{"id":3255,"date":"2012-04-23T14:54:46","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T14:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=3255"},"modified":"2012-04-23T14:54:46","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T14:54:46","slug":"ford-transit-club-hits-1000-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/3255","title":{"rendered":"Ford Transit Club Hits 1,000 Members"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ford

Darren Kempton (L), the 1,000th member of the Ford Transit Club, with club founder Peter Lee (R)<\/p><\/div>\n

Seven years after its foundation, the Transit Van Club<\/a> is celebrating the signing of its 1,000th member.<\/p>\n

Darren Kempton, who owns two classic examples of Ford\u2019s finest, is the \u201cmillennium member\u201d and he was presented with a commemorative certificate from club founder Peter Lee.<\/p>\n

Classic Enthusiast<\/h3>\n

Darren, whose 1986 Mk II long wheelbase Transit is in daily use with his signage and vehicle graphics business, DJK Signs<\/a>, was delighted to find himself a milestone member: \u201cIt\u2019s a great honour,\u201d said Flitwick, Bedfordshire<\/a>-based Darren:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Transit has been part of my life since I first started driving one in 1996, and now I have bought a second classic model, a 1969 Mk I camper van, as a restoration project.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Transit Van Club was founded by Peter Lee in 2005 to mark the van\u2019s 40th birthday. Peter owns \u00a0nine classic Transits, each used regularly, and said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI never imagined the club would grow so quickly to reach 1,000 members, I think that says everything you need to know about the Transit and its place in people\u2019s hearts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Charitable Club<\/h3>\n

Club members regularly display their vans at classic commercial vehicle events around the country and often use them to raise money for charity – the club recently donated \u00a31,000 to the\u00a0Great Ormond Street Hospital Children\u2019s Charity<\/a>.\u00a0The next big events planned are the Classic and Vintage Commercial Show on 9\/10 June and the 20\/22 July Transit Van Club annual rally, both at Gaydon in Warwickshire.<\/p>\n

47 Years Of Transit Success<\/h3>\n

My fondness for Transits is no secret and I have owned two. The Transit has been a market leader throughout its 47 years of production and I believe it is still the best all-rounder on the market. This looks set to continue with the new Transit Custom<\/a>, which I suspect will bring a whole new level of sophistication to panel vans, outdoing even the Mercedes Vito and VW Transporter.<\/p>\n

The UK remains the single most important market for the Transit; of the 6.3 million Transits that Ford has sold around the world, more than 2.1 million were sold in Britain. Although some Transit production now takes place abroad (in Turkey, I think), the Transit is still designed and engineered at Ford\u2019s Dunton, Essex site. Some of the 7,200-plus current Ford Transit model variants are also still made at the Southampton<\/a> plant, with engines built at Dagenham and transmissions from Ford\u2019s Halewood plant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Transit Van Club has signed up it’s 1,000th member, Darren Kempton, who owns two classic Transits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[49,1454,1461],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3255"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3260,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions\/3260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}