Travel trailers

Tabbert Paganini: jawohl!

Stuck for something to tow behind your badass, blacker-than-black Audi Q7? Then may we suggest, mein Herr, the new Tabbert Paganini? For just €37,000 ($55,000), 28 feet of Euro RV aristocracy can be yours.

This is the sort of trailer that would feature in Ronin 2 if they ever got round to greenlighting it. The exterior is sleek and dark; the interior has that superyacht look that upscale German RV manufacturers do so well.

The mahogany wood is highly polished, the ambient lighting is skillfully recessed, and micro LED spotlights dim at your command. You’re given three fabric groups to choose from, including ‘Prestige’ leather. Hell, just chuck a Porsche Design bottle-opener into the kitchen drawer and you’re ready to roll.

Innovative touches abound, even above your head: the roof has integrated air-conditioning channels, with a six-centimeter gap that also improves sound insulation when it rains.

The overall effect is slightly surreal, but we like it. So do many others, it would seem—the Paganini has a starring role at the current Dusseldorf Caravan Salon, and it’s one of the four winners of the Caravaning Design Award.

Tabbert’s flagship is available in three configurations, from 25 to 28 feet, and weighs between 1795 kg (3,957 lbs) and 1975 kg (4,354 lbs) in full running order. That means you’ll need a Class III hitch on your Euro SUV: any Audi Q7 will do, as will a Volvo XC90 V8 AWD. (Remarkably, a BMW X5 3.0si will also cope, with its extraordinary 6,000 lb tow rating.)

Unfortunately, there’s no word on the Paganini’s availability outside Europe. But you could pester Dutchmen, which distributes the teardrop trailers built by Tabbert’s Gen-X offshoot T@B.

Which reminds us: one of the other Caravan Salon stars is the T@B’s bizarre new XL teardrop trailer, which features a Ralph Lauren-style ‘American Way of Life’ interior. More on that later this week, so stay tuned.

Update, 11 October 2008: As widely predicted, Knaus Tabbert has gone bankrupt. Its application for a €12m ($16.2m) bridging loan to see it through the quiet winter months was rejected by banks, and a liquidator has been appointed. The German state of Bavaria is working to secure the company’s future.