The New Tesla of Luxury Campers Will Make Airstreams Blush
If you see a riveted travel trailer that resembles an Airstream but isn't, it may be a Bowlus. That's assuming you're extremely lucky, too—there simply aren't many of these rare, upscale campers out there, so spotting one is like peeping Bigfoot.
The company roots trace back to an aircraft builder named Hawley Bowlus, creator of a riveted, polished metal travel trailer back in 1934 to transport flight crews to remote locations. The brand has since been reinvented by Geneva Long, CEO of modern-day Bowlus. Characterized by an upright rounded front that tapers into an upside-down canoe-shaped rear, Bowlus trailers appear quite distinct in their Streamline Moderne design, almost steampunk-like in detail and complexity. Now, those Bowlus models—the Terra Firma, Endless Highways Performance Edition, and the Endless Highways Edition—are joined by a new model, called the Volterra, that takes the classic format and fully electrifies it for a new era.
EV Trailerin'
Bowlus makes some pretty bold claims regarding its brand-new, all-electric 2023 Volterra model, including that it is the first production RV to be 100-percent electric; the first to apply AeroSolar; the first with high-speed satellite internet; and the first to offer an induction cooktop. We'll work through these aspects one by one.
The Volterra is all-electric, meaning it's devoid of a generator or propane fuel, the common power sources for running appliances while boondocking and figuratively (and literally) keeping the lights on. It has 17 kwh of lithium iron phosphate batteries (for a 100-percent increase in battery capacity over its Terra Firma model). It has 20-amp outlets to give an EV tow vehicle a little bit of juice in the case of an emergency, and the EV (or, we suspect, a hybrid with substantial power generation capabilities such as an F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid—can likewise recharge the Bowlus while driving.
Bowlus is proud of its AeroSolar setup that has up to 480 watts of solar power absorption. Compared to aluminum-framed glass panels, the AeroSolar panels feature monocrystalline cells with PERC technology that make the cells more efficient and the panels lightweight and durable. They're paired with a smart MPPT solar controller that coordinates the flow of vital juice. The solar panels fit the roof perfectly, and there are two optional suitcase panels for extra solar.
Want to do some remote streaming or download some giant files to your mobile office in the middle of nowhere? The Bowlus Volterra has Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet for fast and reliable internet in most places. Starlink for RVs is relatively new and can be expected to hit a bounty of nomadic setups in the near future.
Whereas most (if not all) trailers normally have propane stoves, the Bowlus Volterra has an induction cooktop, excelling in energy efficiency while providing precise temperature and cooking control. One could argue induction cooktops are safer, too, as the surface works with a magnetic field rather than physically getting hot, which also means you don't necessarily heat up the whole trailer while cooking dinner. The downsides of induction tops are that they require induction-ready cookware, and they're simply more expensive.
The Volterra sleeps and dines four inside the fully vegan, limited-edition interior theme that's been named "La Cumbre," for the name of a mountain peak behind Santa Barbara, California. "Ynez" seating with "Rafael" accent piping recreate a beautiful California sunset. Black and old rose striped 100-percent linen duvet covers, blankets, and throw pillows are included.
The Bowlus Volterra measures just over 27 feet long and has a base weight of 3,250 pounds (4,000-pound GVWR), indicating it's pretty lightweight. It has a 50-gallon freshwater tank, which Bowlus considers "perfect for extended off-grid time or longer showers." We'd like to see double that amount of fresh water—but that would exceed the GVWR in water alone. A cool feature when it comes to navigating into tight camping spots is its 120-degree color backup camera that's rechargeable, waterproof, and compatible with all iOS and Android devices.
Getting into a Bowlus Volterra will set owners back at least $310,000. That's hard to wrap your mind around, right? This helps explain why you don't see very many in the wild. To put this into perspective, the most expensive Airstream, the 33-foot Classic, starts at $206,500. If you ever see a Bowlus, it's okay to stare.
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Greg Cope of Holiday, Texas, has always been a big fan of classic American muscle, and he loves trying to find forgotten gems hidden around the state. Yeah, you would think all the really cool (code for: popular) cars have already been found and scooped up, but the truth is that there are still quite a few classics hidden in barns, buried in garages, or just languishing in fields. These "barn finds" are always cool and we love seeing the cars rescued so they can be put back on the road.Cope already had a 1968 Camaro he had bought off of the original owner back in 1992, but when he heard about this hidden-away 1967 Camaro he didn't hesitate to go check it out. The 1967 Camaro had been parked outside from 1974 to 2004, when it was acquired by the second owner in a trade for a diesel Mercedes then stuffed into a barn.At first, the '67 appeared to be a big-block car, as it came with a properly date-coded 375 hp 396ci engine said to have been removed from the car, as well as a four-speed trans that was still installed. But Cope knows the drill, so he ran the VIN tag and found the Camaro came from the factory with a straight-six and a three-on-the-tree. It was still a good find, and the price was right, so he rescued the Camaro from barn jail and hauled it home to keep his 1968 Camaro company. As it turns out, the '68 and the '67 were both sold new from the same Texas Chevy dealership.Cope's original plan was to clean up the '67 and flip it for a quick profit, but his 13-year-old daughter Kendall said she would love it as her first car—nice to see he's raising her right. Given that the Camaro isn't anything rare, the plan is to keep it stock-looking but give it an LS-swap and overdrive trans, along with a Vintage Air kit to tame the Texas heat.Photos By Greg CopeWatch! See a 1969 Camaro Built From Start to FinishLove Camaros and want to see more? Watch as the HOT ROD team builds a complete supercharged and LS-swapped 1969 Camaro in just one week—and finish it off with huge burnouts! For more on the build, here's the full story.
