This rare Porsche RV is horribly slow—and painfully awesome
Do you crave the sound of an air-cooled boxer engine? Do you yearn to share the Porsche motoring experience with your whole family? Do you enjoy being glared at by snowbirds as they pass on a slight grade, shaking their octogenarian fists from their Slant-Six-powered Clark Cortez? If so, I’ve found the RV for you.
As luck would have it, Mecum is offering a one-of-three Porsche Tempo Mikafa Sport Camper at the Monterey Car Week auction. It’s reportedly the only one in the U.S. and it’s in unrestored condition. The aluminum-bodied coach has one refrigerator, two stove burners, three doors, and four speeds—all of them slow.
Originally built in 1955 and equipped with a Porsche 356’s air-cooled flat-four as part of the “Sport” model, the listing notes that it’s now powered by a “boxer 4-cylinder engine,” which is a nice way of saying the Porsche engine is gone and it’s now motivated by a VW-spec four-cylinder. With all that mass, there’s no doubt that this beauty makes a VW Bus seem speedy. I can already imagine this Art Deco masterpiece ambling down the road en route to a KOA where it would be the talk of the campground.
If you thought that the only way you’d be able to afford a vintage Porsche is if you lived in it, here’s your opportunity.