Our Touring Past

This item appeared in Modern Motor, March 1953.
Nothing is stated about the manufacturer other than the van is from South Australia.
I have a feeling there a couple of these surviving but I can't find a post on here, might be under another name and will need to amalgamate in due course. I rather fancy the style myself.
George

griffin wrote: I have a feeling there a couple of these surviving but I can't find a post on here, might be under another name and will need to amalgamate in due course.

Hi George,

I think you are thinking of the Mayfair, of which there are at least three still around. As far as I can tell the Smal-A-Van is identical to the Mayfair, and both come from South Australia.

I should add that Mayfair is the name used by one of the owners, while as far as I know the other two were bought "nameless" by their present owners, so it could simply be that the owner of the first van referred to didn't have a name for his van either and simply called it after a previous owner, the street where he bought it, his favourite property in Monopoly, or...who knows? Maybe they are all Smal-A-Vans after all?

Don Ricardo

Thanks Don, pleased to see that it wasn't just oldtimers mindtricks that made me think I'd seen something on them.

I decided to do a bit of trawling on 'Trove' and found a few adverts in The Advertiser (Adelaide) for "SMALA-VAN" being sold from 15 Edwards Street, Unley, a slightly different spelling to the Modern Motor item but no doubt the same person. There were also a couple of adverts offering van repairs at the same address, pity no name was given. At least he was cunning enough to put a capital C in front of his ad to get SMALA-VAN up the listings in the car and caravan section. George