Forget Sleeping In An Airstream When You Can Buy A Groovy Camper Made Out A Tiny British Van

Summer is coming, which means Americans are about to fill up the nation’s beautiful highways with gigantic and usually boring RVs, many of which will cost you more than a nice cottage in the Midwest. Forget about those rigs because I found some with some British charm. This 1986 Austin Maestro 500L Countryman is a surprisingly practical camper made out of a small delivery van and it can be yours for the princely sum of $8,844 or so before importation.

This groovy camper was spotted first by the folks of Silodrome and it’s going up for auction by Historics Auctioneers in the UK. The camper will be featured in the auction’s Farnborough International Exhibition Centre event happening on May 11. Despite how awesome this vintage machine is, it’s expected to go for the equivalent of $6,317 to $8,844. From there, you’d have to pay extra fees to import it into America.

But once you do that, you’ll have something you won’t see elsewhere on American roads. I mean, just take a gander at this little guy.

Designed To Compete With The VW Golf

The best source for the Austin Maestro appears to be the British car historians of AROnline, and this one is a doozy. This story takes us back to 1977. Just two years earlier, British Leyland Limited was created after British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd was nationalized after its collapse. British-South African business executive Sir Michael Owen Edwardes took the helm of the beleaguered automaker. His mission was a difficult one as Edwardes had to pull British Leyland out of its 1970s slump.

Edwardes’ ambitious plan called for bringing British Leyand’s cars into the modern era using cutting-edge technology. He started with the 1980 Austin Metro small car, then set his sights on a new line of mid-range cars. As AROnline writes, engineers Spen King and Gordon Bashford began development on a mid-size hatch began in mid-1975. This new car was a conventional front-engine, front-wheel-drive car with a regular suspension for the day. Reportedly, King said they had no reason to do anything special. It just followed the same idea as the early VW Golf. Designer Harris Mann sketched a futuristic hatch for the program, one that was far ahead of the Golf. However, progress was slow.

Eventually, Edwardes saw this vehicle as something British Leyland could use to secure its future. Thus, the ADO99 development program was given the backing and a new name, LC10. This car would be available as a hatchback and notchback, replacing the Allegro, Marina, and Maxi. Edwardes also scored government funding, too, so the car was primed to become a reality. Reportedly, getting the LC10 into production was so important that Edwardes canceled other projects that got in the LC10’s way.

AROnline notes that the decision to focus on a five-door hatchback, codenamed LM10, was strategic. While Brits still loved their sedans, Europe was seeing a storm of hatches like the Volkswagen Golf. British Leyland didn’t just have to attract customers in the UK, but it also had to court buyers all over Europe. Front drive hatches were hot, so a front-drive hatch they would get.

And like the Golf, the Maestro wasn’t anything too amazing. It was given a two-box design, a small engine, and a standard layout. British Leyland even resisted being cute and didn’t give the Maestro the company’s Hydragas suspension. Instead, it got MacPherson struts up front and a trailing arm rear, nothing too special.

Even the engine wasn’t anything crazy, as engineers took the existing E-Series four-cylinder engine, resized it to 1598cc, and called it the R-Series four. Eventually, the Maestro was available with a number of engines ranging from the 1.3-liter A-Series engine to a 2.0-liter diesel four.

The Maestro made its debut in 1983 and while it didn’t look like a spaceship like the initial sketches, it was still somewhat advanced. It featured a flush windscreen, integrated body-color bumpers, and a coefficient of drag of 0.36. Some versions even had a voice synthesizer to tell the driver to put on a seatbelt or to warn about vehicle issues.

The Maestro launched for the 1984 model year to a decent amount of success. It seemed that Britain matched the Germans at their own game. Then, reportedly, the cars gained a nasty reputation for unfortunate build quality and poor reliability. British Leyland sold over 80,000 Maestros in its second year of sales, then the vehicle went into a demand decline.

The Camper

Soon after the Maestro car was launched, a commercial van followed. Some builders took these vans and turned them into tiny campers. One of these builders was a company called Tandy, which made quite a few Maestro 500L-based campers. Phoenix Motorhomes also made campers based on the Maestro van.

In case you were curious, the “500L” relates to the van’s 500-kilogram (1,102-pound) carrying capacity. A previous auction claimed this van is powered by the 1.3-liter A-Series four and bolted to a four-speed manual. If true, this engine is sending about 68 HP to the front wheels. It’s moving a van that measures about 14.2 feet long and has a curb weight of around 2,116 pounds. However, that weight is without the camping equipment. So, it’s not going to be a fast van, but it should still go highway speed.

It’s unclear which company made this 1986 Austin Maestro 500L Countryman camper. I couldn’t find any other Maestro camper that looked exactly like this one. Also disappointing is the lack of identifying marks inside of this camper. In my search for answers for this van I found that it sold for £3,575 in 2019 in a Hobbs Parker auction and was listed for sale again in 2020. It was sold on Historics Auctioneers in 2020 as well for £4,980. The vehicle was noted to have 90,000 miles in 2020 and now it’s claimed to have 96,600 miles, so it isn’t driven much.

That said, this rad camper appears to be in great condition and features side windows and a high top. You won’t be able to stand up in this van, but it looks pretty cozy for the size.

The interior features two cushioned benches that turn into a bed. Historics Auctioneers notes that the cushions have their original covers, but new padding. In the center of the floor is a mounting point for a dinette table. It’s unclear if the table comes in the sale or if it is missing.

Also unknown is what’s under the counter on the right side of the van. What we are told is that you get a two-burner gas stove and that the camper is still in original condition after all of these years. That’s amazing. If you want in on the camper, the Historics Auctioneers Farnborough International Exhibition Centre event runs on May 11. The van is being sold at no reserve with an expected sale of around $6,317 to $8,844.

Overall, it seems like a pretty cool camper van. Sure, it’s not a fancy Airstream Interstate, but it doesn’t cost $200,000 either. Even if you paid the $8,844 high-end estimate, you could probably get this van landed in America for less than $16,000. You can’t get a new van for that, and no used van will look like this one does.

(Images: Historics Auctioneers, unless otherwise noted.)