We’re sitting on a bench above the beach in Holland-on-Sea, and the promenade is starting to get busy as another warm summer day cranks into gear.
Behind us, Mark Seward’s ‘61 Volkswagen Firebus is posing for photos on the grass, and attracting plenty of interest from the morning strollers.
One man asks if he can take pictures for his partner, who was interested in all the little bits of period detail on the bus, which originally served in Berlin.
‘Love your van’
“We get that quite a bit,” says Mark. “When we take it to a car boot sale, we probably get 10 people come up and say ‘love your van, and can we take photos of it?’”
It’s easy to see why, because the bright red bus remains in pristine condition despite being restored more than a decade ago by its previous owner Steve Brooker, star of the History Channel’s Mud Men.
Famed for unearthing treasures from the Thames mud, Brooker toured the UK and Europe in the Firebus for family holidays and VW shows before putting ‘Burnie’ up for sale in autumn 2023
And Mark, who has been in the Volkswagen scene since the ‘90s, couldn’t resist, even though he already owned a ‘66 Splitscreen camper and a very rare ‘55 oval window European model ragtop Beetle.
All three vehicles have been bought within the past year or so.
‘Too good an opportunity’
“I lost my mother, so I got some inheritance money, and I think they’re quite a good investment,” he says. “Although you don’t often make a profit when you sell them, they hold their value and when the fire engine came along it was too good an opportunity to miss.
“I’d seen a couple of fire engines at shows and I’ve always wanted one. I like novel, quirky things, and it was always my second dream after owning a Samba.”
He’s yet to realise the Samba dream, but the advert for ‘Burnie’ promised “hassle-free” motoring from the original 1500cc engine that has covered a mere 33,000 miles.
“We visited London and saw Steve, and it sold itself just by looking at the condition of it,” says Mark, 54. “We drove it back from London and it drove very well. It’s smooth, and the gears are nice and easy.”
The van’s looks are far from skin deep, with custom insulated panels, interior metalwork coated with Dynax UC wax, and the exterior cavities protected with Dynax S-50.
Built to last
It was a restoration built to last.
The single-port engine is fed by twin 40 Dellorto carbs, joined to a CSP stainless steel exhaust, while the interior has been adapted to carry six passengers and sleep two on a bed beneath a beautiful cantilevered wooden roof.
The interior is dotted with a combination of period fire-fighting signage and some more modern signs added by Mark, who has also bought a period firehose and other bits and pieces.
He says the sirens do work, but he’s loath to switch them on.
“Steve told me he put the sirens on, but it took at least 20 minutes to get them turned off, so I don’t want to risk it,” he smiles. “I haven’t tried the light yet, but I understand you’re supposed to have it covered up if you’re driving around.”
It seems unlikely, however, that anyone would mistake the Firebus, which would have originally carried powder (‘pulver’) extinguishers, for a modern-day fire engine.
Mark originally got into the Volkswagen scene long before he owned one, camping in tents at shows including Big Bang, Bug Jam, and his favourite, VW Action.
‘Chilled atmosphere’
“I just loved the chilled atmosphere and how cool it was,” he says, running through various cars including his first, an Opel Commodore, before buying his first VW camper at the age of 30 – controversially at the expense of a new kitchen.
“Instead of buying a new kitchen, I took out a loan for something like £12,000 and bought a ‘72 Westfalia bay window,” he says. “I got in trouble, but that’s what I did…”
Since then, Mark has owned about 10 campers, including four or five Splitscreens, and an assortment of Karmann Ghias and Beetles, including the original Thump Thump Targa bug created by Jay Townsend.
“You have a Volkswagen, you sell it, and then you miss it straight away,” he says. “I don’t think there’s been hardly any period of time that I haven’t had a VW of some type.”
Over the years, the VW shows increasingly became a family affair, as one child at the time he bought his first camper eventually became five.
“They were all brought up with it, and they’d sleep under the awning attached to the van,” he remembers. “They’re all grown up now and not into VWs in a massive way, but they like going to shows and seeing different things.”
Car boot Firebus
Since buying the Firebus, Mark and his partner Silvia have mostly used it for car boot sales and shows – we first bumped into them at the Beetle-Juiced show in Suffolk – where they sell an assortment of autojumble and artwork.
“I’ve got lots of original sales brochures from the ‘50s and ‘60s, plus books, and Silvia is an artist,” he says, “and she’s sold some paintings of the bus and other VW artwork.”
Mark has also driven it to work at the local high school where, until July 2024 when he decided to leave teaching, he was head of business studies.
“I parked it at the back out of the way but, when you tell the students, they all come out and have a look,” he says. “It was well received.”
And with the bus added to the Splitscreen camper and Beetle, Mark and Silvia have decided to go into the wedding hire business.
“I did some wedding transport about five years ago, before Covid, in another nice camper I had and, without doing any social media and just through word of mouth, it ticked over and got a few bookings,” he says.
VW wedding hire
“Now, with a fleet of three very different vehicles, we can offer different things to different people. We can offer his and hers, so they could have the fire engine and the camper or Beetle.
“As well as that, I DJ as a sideline – I’ve done it since university – so I could combine that with the transport. I could set up my equipment, pick up the bride and bridesmaids, and then get to the reception to DJ afterwards.”
With the pressures of teaching no longer a factor, Mark will have plenty more time to drum up business, attend car boots and shows, and generally run around in a choice of three great vehicles.
“I need to juggle using the three, because I’ve hardly used the Beetle recently,” he says. “But I think we’re going to take the Firebus to BusFest and Skeg Vegas this summer.”
No doubt there will be plenty of waves, thumbs up and hoots en route, as this historic fire engine seems to attract attention wherever it goes.
Check out some of the great detail in Mark’s Firebus in our gallery below.
