Rear view mirror
We didn’t produce an issue called Summer back then but it’s interesting to look back to the summer of ’86, our first year of publication
A look back at 1986
This month we’re looking back 35 years to when Which Motorcaravan (as it was then known) was the fresh-faced new kid on the block, or at least the newest motorhome title on the bookshelves. In the wider world, this was the year of Chernobyl, the biggest nuclear power disaster in history and one that has left dangerously radioactive ghost towns around the city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine. It was also the year of the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy and the first case of mad cow disease, as the tabloids later called it.
This was also the year that The Phantom of the Opera debuted – it’s now the second longestrunning West End musical – and, more relevant to motorhomers, the M25 orbital motorway around London was completed, creating future misery for millions of commuters as Britain’s biggest car park. For those looking to travel further afield, the UK and France had just announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
Margaret Thatcher was PM in 1986 and Crocodile Dundee was a hit at the cinema, while the Pet Shop Boys achieved their first number one hit single. In May, the last Talbot-badged car to be built at Peugeot’s Ryton factory, near Coventry, signalled the writing on the wall for this brand, although the
Talbot Express van would still be a popular base for campervans and motorhomes in the UK for another eight years (this first-generation Sevel van, built in Italy, was only ever a Talbot on these shores, being known instead as the Peugeot J5 on the Continent).
Our cover star for the July 1986 issue was a Talbot-based campervan, called the Penthouse 100. That’s not a name anyone is likely to recall, but the Auto-Sleeper CXL in the same mag – also based on the Express van – was a far more significant model. Its layout closely resembles that of today’s (Peugeot Boxer-based) Symbol but it’s interesting to note how campervans have developed in more than three decades.
Of course, this was a time before airbags but you might be surprised to learn that it was also prehead restraints (even in the cab) and that rear seatbelts were an optional extra. There was no power steering and, while a 2.5-litre diesel engine (no turbo!) was optional, petrol power was what was included in the £11,295 price tag. The test model had the more powerful (78bhp) petrol engine option – still a long way short of today’s 165bhp in a 2021-season Symbol. The fact that motorhomes were smaller back then (the CXL was just 4.75m long) won’t have helped a lot but our tester still said “driving was sheer joy” – clearly expectations were a little different in 1986!
This was a time when the average London house cost £56,657, a typical new car was priced at under seven grand and a litre of petrol cost 40p. Turning to our classified ads you could have an elevating roof fitted to your ’van for £200 or find a whole used motorhome for £2,000 or less!