THE NORMANS & RUBY

I first met Johnny some thirteen years ago when I was working in Worcester Royal Hospital in the X-ray department.  Johnny and Phil had, I believe, been "off-roading" at Mallory Park during a side car race when clearly the idea was to stay on the tarmac.  I rememdber he was very chatty  and cheerful for someone with broken limbs.

We met again six years ago when I started taking our cars to WAS Auto Centre for servicing.

Lin (my wife) and I had been discussing buying a motorhome for some time.  We knew Johnny was converting VW transporters and decided to approach him to find out more.  The idea of replacing one of our cars with a transporter for everyday use made sense rather than having a larger motorhome which we would only usw on a few occasions each year.

After an initial phone conversation one evening with Johnny, when he outlined the possibilities of conversion we arranged to meet at Bath road the following Saturday.  Johnny's enthusiasm for this subject was obvious from the start and remained at full throttle for the next two hours.  He ran through in detail all the options which would be available to us if we were to proceed, including the new furniture he was developing with a manufacturer.

We visited his hideaway at Cradley to look at more vans partly converted.  it was a very useful experience as we learnt a lot in those couple of hours (at least I now know that T4/T5 were not just part of the spine!!)

The following Saturday we met again and we road tested two vans.  To afford  a full conversion we realised we shoudld opt for the cheaper blue van, so of course we agreed to buy the red one!!  We knew it t would look stunning with the new black furniture.

We agreed to most options that were available, as being in our late fifties we couldn't afford to hang around.  Although I did check to make sure there is room for a couple of zimmer  frames if required in future!

The design and manufacture of the new furniture delayed completion a little bit, but we were in no hurry, as we knew that Johnny would not let us take possession until he was 100% happy with all aspects of the finished article.

We had regular updates including a call at 8.00 pm one evening  from an exicted Johnny asking if we would like to pop down to look at the new furniture he had been fitting.  It was starting to look really amazing.

Fortuntely we were allowed to take possession on the 20th May and we were both like kids at Christmas and therefore Johnny was a happy chap because he wants his customers to be completely satisfied with their purchae.

Ruby, as she was named at an early stage, is a very versitile vehicle and as a short wheel base version is not much bigger than a lot of cars in length or width, and you soon get used to driving her, including reversing.

We would both like to thank Johnny and all the Bath Road team for a very unique and enjoyable experience with a fantastic end product.

Chris is now looking forward to many Dirty Weekends away in Ruby, but Lin on the other hand prefers a good book!! 

Chris and Lin Norman