Lee Rowland has always been heavily into his cars, but had never owned a Volkswagen.
That all changed five years ago when a mate with a Caddy van persuaded him to sell his BMW M240 and join him in owning a van.
“He kept hassling me, ‘sell your car, get a Volkswagen’, so eventually I did,” says Lee, 44, a lorry driver from Braintree in Essex.
“In the past I‘ve had a BMW M5 and an Audi S3 running 400bhp, and I was always putting my foot down and doing a few track days. But you can’t really go fast anymore anyway, so that spoils it, and the roads aren’t exactly the best.”
Practical Caddy Maxi
The former British Gas Caddy Maxi he bought for £8,200, with its 1.6-litre diesel engine, is certainly more sedate than those road rockets, but it’s also far more practical.
“I’ve always been into camping and gone to car shows all over the country with mates,” says Lee, as well as trips to watch truck racing at Brands Hatch, Snetteron and Thruxton.
“I’d sleep in a tent, which is a bit cold, so I set out to find a Caddy I could convert into a camper.
“By coincidence, I was on holiday in Norfolk and I found this one for sale in Dereham, just down the road from where I was staying.
“It already had the air suspension on it, but it was just a bare van on the inside because the owner used to do motocross stunts all over the place, and he’d put his motorbike in the back.”
Lee had other plans, and commissioned Thetford-based Van Furniture to construct a bed unit with made-to-measure cushions.
Home from home
“The aim was to camp in it and go to a lot more shows, so I wanted to make it as nice as possible inside,” he says, adding carpets, sound deadening, insulation, and a diesel night heater that draws fuel from the tank and blows warm air through the vents in the centre console.
“It’s one little heater underneath the seat, but it heats the whole van up and makes a lot of difference. I can control it all with my phone.”
With sleeping accommodation in place, Lee has been all over the UK, as well as a trip to the Le Mans Classic, “a really good weekend”, and has nine VW shows booked in for 2024.
“I’ve got more into the VW scene,” he says. “It’s very relaxed. You go to other car shows and they can be a bit rowdy, but the VW crowd are more chilled out.
“Everyone just gets on, has a good laugh, and helps you out and. At Dubs in the Middle it was a bit of a mudbath, but everyone was helping pull or push each other out, getting covered in mud.
“I’ve got to know lots of people through VWs and, if we’re not going to a show, we’ll just go camping somewhere.”
Show van
Over the years, Lee has done far more than just put a bed in the 2011 Caddy, which has clocked up a fairly modest 91,000 miles.
“I’ve slowly been building it up to turn it into a show van, and I’m always adding bits to it,” he says.
The roof lining and door cards are retro Golf GTi fabric, while the Mk5 Golf GTi seats he had installed were swapped out for a pair of £1,000 wingback aftermarket seats flown over from America.
A Mk7.5 Golf R front bumper has been plastic welded to the existing Caddy / Touran bumper for a new look, one of the only parts of the van that doesn’t wear its original LT5B British Gas blue paint.
“It’s all original paint apart from the front bumper, bonnet and two front wings,” says Lee. “If you look very closely you can see a shadow of where the British Gas stickers were.”
While the engine is a standard diesel, it has been remapped for a little added power, and Lee has added some Rotiform wheels wearing 215/35/19 rubber, and aftermarket headlamps.
“I’ve not looked back,” he says. “I’ve enjoyed it, and I just want to do more to it. There’s always more I can do – it’s never-ending.
“I want to fit bigger brakes, six-pots on the front, just for show reasons really, and bigger brakes on the back, but that’s another few grand.
“You can’t take it with you”
“I’ve gone further than I thought I was going to do, but I’ve got nothing else to spend my money on, and you can’t take it with you!”
So far, the Caddy has won “a couple of little cups”, says Lee.
“We all try to put our vehicles into the shows, but there’s so much competition out there, and they don’t tend to do a Caddy category.”
Trophies or not, Lee plans to keep hold of the van for some time.
“I’ve put too much money into it now,” he smiles. “I wouldn’t get my money back on it. It’s valued at £12,500 now, but I’ve spent more than that on it. You get your enjoyment out of using it, and I’m looking forward to doing a bit more to it.
“Ideally, I’d like a newer, larger van, but you’ve got to spend silly money to get the lower mileage ones.”
