The Volkswagen Type 2 was introduced in 1950 as a multi-variant utility vehicle and was designated as a Transporter, Kombi or Microbus depending on body type.

It was conceived as a natural partner to the Volkswagen Type 1, better known as the original 'Beetle'.

The first generation of these versatile vehicles carried the works nomenclature T1 and were produced with distinctive split-screens (subsequently known as 'Splitties') from 1950 until 1967, and these have become the most sought-after models.

Originally conceived as a practical commercial vehicle, it went on to find its own niche as a carefree campervan, even though Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg and Hanover factories never actually assembled them in ‘home-from-home’ campervan form enabling aftermarket companies to foresee and fulfil that potential.

It’s in campervan form that the Type 2 cemented its reputation as carefree transport for the counterculture in the 1960s, especially in America, with the relatively compact camper from E...