Full review

There’s something warmly classic about the 2011 Delta range. Something exceptionally homely, a touch traditional in its cosiness, perhaps.

Mix that impression with an image of a caravan that’s bright and light by day and bright and light in a very different way by night. Now, with those thoughts in mind, you might just be beginning to enter the distinctive world of the Delta.

The range is Lunar’s flagship, of course. So a high level of spec is a given. You get a 40-litre underslung on-board water tank and Alde central heating. You have speakers in the bedroom, and a big fridge with separate freezer. So far so good, though for five pounds under £22,000, you’d expect all that.

The RS, though, gives you a lot more than high spec and high quality. Its layout is really special and this is why: The combination of tower fridge (which, let’s face it, can dominate a layout) and fixed bed and end bathroom often means squished kitchen and short lounge. That’s because the distance between hitch and tail lights has to stay under eight metres.

In the RS, though, those eight metres have been put to exceptionally clever use. The lounge has full single-bed-length settees.

And this room is kept spacious by the inclusion of a dresser to the right of the door, pushing that big, grey monster of a fridge back down the caravan into the centre where it’s less obtrusive.

Before our test moves on into the kitchen, we linger in the lounge to look closely at the factor that gives this year’s Deltas their slightly traditional feel. It’s the rich, gold-cream upholstery, with a suggestion of a leaf pattern in the weave, and subtle Regency stripes woven into the seat backs.

Everything’s the same colour, as are the curtains. Enter, though, the Delta-look wow-factor. It’s a deep aubergine-shade, in the form of four cushions, plus two scatter cushions with fine-embroidered leafy bits.

The total look is gorgeous. And on our test caravan the bedding had been given the same treatment – it’s a £159.99 optional extra, made by Jonic Bedding.



Looks, though, aren’t everything – and in the kitchen it’s the stuff you can’t see that’s really important.

That’s the complexity of shelving and drawers inside the great big triple-section cabinet. There’s a second cabinet, to the right of the oven, containing three more deep shelves. In total, this is a phenomenal amount of kitchen storage – especially when you add in the triple overhead lockers.

The advantage (apart from 24-hour programmability) of the water-circulation Alde central heating system is that a heater unit doesn’t have to be integrated into the layout. All the Alde’s workings are under beds and in a wardrobe. In the RS layout, this gives you an extra cupboard in the kitchen.

Everywhere seems spacious in the RS; even the corridor between wardrobe and bed (so often a bit of a bottle-neck) is generous.

Just forward of the door leading into the full-width end washroom is the Delta’s version of a dressing table. It has with four shelves on each side of a large mirror, a shelf underneath – and a socket for a hairdrier alongside.

There’s a sensible amount of shelving in the washroom – and here you have advantage of a heated towel rail that’s part of the Alde system, along with an enveloping warmth that has to be experienced to be appreciated.

Verdict:

Elegant, sophisticated, superbly stylish… The Delta RS cuts a quality dash in all those ways.

And that’s important, as is the colossal amount of storage space. But, on the day we collected the RS for this test, all that paled into insignificance during a motorway journey in a severe gale.

Right then, the attribute that mattered most was the ATC stability control system. You can’t detect it applying the caravan brakes on one side or another to prevent sway; you just know it’s doing its stuff.

The ATC system is, to us, worth changing a caravan for; you can’t put a value on safety and peace of mind.