My new Vito, what a van…

I recently drove to Italy from the UK with my new-to-me Mercedes Vito and goodness, WHAT a van. This Vito was delivered in 2017 to the Mercedes Maclaren Formula One team in the UK to support the race team throughout Europe so she is LHD but with British number plates in special order colour Mercedes Silver. She also has loads of extras including Comfort Seats (the drivers seat is also heated) and has all sorts of other useful stuff like lane warnings, I have the original invoice and the extras were more than 10k Pounds!!

I had been searching for about two years for a suitable replacement van because a recent holiday trip in the Red Rocket had highlighted her main shortcoming: the front bench seat is terribly uncomfortable for anything except fairly short trips, making a recent trip to France torture for my poor passenger. I contacted several companies but no company would consider changing the bench to a single seat due to homologation and airbag and legal concerns I guess.

So I finally found what looked like the van of my dreams for sale at the Slough Van Centre in the UK, Slough is a massive industrial area just north of London. The photos showed a stunning silver 2017 van with the best spec I have ever seen and when I made contact they explained that the van was supplied new to the Formula One race team and the silver colour was a special order. The van base price (in 2017) was 28k Pounds but this van was specced up to 40k with almost every option available.

And I must shout out to Simon Willis and the boys at Slough Van Centre, he is a true star perhaps the most honest fellow I have ever met and straight as a dye, thanks Simon!!!! No Arthur Daleys here.

Here are a few photos and I will add more soon. Thanks for reading!! Ps I have already removed and cleaned the lovely alloy wheels and fitted a set of steel wheels with winter tyres.