A terrifying-sounding weather phenomenon called "super fog" caused a fatal multi-car pileup on Interstate 95 in Florida this morning. A combination of dense foggy weather and lingering smoke from controlled burning in the area created a severe visibility problem for drivers. The Miami Herald says 17 cars were involved in the crash, which resulted in dozens of injuries and three deaths.Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Kim Montes announced at a briefing that one crash involved 11 cars in the Northbound lanes of traffic passing through Volusia County, and another involved two passenger vehicles and four semi trucks in the Southbound lanes near Edgewater. The super fog was reported as the contributing cause of both incidents. Weather.com and AP reported smoke in the air was caused by a prescribed burn in an area near the highway.Screenshot from traffic camera. The National Weather Service for Melbourne, Florida lifted its weather advisory for the super fog issue around 9:00 a.m. this morning. In a statement, the Service says today's fog and smoke mix conditions limited driver visibility to fewer than 10 feet, which means you could only see pretty much just a single car length ahead of you. Here's how the Service describes super fog on its website:"Super fog forms when a mixture of smoke and moisture released from damp smoldering organic material such as brush, leaves and trees, mixes with cooler, nearly saturated air. Visibility is lowered to less than 10 feet. Under light wind conditions, super fog meanders through low terrain areas such as creek beds or drainage ditches. Super fog can be very dangerous when present over highways, and has been the cause of several large, multi-vehicle pileups."At highway speeds, this would mean there is zero time to react to anything in the road ahead. Hence why it caused a similar pileup crash to those you might see during a dense snow storm, during which pileup crashes are fairly common.Melbourne's Weather Service said today's crash was not the first of its kind caused by super fog. Similar incidents with the weather phenomenon caused large pileups on I-4 near Davenport, Florida in 2008, and again on I-75 near Gainesville in 2012. As ever, if you encounter foggy conditions—super or otherwise—it is wise to activate your hazards, slow down (or, if you pull over entirely, make sure you are off the roadway), and use extreme caution.
ProsStrong, great-sounding engineOutstanding manual shifterYour hat stays on at 120 mph with top down ConsDoesn't handle as well as expectedSomewhat odd gearingWe know it can be betterLet's take a trip back to 2016, even if Porsche diehards would prefer we didn't. That's when the company introduced the fourth-generation Boxster, now with a 718 prefix and (cue the loyalists' gags) turbocharged flat-four engine offerings in place of the naturally aspirated flat-sixes that had powered every version of the popular and much-lauded roadster since it first arrived 20 years earlier.The new engines were among the best four-bangers in history, but nevertheless, cries never ceased for a reversion to the old. So while other 718 Boxsters carry on with the 2.0- and 2.5-liter turbocharged units, the prior 2.5-liter 718 GTS that lasted a scant two model years in the U.S. between 2018 and 2019 is gone. Instead, the new 982-series 718 Boxster GTS 4.0-liter gives many of us what we've wanted: a new flat-six. The engine itself is a punched-out, free-breathing derivation of the 3.0-liter twin-turbo 9A2 flat-six family found in every non-GT and non-Turbo 991.2 and today's 992 911s. It 394 hp and 309 lb-ft of torque, figures that.Other items of note: The GTS 4.0 adds thicker anti-roll bars, recalibrated PASM dampers, upgraded chassis mounts, slightly larger brakes, and upgraded wheels. Along with the larger engine and extra standard features like heated seats and dynamic lights, it boasts Porsche Torque Vectoring with a mechanical limited-slip differential. However, the car adds roughly 145 pounds compared to the old GTS 2.5, .Contrary to what we expected heading into PVOTY, though, the overall package didn't blow away our judges."I'm whelmed," features editor Scott Evans said. "I expected to love this car, and I'm kind of meh on it. I know Porsche can do better with this chassis. It's the damping that surprised me; it doesn't soak up midcorner bumps as well as I expected, and it feels a little skittery at high speeds. Porsches are usually more locked down, and as a result, I couldn't carry as much speed through fast, bumpy sweepers as I could in lesser cars. I was 8 mph faster in the Subaru. But what a fantastic shifter; it's just perfect in movement and feel. Sucks about the super-long second gear, though. I kept wanting to take extra laps to see if I was doing something wrong. I felt like I could learn to drive the car better if I just kept trying, even though I knew some of the issues really didn't have anything to do with my driving."Senior features editor Jonny Lieberman agreed. "Evans is right," he said. "The Boxster GTS is good, but it isn't great. The long second gear makes things a little confusing, and it just doesn't handle as well as we expected it to."The fact we can say this about such a capable machine that's long been a favorite speaks volumes about just what a stupendous level of performance modern sports cars have reached. As features editor Christian Seabaugh said, "Other than the noted 'complaints,' it's an excellent car. Well balanced, poised, and easy to drive fast and find your limit. The steering is sharp and direct, and the brakes are pretty good."In the end, while the 718 GTS 4.0 is a great Boxster, it isn't yet quite as outstanding as we know it can be.2021 Porsche 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 Specifications Base Price/As tested $90,250/$100,000 Power (SAE net) 394 hp @ 7,000 rpm Torque (SAE net) 309 lb-ft @ 5,000 rpm Accel, 0-60 mph 4.2 sec Quarter-mile 12.4 sec @ 115.9 mph Braking, 60-0 mph 99 ft Lateral Acceleration 1.07 g (avg) MT Figure Eight 23.6 sec @ 0.87 g (avg) EPA City/Hwy/Comb 17/24/19 mpg Vehicle Layout Mid-engine, RWD, 2-pass, 2-door convertible Engine, Transmission 4.0L direct-injected DOHC 24-valve flat-6, 6-speed manual Curb Weight (F/R DIST) 3,173 lb (45/55%) Wheelbase 97.4 in Length x Width x Height 172.4 x 70.9 x 49.7 in On Sale Now Show All
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