1952 Caravan Park LTD 'Superb de-luxe'

[stephen&Julie]

Hi All,
Well the story never ends, after chasing down this van for nearly two years I finally get the call out of the blue, come and get her Steve says the voice on the other end, I look across the table at Julie as she slowly shakes her head, bound out of my seat and head about an hour from home to check out the new kid on the block, 1951-2 Caravan Park ‘Superb Deluxe’ 14’ one owner bought it at the 1951-2 Brisbane caravan show for 3000 pound which is darn expensive for those days, needs work as most do, going by the conversation his father believes there weren’t many of these produced probably because of the price, any ways here’s some pic’s will pick her up after the road trip. There is a brochure in DHL of this model.














Cheers Stephen&Julie

PS: any one got a spare shed...?

[jeffharper]

Wow, the average house in Sydney was 5,200 pounds, so that means it was worth 300,000 in todays dollars.

[jeffharper]

Very, but it sure had some snazzy features for it's day!

[stephen&Julie]

Hello VV Peoples,
Today we pick up the ‘Caravanpark Superb de-luxe’ and thanks to Rob (Smiles) for the hand we loaded her up and homeward bound, did the usual and coated her in heavy duty truck wash then gurneyed her clean, quite surprised as she did come up pretty good. Speaking to Bill the son of the owner he is very very sure because he went to the show with his farther it was the 1951 caravan show in Brisbane as he remembers seeing a red and yellow display model with a small fence around it and you could not actually go inside, his father ordered the van and he said he did pay 3000 pond definite














Cheers Stephen&Julie

[stephen&Julie]

Hi, just a photo of the lino, shame it’s not complete damage near front door, still would have been nice looking when new.




Cheers Stephen&Julie

[1954homemade]

Dear Stephen and Julie,

Congrats on yet another great find.

These vint vans really are contagious

Luv Di

[Don Ricardo]

Oct 10, 2013 18:30:52 GMT 10 stephen&Julie said:

Speaking to Bill the son of the owner he is very very sure because he went to the show with his farther it was the 1951 caravan show in Brisbane as he remembers seeing a red and yellow display model with a small fence around it and you could not actually go inside,

Hi Stephen&julie,

Very exciting to hear about your new acquisition! While we've seen quite a few plain aluminium 'toasters', I'm pretty sure that's the first of that model Carapark Superb we've seen on the forum.

I must say that your van must win the award for the most porthole windows in a single caravan!! Are you going to paint it green and cream in keeping with its original colours?

Interesting to read about Bill's recollections of the 1951 caravan show. I wonder if the red and cream van he saw was the one used in the publicity shot for the brochure posted on the Carapark thread in the DHL section. I reckon there's a good chance it was.

I didn't realise until I compared your van with the van in the brochure that the early 50's Superb had wrap around windows at the front. I wonder if that makes Carapark the first manufacturer to use such windows? Can anybody think of anyone using them earlier? I can't think of any other vans having them that early myself. I don't think wrap around windows were introduced more generally until the very late 50's or early 60's, when different manufacturers began to make a big noise about how their vans had them.

At some point I'll copy some of the photos of your van to the DHL Carapark thread, if that's OK with you...

Don Ricardo

[stephen&Julie]

Hi Don,
Yes i do think this one wins the prize for the most portholes as there are two hatches on the roof each with a porthole as well, 5 all together, I believe Reddo found a similar model, am still trying to find the thread. Not sure just yet on colour scheme, could possibly go polished alli top and green bottom, still deciding. Please feel free to post any photos for DHL I'll post some more of the inside as well.
Cheers Stephen&Julie

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Stephen&Julie,

You're right about Reddo. When I went searching I found references to and/or pics of several Caravan Park/Carapark Superbs on the forum. One of them was the van found by Reddo which you referred to, and which he posted about here. I think that's the thread you were looking for?

"Reddo's" van seems to be the same design and layout as yours. However, based on the livery, I think that yours is probably the earlier of the two. The livery on "Reddo's" is similar to that on later Carapark 'toasters', while the livery on yours is the same (apart from the colours) as on the Superb in the 1951 brochure, and similar to the livery on the original all steel Superbs like the one previously owned by Austin125, and now cared for by Vantoura.

Of course I am assuming your van is aluminium not steel. Is that correct?

Don Ricardo

[stephen&Julie]

Hi Don Ricardo, agree, i feel Reddo's find more like late 50's looking at the fridge design etc, the De-Luxe is aluminium and I've been assured it was purchased in 51-52 with a lot of extras hence the high price paid in those days
Cheers Stephen&Julie

[stevej]

Hi Steve and Julie, Where are you at with this van, I would be very intrested to see anny progress or resto work you have done. I have found another one that has been gutted and will be commencing the restoration back to a touring van in December, keen to see how your going.

Regards
Steve