GERMAN VAN CONVERSION specialists Westfalia have returned to the UK market with the all-new Club Joker, a 5.3 metre-long VW T5-based high-top camper with up to four berths and full washroom facilities.
Left-hand drive demonstrator on display at the NEC Show
The Club Joker is being imported by experienced Westfalia dealers Roy Wood Transits, which has a left hand drive example on display on their stand at the Spring Caravan Show at the NEC in Birmingham.
The Club Joker was released to much fanfare at last year’s Düsseldorf Caravan Salon. It’s a revival of one of the firm’s most famous models – the original Club Joker was a highly lauded VW T25 conversion with a roof bed and a rear washroom, and Westfalia has retained the basics of that layout for the new version.
The new Club Joker also marks Westfalia’s first VW Transporter-based model in over a decade. The firm made its name building on the original Type 2 Transporter in the 1950s, but Volkswagen took Transporter camper conversion in-house in the wake of competitor Daimler-Chrysler’s acquisition of Westfalia in 2001. In 2010 Westfalia entered voluntary insolvency with a view to restructuring, and by the end of that year it had been acquired by French manufacturers Rapido. The Club Joker is the first all-new model launched under Rapido ownership.
Roy Wood’s Managing Director Steve Wood told Practical Motorhome that he’s hoping to bring more right-hand drive Westfalia models to the UK, such as the Fiat Ducato-based Columbus, although that will depend on whether Westfalia believes it can amortise the cost of re-handing the conversions. He also said that Westfalia is seriously considering building updated versions of its discontinued Ford Transit-based Nugget conversion on the new Ford Transit Custom base.
