This Basic Mini Pickup Spent Its Life As A Cute Ice Cream Van

In September 1960, the Mini Pickup went on sale, and it’d ultimately develop into the platform of selection for Cummins Ice Cream Vans. One has discovered its approach into BMW Group Basic’s heritage assortment, and it’s downright cute.

Cummins began producing the vans within the Nineteen Seventies. The conversion eliminated the pickup’s roof and the rear cab wall, opening the inside to the mattress. A customized high with massive, bulbous home windows and massive sliding doorways turned the truck into an ice cream van. The intense pink paint job pops, adorned with “Lollies Ice Cream” over the entrance home windows, delicious-looking decals, and a motif of “Tom and Jerry” on the again.

Cummins offered the vans within the UK and overseas, however they didn’t have lengthy lifespans. Few are left, and upkeep prices might be prohibitive. There have been different Mini Ice Cream Vans with completely different designs and implementations, however the bulging roof of Cummins’ design stays fairly well-known.

The van earned the nickname “Batmobile Mini” due to its bulging roof home windows. Some apparently likened them to the batmobile’s double-bubble windshield from the Sixties “Batman” TV present. You might be the decide of that.

In 1998, Whitby Morrison, one other ice cream van maker, acquired Cummins, however that didn’t put the Mini Ice Cream Van on ice. Whitby had made one duplicate for an unspecified firm, and tapping into peoples’ nostalgia is a confirmed moneymaker.

The Mini Ice Cream Van is just like the Mini Wildgoose, a BMC Mini van transformed right into a camper. It was obtainable with one in all three conversion kits, and the corporate supplied it as a accomplished conversion. The camper got here with 4 seats, a double mattress, and cabinets. Energy got here from a 34-horsepower (25-kilowatt) four-cylinder engine.

The one photograph of the inside exhibits off a tiny sink tucked up in opposition to the dashboard, which incorporates a center-mounted gauge cluster and never a lot else. It has a small sink, however the Mini’s design made it rather more accommodating than its small seems counsel. Corporations have been modifying autos because the vehicle first arrived, and we’re glad {that a} cute creation like this has been saved from the dustbin of historical past.