Tralee owner brings rare Bedford CA Dormobile to Kerry roads

Tralee owner brings rare Bedford CA Dormobile to Kerry roads

Every classic vehicle run across Kerry and neighbouring counties seems to bring at least one previously unseen machine out of the woodwork.

During this summer’s road runs, Tralee man Paelt Hanifin provided one of the season’s standout revelations with his newly acquired Bedford CA Dormobile camper van.

Hanifin made his first local outing over the August Bank Holiday weekend at the Ballymacelligott Run. A few weeks later, he brought the van to the 19th annual Ted’s Opel Vauxhall Run in Macroom, where it took home the Moriarty’s Central Car Sales Perpetual Cup for Best General Motors Vehicle. These two runs mark the only public appearances the van has made since arriving in County Kerry.

The journey to bring this rare machine to Tralee began when Hanifin set out to find a Bedford CA. Having learned to drive in a CA in the early 1970s, he had long harboured a desire to own one. While he originally searched for a standard panel van, a listing for a Dormobile camper conversion in Eastbourne on the south coast of England caught his eye in July, and he made the trip over to secure it.

Built by Vauxhall’s commercial vehicle division in Luton between 1952 and 1969, the Bedford CA was famous for its distinctive pug-nosed front cab, sliding side doors, and short semi-forward control design. Beneath the small front bonnet sat a 1.5-litre four-cylinder overhead-valve engine derived from the Vauxhall Wyvern passenger car, later upgraded to a 1.6-litre unit.

The Dormobile camper conversion itself was engineered by Folkestone coachbuilder Martin Walter. First introduced on the CA chassis in 1957, the Dormobile was born out of a clever tax loophole. To avoid the British passenger car purchase tax applied to minibus conversions, Martin Walter fitted built-in life support facilities.

Equipped with a gas stove, sink, built-in cupboards, patented seats that folded flat into beds, and a signature side-hinged pop-top roof with a red-and-white striped canopy for standing room, the Dormobile qualified as a motorcaravan and avoided the tax penalty entirely.

Surviving Bedford CA Dormobiles are exceptionally rare today. Hanifin’s example has quickly become a talking point among local vintage and classic enthusiasts.

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