Dreams Essays on the inside story of GM, Harley Earl and America's Golden Automotive Age by Dick Ruzzin is available form 29 July 2025 from Veloce, and on pre-order now. 

https://veloce.co.uk/store/Designing-Dreams-p702811076

Be the FIRST!

Our new web store has been live for around six months, and has been performing excellently. We've had plenty of very positive feedback on the new site, and some helpful constructive criticism, so, never ones to rest on our laurels, we've been fettling, fine-tuning, and maintaining various parts ever since the site went live.

To use an automotive analogy, all new sites need some aerodynamic and mechanical fine-tuning – an ongoing process, of course – as we improve it, and make it faster and more useful for our customers and fellow enthusiasts.

To use another automotive analogy; if our old store was the classic Jaguar of websites, our new store is more the Porsche Taycan, or something along those lines (feel free to insert your own favourite Classic / Modern auto reference in the comments below). As with all things Classic vs Modern, some classics have features that are just too good to ignore, so we've brought back a much loved feature from our own 'classic' store, hooked it up to our new power unit and chassis, and it's racing now, as you read this. (I promise that that's the last of the auto analogies).

Get ahead of the pack

You can now request a notification email be sent to you when a book comes into stock at Veloce. Every entry for a print book that's either out of stock or coming soon, now includes a Notify me button and an email address field. Simply pop your email address into the box, press the button, and we'll do the rest. The moment a book is put into stock at Veloce, you'll receive an email alert with a direct link to the product in our store, so you can buy your copy straight away, and get ahead of the pack.

As mentioned, improvements and enhancements to our web site are a continuing process, and we'll be making our behind-the-scenes tweaks as usual over the coming weeks and months. Some of you may notice, some you may not, so make sure to stay subscribed to our newsletter and mailouts to hear about new features. new books coming your way in 2020 and beyond, and all the latest news and views from Veloce Publishing. If you have a feature request, or if you think there's something we can add to our site (or remove, of course) to improve it, let us know via email.

In the meantime, head over to our online shop, choose your next great Veloce read, and get notified … and you can get your Veloce fix before anyone else!

Oliver Winterbottom – May Bulletin

1 May I arrive at PJS Sports Cars workshops near Burton upon Trent, at 2:30pm. I get the chance to inspect the impressive photo album recording many of their high quality Lotus restorations. After being shown around the impressive business and meeting the employees, I go down to Tatenhill Village Hall. Paul Shipley, the Lotus dealer principal is busy preparing for the evening. He has brought in Edd Stanton of Scorpion Event Solutions to set up fully professional audio-visual equipment for the evening. He soon loads my memory stick of slides for my talk. PJS have set up an interesting display of Lotus outside, so with everything running smoothly, I drive into Burton and check-in to the Premier Inn. I then return to await the start of the evening. 

As 7:00pm approaches, the car park is filling with Lotuses and the Hall is filling up. Everyone has a seat at a table laden with sandwiches and snacks. I believe at least three or four attendees are Lotus and TVR owners. A superb red Elite was an early arrival and a very nice TVR was parked nearby.  

I was provided with a table, chair and microphone to give my talk. Edd projected the slides on a huge screen, and I think it went well! A question and answer session brought some interesting questions – I cannot speak for the answers! (I am the little white head sticking up on the left of the screen). 

I then went to sign copies of my book. An amazing 17 or so were bought on the night and at least 4 beforehand. There was plenty of chat and it was a really superb event. The proceeds of the evening £262.50 went to the Midlands Air Ambulance, a very worthy cause.

  Paul Shipley and PJS Sports Cars did me proud - thank you Paul and your team very much.

3 May I arrive at Donington race circuit around 9:45am, for the first day of the three-day HSCC Historic race meeting. Richard Woollaston of the Lotus Elite/Eclat/Excel Club has kindly arranged a pass that allows me to park closely to the classic car exhibits. Friday is practicing and qualifying for the weekend racing. The crowd and classic vehicles are in short supply as it is a working day. There are four Lotuses displayed which outnumbered many clubs who had zero or a couple of cars. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the release of the Lotus Elite, and Richard kindly gave me a commemorative mug. 

As lunchtime approached Richard invited me to accompany him on a test lap of the track. It had been a long time since I sat in a Lotus Elite, and it was a first for me to see Donington from the track. The weather was a little uncooperative, as the photograph below may show! 

In the afternoon, various interesting people called by, and I supplied a couple of books which was a bonus! I also left some bookmarks for the weekend.

The organisers had suggested they may interview me but no one came by the time I departed. Never mind.

I understand that over the weekend there were not as many classic cars on display as normally expected. As it hailed and rained with a freezing wind, sadly I guess that many stayed at home.

In the afternoon, various interesting people called by and I supplied a couple of books, which was a bonus! Here, I am 'caught' by a paparazzi camera man (thank you Roger Kemp of the Jaguar Drivers Club) talking with two nice ladies from Stone, Staffordshire and Ian Hissey to owner of the pre -production Lotus Eclat on display.

5 May Amazon UK who had run out of stock of my book at the beginning of the month now have three available. By 8 May their stock is up to five available.

7 May I receive for approval (given) the article on Colin Chapman and his weight saving views written for a new 'in house' magazine titled Us Lot for Lotus staff. I am delighted that my book gets a mention!I quote: "I retired in 2009 and recently put together a talk entitled Lotus DNA – Views on Colin Chapman' Philosophies to promote my book A Life in Car Design; Jaguar, Lotus, TVR (Veloce Publishing)."

