We're not entirely sure why, but Porsche really wants you to camp on, in and around its cars. The 911 isn't even the first, second or third Porsche vehicle we'd wildly imagine driving on a camping trip, but it is the one that served as the exhibition platform for the official Porsche rooftop tent (RTT). Now, Stuttgart is moving in a slightly more logical direction, but with a very different shelter solution. The all-new Porsche Canopy inflatable tent sucks onto the tailgate of a Porsche four-door, transforming it into an indoor/outdoor living and camping space.
Designed to shelter up to six people, the Porsche Canopy Tent is supported by an air frame that inflates into shape via a hand pump and central valve. It then offers a nicely square 7.5 x 7.5-ft (2.3 x 2.3-m) floor below a puffed roof that can shelter road travelers from sun and light rain.
So as to keep from soaring clean into the mesosphere at the first gust of a wind, the Canopy anchors to the vehicle via a series of elastic bands and suction cups and also stakes down to the ground. Porsche describes the vehicle-connected configuration as useful for loading and unloading the trunk without exposing one's precious head to the threatening weather above, but since they'll first have to unload and set up the tent in said threatening weather, we're not so sure how valuable that function will actually prove in the field.
In addition to the vehicle-connection tunnel, the basic Canopy Tent kit includes a removable Velcro-secured floor and a single roll-down wall with window to act as a wind block and added sun/rain protection.
From there, Porsche also offers a variety of modular add-ons as a way to extract more money from allow loyal customers to upgrade the space around their needs. They can add the other three walls to create a fully enclosed shelter, a mount-on sleeping/storage tent, and even a Canopy-to-Canopy attachment tunnel to create a multi-Canopy village ... entry for Porsche drivers only, of course.
Porsche launched the Canopy Tent (also called the Pavilion) this month, explaining that its Zell am See design studio created it in collaboration with a leading outdoor brand. It certainly appears that brand was Dometic and the Canopy a Dometic Hub, which shares the same functions and floor area but costs over $900 less at $750 to start – a lot of money for a few Porsche logos. We wonder how much a pack of Porsche stickers to slap on Dometic's inflatable would cost?
The Porsche Canopy alone, without the floor, vehicle tunnel, walls or any other accessories, starts at US$1,680 and can be used as a standalone canopy as shown below. A full base package, with Canopy, floor, single side wall with window, and vehicle tunnel, raises the stakes to $2,183. Other accessories are available individually.
We suppose if you simply can't fathom matching your overpriced Porsche-branded RTT with anything but an overpriced Porsche-branded inflatable tailgate tent, then the gouging premium might be worth the extra spend. But we'd still take a good, hard look at those stickers, first.
Source: Porsche
