Car designer Peter Stevens, famed for the McLaren F1, is revealing the inspiration behind one of his latest projects: “I was working away from home in Coventry and staying in a very basic hotel.
"There wasn’t even a chair in my room. So, one evening, I’m sitting on my bed eating a takeaway and feeling quite depressed when I thought: I know, I’ll buy a camper van with all mod cons, park it in the car park of the firm I’m working at and sleep in that instead!”
We’ve all got to kip somewhere, of course, but Stevens – the designer of all-time classics including the F1, Jaguar XJR-15, Lotus Elan ‘M100’, Lotus ‘X180’ Esprit and the 1999 Le Mans-winning BMW V12 LMR – putting his head down in a client’s car park?
“There are some people who like being designers and some who like designing,” he explains. “I’m the latter. I certainly don’t expect special treatment. In any case, living in the motorhome gave me ideas for the project I was working on.”
That project was designing the interior of a Mk1 Ford Transit, an event vehicle commissioned by eBay to promote the availability of new and used car parts on its website and which it has dubbed the eBay Lounge.
The former German fire service Transit was registered in 1975 and restored and converted last year by the Envisage Group, based in Coventry. It had worked with Stevens in the past and thought the legendary designer the obvious choice to remodel the van’s interior.
This year marks the Ford Transit’s 60th anniversary, and while eBay might have been tempted to commission an attention-grabbing tribute, instead it has respected the donor vehicle’s original design and specification.
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Rule of threes - ebay.