Super-Rare 1986 Austin Maestro Countryman Is a "Plucky Portable Studio Apartment"

With all this recent talk about vanlife, wanderlust, and digital nomadism that can successfully double as lucrative livelihood thanks to social media, this "portable studio apartment" would be just the thing to get one lucky and adventurous owner to stand out. That said, it's more than just the perfect vehicle for chasing clout: it's a classic in excellent condition, and a rare model at it.

British Leyland was a British auto manufacturer founded in 1968 and absorbed by Rover in 1986, which also marked its official demise. During its troubled operation, British Leyland strove to deliver automobiles that were equal parts performance and style but at an affordable cost that would make them rival international imports.

In 1983, after the terrible decade of the '70s and countless reliability issues that had turned British Leyland into the butt of jokes, it introduced the Austin Maestro model. You can see an ad for the Austin Maestro at the bottom of the page, but let's just say this from the start: BL threw everything it had into this effort. Also, if you think today's ads are dramatic, you haven't seen anything yet.

A premium variant of the Austin Maestro was the Austin Maestro Countryman, which was designed as two great things in one single package: an affordable daily driver and a family vehicle for weekend getaways. The Maestro Countryman was a camper, with the extra space in the back and the slightly lifted roofline allowing for the most basic camper setup.

By today's standards, such a setup would be ideal for two people, but the Maestro Countryman lived in another era, so it was advertised as a family RV. Huddling together in the back of a hatchback can be fun, especially if there are other major advantages outweighing the cons.

And this camper had them. Besides the family bed, it also offered a simple galley and a dinette area, which popped up out of thin air (*not really, no) when you moved the benches back into the original position and added the central dining table. More importantly, it could still be used as a daily driver the rest of the week and was priced affordably compared to other RV solutions.

Again, by comparison to today's standards, this is far from the ideal vanlife we're being shown online by people who do live it – and make money off it. But the Maestro Countryman lived by other standards, and to those, we must hold it today. This makes it a quirky classic with serious collectible potential.

As it happens, one such camper has emerged for sale in its home country, and it's scheduled to cross the auction block on May 11. It's a 1986 model, so it already bears the "Rover" in its full name, and it's in surprising and impeccable condition.

The listing mentions that it's had five owners since new and the odo reads almost 97,000 miles (156,106 km), which means it did get to see some camping spots across the country. But it's been well cared for and maintained and stored in a garage when not in use. It's also been coated with Waxyol against rust.

Surprisingly, this camper still has the original upholstery inside, but the bench cushions have been re-padded. The listing dubs it a "plucky portable studio apartment," which is a most apt description if you like your studio apartments without a toilet or a sink with running water.

However, you get a gas built-in two-burner stove and plenty of cupboards for storage, and you can improvise something if you plan on taking it anywhere else but a camping site. The interior also features the double-bench dinette, though there's no sight of the table in the photos provided by the auction house. Extra shelving is available above the dinette – again, in excellent and highly original condition.

The sale includes the owner's wallet with the owner's manual and a stamped service history booklet, and the seller promises that the camper "drives well." A standard Austin Maestro 500L Countryman came with a 1.3-liter inline-four engine, but the listing makes no mention of what's under the hood of this one.

What the listing does say is promise that a "self-contained living space on wheels" in this well-preserved and highly original condition is rarer than a unicorn, just not in these exact words. For the privilege of riding this unicorn into the sunset or over the rainbow, with or without the family in tow, the sixth owner is expected to pay between £5,000 and £7,000, or approximately $6,400-$8,900 at the current exchange rate.