Mystery van - identification help please

[Neil]

Whilst browsing images of Belgium I saw this van (cropped from the original) in a street scene which I don't recognise.

 

 

I post in the hope that the collective expertise of RMweb can come up with an identification and satisfy my curiosity.

 

Many thanks.

 

 

[Merfyn Jones]

Looks like the sort of thing Renault may have made

[Neil]

Thanks Merfyn but a google search of Renault vans has yet to turn up a match.

 

I should have said in my initial post that the photo is dated 1964.

[Dunsignalling]

Overall shape is not unlike 1950s Peugeot, but the front is nothing like anything I've ever seen. Searches on Simca, Panhard and Talbot all come up with a similar overall shape but nothing resembling the front.

 

Nearest likeness on Google is something called a Tempo which seems to have been made by VW for the Australian market.

 

 

John

Edited January 6, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[RANGERS]

Its an DKW/ Auto Union from the 50s/ 60s, there's one turns up at rallies in the UK from time to time.

Edited January 6, 2018 by RANGERS

[bécasse]

I can tell you that Wasserij Iris was, and still is, a small chain of launderettes located in several places just to the east of Brussels in what is today the Province of Vlaamse Brabant, and it looks as if this is their service van, probably somewhere in Brussels given the standard gauge tramway. A slight puzzle is that the type of paving round the tram tracks would normally only have been used for reserved track in an area where pedestrians could have access.

Edited January 6, 2018 by bécasse

[TheSignalEngineer]

Its an DKW/ Auto Union from the 50s/ 60s, there's one turns up at rallies in the UK from time to time.

https://www.goodingco.com/vehicle/1956-dkw-schnellaster-kastenwagen-36/

 

http://ccmv.aecsouthall.co.uk/p789649033/h65599F0A#h65599f0a

[Dunsignalling]

Its an DKW/ Auto Union from the 50s/ 60s, there's one turns up at rallies in the UK from time to time.

That's definitely it. Googling DKW van brings up pics of several just like it.

 

John

[Neil]

Many thanks for all the replies, my curiosity is satisfied and I know more now than I did at the beginning of the day.

 

Becasse - the image was cropped from this photo, which google tells me is the road from Antwerp to Turnhout. Further photos on this page. It's interesting to know that a business from the sixties still survives.

[bécasse]

Many thanks for all the replies, my curiosity is satisfied and I know more now than I did at the beginning of the day.

 

Becasse - the image was cropped from this photo, which google tells me is the road from Antwerp to Turnhout. Further photos on this page. It's interesting to know that a business from the sixties still survives.

 

The Turnhoutsebaan, now the N12 and one of the main routes running east out of Antwerpen through Borgerhout. I was surprised to discover that the tramway is metre, rather than standard, gauge and it demonstrates how road vehicles have got wider since the 1960s. I have found it difficult to identify the precise location(s) but trams still run along the road there - and underneath it!

[it's-er]

I'm always fascinated by the threads that turn up on RMweb, and astonished at the knowledge users have!

 

Here is this quick query about a van on a road somewhere in Europe. And within a couple of hours, a full and definitive answer is provided. Astonishing!

 

The links The Signal Engineer gives us at post 7 are fascinating. The van in America sold for $101,750 - goodness!! A model would be considerably cheaper! And the British registered example has the registration 104 YUK. Was YUK really its original registration number, or did the owner's wife, who might detest the van, give it to him as a 'present'?! Who knows!

 

John Storey