Motorhomes

Volkner: Dude, where’s my car?

Dude, it’s under the floor. The ‘Performance’ motorhome from high-end German RV manufacturer Volkner Mobil has a garage between the wheels that’s big enough to hold a swanky Maserati Quattroporte.

Yes, they do things differently in Europe. Forget the usual rear-entry toy hauler arrangement: Volkner Mobil has created space between the axles and equipped its RV with a car-sized hydraulic platform that lowers itself to the ground.

You drive your car onto the platform, press a few buttons, and watch it disappear into the warm, metallic underbelly of the coach. It’s neat and it’s clever. If you’d feel foolish towing a Saturn Vue behind your Class A, this baby is for you.

The smallest model is 35 feet (10.5m) long, but only has enough room for a Mini Cooper. Go up a couple of feet to the next size, and you’ve got room for a Mercedes SLK or Audi TT.

The biggest 40-foot model (12.3m) model has three axles, and gives you considerably more flexibility. Volkner Mobil suggests a Porsche 911, a Jaguar XK8 or BMW 6-Series convertible, or that Maserati Quattroporte. By our calculations, a Chevy Volt will fit too—if GM is still operating in two years.

The other stats are equally impressive. The engine pumps out 338 KW (460 bhp)—and it’s a pusher, as with most US-built Class A motorhomes. Water capacity is an incredible thousand liters, some of which feeds the massage showers in the luxurious bathroom. (There’s underfloor heating, of course.)

Talking of floors, you can specify parquet floors in wenge wood with maple inserts. Or marble floors with granite inserts. Other options include a slide-out external grill and a remote-controlled generator, which is totally enclosed for soundproofing.

It’s all very high tech. So, fortunately, the heart of this RV is the Volkner Brainpilot system. It’s a computer connected by fiber optics to modules scattered around the vehicle, putting everything from the heating systems to the solar panels under your control.

Even before Top Gear happened across this RV, Volkner Mobil was famous in Europe for producing crazy motorhomes for racing teams. Check out the Racing Car Truck: it’s based on a Mercedes Travego coach, and comes with a crane at the back to lift the car into a mini-garage.

But if you haven’t heard of Volkner Mobil, that’s perfectly understandable. It’s a relatively young company, based in the picturesque town of Wuppertal, near the German-French border. It started out building custom trucks for the garbage and construction industries in the 70s, but has since moved on to bigger things.

The price? Don’t ask. Volkner Mobil builds each Performance RV to order. If you’re serious, drop company boss Gerhard a line. Otherwise, enjoy the pictures …

See also:
If you need to haul vehicles in style, check out Airstream’s recent PanAmerica. Open the gullwing door at the back and you’ll find an 11-foot garage with wheel clamps and tie-downs for motorcycles, kayaks and mountain bikes. With a sticker price of $85,000, it’s a little cheaper than the Volkner too.