BRS Truck Rental was established in 1975 and was part of the government-owned British Road Services company created in 1949 as part of a very ambitious post war plan to nationalise the UK’s transport system. The vast majority of BRS’s van rental fleet at this time were UK-built diesel-engined vehicles such as the Ford Transit and the company rarely bought foreign vehicles although contract hire fleet companies sometimes requested them.

BRS did, however, buy six VW Type 2 vans in early 1975 including the example modeled here, believing that the quieter rear-engined positioning of their petrol engines and more car-like driving position might appeal to customers who’d not previously driven a van. Production of the T2, the second-generation Type 2 Volkswagen commercial, commenced at Hanover, Germany, in August 1967. It was both slightly larger and slightly more powerful than the original and was a wholly new design in both structure and styling. It remained faithful to VW’s traditional layout however, using a rear-mounted air-cooled engine in a unitary construction body.

Like the original Type 2 it was available from the factory in an array of guises, although specialist conversion companies also used it as a base for vehicles such as fire engines.The vehicle modeled was made in early 1975, the twenty fifth year of Type 2 production, and on August the 9th of that year Volkswagen celebrated the production of the four millionth Type 2.

What's Inside

• 1x vehicle