HAT TRICK

WORDS BY BRIAN LABAN
PICTURES BY VAUXHALL

For more than a hundred years, Vauxhall has been associated with Luton - and so has a famous type of van.

At the Commercial Vehicle Show in Birmingham in April, Vauxhall Commercial Vehicles introduced the latest addition to its core conversion van line-up, the Movano Luton. And with a choice of three engines and a neat, stylish body, it brings an even more cavernous load area to the seriously big Movano range.

Now, here’s a ‘what’s in a name’ question to go with it. You may have heard that term ‘Luton van’, and may even know that it refers not to a make or a model but to a very particular shape; but have you ever wondered why?

Rewind to Luton even before Vauxhall arrived on the scene to build cars there, in 1907. Back then, Luton was already famous for another manufacturing industry – hat-making.

Luton’s hat trade had one special need – to carry as many straw boaters in one load as could be fitted in without crushing them flat. The answer, even when vans were drawn by real horses not Vauxhall horsepower, was a body style that added a projecting box section above the driver - coincidentally giving them a bit of protection from the elements as well as a huge amount of extra space. They called it the Luton of course, and when vans went motorised in the early 20th century the name stuck and became generic, like Biro and Hoover.