Slip the subject of Volkswagen vans into conversation and you can be certain that someone will know somebody who is an absolute fanatic. I have thus become acquainted with a series of van fans whose love of the "V dub" ranges from the obsessive (elaborate paint-jobs and shag-pile makeovers are not uncommon) to the unrequited (a friend's daughter "would kill to get her hands on a vintage camper"). Actor Martin Clunes, I hear, is the proud owner of an immaculate 1960s model. And who can have failed to notice Jamie Oliver's expensively remodelled post-war Samba?

To an extent, I can chip in with a small contribution of my own. My father was so fond of the VW pick-up he used as a delivery van for his 1960s furnishing business that it virtually usurped the family car. And though I never really understood why we travelled to the seaside in a small German truck, the drone of an air-cooled rear engine is as familiar a memory of childhood holidays as Cornish ice-cream and calamine lotion.