Vintage View: History of the iconic VW campervan

It's time to take a ride on the real magic bus, the iconic living-room on wheels

The seminal barn-find, the T2 VW transporter. Pictures: iStock

The VW Camper really was the first commercial camper dreamed out of a light commercial vehicle. 

Sketched up by Dutch VW importer Ben Pon (1904-1968), not to be confused with his son the racing driver Ben Pon, it was created to answer a purely industrial problem. Pon Senior and his brother Winjnand, were the original dealers-distributors for VW in the Netherlands. Pon’s Automobielhandel is even celebrated by some auto historians as the first Europeans to send a VW Beetle to the United States from their base in Amersfoot.