First look: Bailey Pegasus GT70 Brindisi
The Pegasus GT70 special edition marks Bailey’s 70th birthday and serves up some tasty extras for buyers. Peter Baber samples the range’s sole island-bed offering
The Bristol brand kicks off its 70th birthday celebrations with a special edition of its mid-market Pegasus
BAILEY IS MARKING its 70th birthday in 2018 with the launch of a special-edition range, the Pegasus GT70, a specced-up version of its mid-range offering. Our test model is the endwashroom, transverse-islandbed Pegasus GT70 Brindisi.
Pitch and set-up
A look at the extra spec you get on the outside explains why special editions are so popular.
An Al-ko ATC trailer control system is included as standard, with the stabiliser that used to be all you got, so towing this 7.37m-long van was a breeze. The 14-inch alloy wheels are a graphite colour, complementing the dark blue decals.
You also get a drip-tray for the exterior door, a new addition for the range, while external lockers have wet-locker-style floors. The door has a window, plus a bin with built-in dustpan and brush.
All of the windows are a new aerodynamic design and you get a 100W Truma solar panel.
Lounge
A plastic grabhandle helps you to get inside. At the entrance, there are also coat hooks and controls for the electrics.
Our test model had a shark’s fin-shaped bolster on the nearside settee, serving as a useful draught-stopper. This ergonomically designed feature is a £63 option, but we think it is one worth having.
The two settees in the lounge would adequately seat four, but probably no more than that.
The two shelves at the top of the side windows, beneath the speakers and the CD/MP3 player/radio, provide storage, but anyone in the corners of the settees will feel cramped – taller people will also have to mind their head when standing up.
If there are only two of you, you probably won’t sit here anyway, because the TV and mains sockets on the ledge below the front windows mean that the most obvious place for any TV is on the centre chest.
The ambient lighting around the windows is complemented by four spotlights and two LED lights above each settee, plus three large LED lights at the uppermost end of that huge, sweeping central window.
You also get two blown-air vents at the bottom of the chest, so even in winter, the interior should be cosy as well as bright.
The freestanding table is a good size, although it has to be fished out from under the island bed and when stowing it, placed precisely between two slots – we found this quite a task.
The new interior furnishings were pleasing to the eye. Warm Mendip Ash woodwork, with a contrasting stripe on the Italiandesigned locker doors and a neutral grey on the settees, works well with the patterns on the curtains and cushions.
Kitchen
The flap extending the worktop is large, but the kitchen is L-shaped, with the round sink and four-burner dual-fuel hob at the other end, so this extra area is some way from where the cook would likely be stationed.
There are two mains sockets nearby and controls for the Truma heating (the panel is inet ready, but adding the inet system is a retailer-fit option).
The area is well lit, with large LEDS underneath the overhead lockers and the microwave, and smaller LEDS in front of them.
The L-shape accommodates the gas-bottle locker, but you still get a large pull-out cutlery tray and three shelves behind the curved cupboard door.
There’s another good-sized cupboard with a shelf to the right of this, before you get to the Thetford Caprice Mk III oven and grill, with a pan locker underneath that is mostly taken up by the wheel arch. To the right of the oven is a slender cupboard, featuring holders for three wine bottles. The overhead lockers here, unlike those in the lounge, have push buttons, not handles, but they do swing high.
Opposite the main kitchen area is a 134-litre Dometic fridge and freezer. The locker below houses the fuse box, but the one above is clear, if you can reach it.
Washroom
The end washroom seems a bit narrow. A window high up over the sink lets in light without compromising privacy – it also has a blind.
The basin sits on top of a shelved cupboard, with small shelves around it. It is well lit, with a large mirror and a hook.
The shower cubicle is sturdily built, with two LEDS, a rooflight and a handy shelf.
Beds
With the island bed in the daytime position, the main bedroom is spacious.
There are two spotlights over the headboard and two more lights higher up in front of the lockers, so you shouldn’t have a problem reading.
There is a small dresser in the front offside corner, with its own socket. This is handy, because even if you used the socket on the fabric panel next door for the TV – which you can mount here – you would still have a power supply for a hairdryer. But bizarrely, the dresser does not have a mirror.
However, roll the bed out to its full length (1.86 x 1.42m) to sleep, and space is not so good. The gap around the bottom of
the bed is so narrow, anyone trying to get past in the night could easily wake a light sleeper.
The wardrobes either side have a cupboard below, although the far side one is a bit narrow.
Between the wardrobe/ cupboards flanking the island bed are small built-in shelves, ideal for your book or phone.
The front make-up double is good and large (1.94 x 1.35m) and still uses slats and Bailey’s ingenious Dreamsleep system, which creates a surprisingly flat surface with relative ease.
You can leave the settees up as singles, but you only get beds that are 1.59m long – and you have to find a storage place for four bulky backrests.
Storage
It’s good to have two externally accessed lockers. Unusually, the battery is located in a cubbyhole in the floor under the island bed.
The two underseat areas are also relatively clutter-free – the water heater is positioned in the offside space, but partitioned off. It’s just a shame there are no internal access flaps to either of these areas.
You get four shelved overhead lockers in the front lounge, and the corner shelves, plus a twodrawer chest in the middle with a small locker underneath.
In the bedroom, as well as the space under the bed and the wardrobes, there are overhead lockers with a shelf in between.