10 May Embarrassingly, I have to advise various folk including Steve Cropley Editor-in-Chief, Autocar that the 40th anniversary of the announcement of the Lotus Type 75 Elite is 15th May, and not the 17th. This is due to old age and the worn condition of my copy of the contemporary local newspaper.

13 May Amazon UK appear to have sold another book since 8 May, so now they have four in stock.

14 May Club Lotus ask if they can publish my story on the first three days in May. The talk and book signing at Tatenhill Village Hall for PJS Sports Cars, and the Historic meeting at Donington Park with the Lotus Elite Eclat Excel Club. I am delighted to approve for the July edition of Club Lotus News

15 May 45th Anniversary of the announcement of the Lotus Elite. Richard Woollaston circulates a birthday card.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOTUS ELITE

Meanwhile I pose for a photograph with my sisters “Mini” asking “Which is the Mini?” 

I think it is the one on the right!

16 May I visit the RAF Museum at Cosford near Wolverhampton, for the Annual Jaguar Ex-Apprentices lunch. There were about 45 of us ranging from about 70 years of age upwards! The museum is definitely recommended as it has a large number of unique experimental aircraft as well as superb examples of the more common varieties. I distributed a number of the book marks.

18 May I assist Mike Kimberley with some Lotus event dates for a magazine article about the Lotus activities in the 1970s. It gets harder to remember all the correct dates and details as time goes by.

26 May I return from a few days with the family to find an email from ERA driver Paddins Dowling with a picture of the pair of us at Silverstone  13 April when he bought a copy of my book.  

26 May I receive a forwarded letter from Veloce sent by a past colleague. Doug Mellor was a Senior Buyer at Lotus 1982-84 and was a great help on the M90 prototype build project. He related a particularly over ambitious day,  when we thought we could visit Llanelli in Wales from Norwich and return after doing business all in one day – we couldn’t! I was delighted he said he had enjoyed my book so much. Thanks, Douglas.

27 May Delighted to meet another happy reader of my book in the Barnham Broom Bell. It's good to hear that people enjoy reading it.

31 May Amazon UK now have 8 books in stock, this is four more than on May 13. Either they have sold a lot or they are buying a lot - I hope it is selling them in vast quantities and then restocking.

French Pavement Café – A Van Fit for Java

Have you noticed that when you buy coffee outside, it’s very often not from an ordinary catering van? Everything about the way you get to experience good coffee has taken a twist to entice you to further enjoy the experience.

And it’s not limited coffee. Bakery, pizza, and antiques all appear for sale on the street from the back of an unusual van. Not a Transit, a Sprinter or Transporter (although the Volkswagen Transporter has become a popular vehicle for cafeterias, something that’s travelled over from the Surfie Movement.) No, what we are talking about here is the very cute, strange, old chicken coop on wheels, the Citroën ‘H’ Van.

Far from modern, the 'H Van' was designed during the war, in Paris, and in inimitable French style, made something utilitarian look positively ugly, but with no allowance made for impracticality, the machine became loveable because it was so good at what it did. In some ways a bit like the Land Rover Defender (I’ve seen coffee vans on them too), its go-anywhere, bash-anything bodywork endeared it to farmers, delivery workers and those with a taste for exploration. I don’t think the 'H Van' did much exploration, but it was sold in some very inhospitable environments. 

Largely, the 'H Van' was designed by André Lefebvre, who also designed the famous Traction Avant and Citroën DS (I suppose he should be allowed one ugly one!) It replaced what the French called the TUB, which was a hard act to follow.

Lefebvre kept the weight very low and the hard parts in unobtrusive places. This left more room for payload. He used the drive line from the Traction-Avant – which did not impose into the driver's compartment too much – you effectively sat on it, with the gearbox and water cooling out front, beyond the screen. The designer matched strength with lightness, two features that are usually mutually exclusive. He had seen a German Junker's transport plane landing, and marvelled out how 'corrugated' panels made wobbly sheets strong.

Once peace had been declared in Europe, the 'H' Van was on French roads in droves. Citroën continued making them into the Seventies, showing that the French didn’t care what a product looked like, as long as it did its job. They became ubiquitous.

The strange thing is, they are now bought precisely for their looks! Our local Tesco’s has one outside, a bright red, left-hand drive one, run by On The Hoof Coffee. Christian and Zeta do fabulous coffee from their espresso machine, and great snacks too (Dorset Sea Salt Caramel Brownies, anyone?) The interior kitchen, decorated by the owners, is well laid out and nicely fitted, obviously a working space of some substantial pride.

Maurice the Van

'Maurice', as the van is affectionately known, is somewhat different from the way he started life. Co-owner Zeta said of their regular pitch, outside a large supermarket in Dorchester "it's lovely to have a spot year-round." Automotive lover Christian shared that "[Maurice] used to be awfully slow and heavy to drive, so a Ford Pinto 1600 engine was swapped into it. Now it's happy at about 40-45mph." 

The coffee is fantastic, and if you give it a go, tag yourself using #OnTheHoofCoffee and #VeloceBooks!

Send us a picture when you see a vending van with a difference! We have been told of a Peugeot Pizza van, that has so far evaded photos... so let's see some of the trendy cute mobile vending vans near you!

Tim Nevinson for Veloce Publishing