Mystery RV?

[Mike]

I've posted these 4 pics on in the gallery. I apologize for the poor quality, but the rig
was doing about 80MPH and I didn't want to have to blow our engine to get better ones.
It was southbound on US 99 near Ripon California.
It looked like someone had cut away the bottom of a taller RV to make this short, squarish,
thing with plenty of vents. I could not see any make/model decals or info on the thing.
We did catch up to it once on an upgrade, but neither of us could figure out what it was.
We only saw it on the highway, and never saw it again at any stops farther along our way.

Anyone know what it is?

[dspain1000]

This is a 1986 to 1987 Vixen TD(Turbo Diesel), this was an american start up company located in a bldg right next to the silverdome in pontiac michigan and founded by a retired automotive designer from american motors who also prior to this did the design work on the DeLorean Automobile for John DeLorean.
They only produced about 500 of this style, it had a BMW Turbo Diesel and a 5 Speed Renault Tranmsission. The really get up to 31 miles per gallon on this model. It was only available in the manual transmission with a roof that is hinged on the passenger side and then it ra ised on the drivers side up to a max of 7ft interior head room on the one side. It did not have a gen set and the orginial models did not have house ac only vehicle ac. Late models had an house ac system mounted under a dinnette seat. But in 1988 mid year they started selling a model with a roadtrek style cruiser roof which provded six feet of head room and installed a 3.8 liter buick six cylinder engine with a gm automatic with overdrive transmission, a 2.8 onan microlite gen set and a 13,000 btu roof ac with heat. I purchased one of these in June of 88 when I flew up to the factory and they had a dealer about 2 miles away from the factory. My unit was one of the first 15 or so off the line and I turned down the first two or three they tried to sell m e due to poor fit and finish. Had lots of problems with the vehicle mostly due to no real check out by the factory prior to selling. Having said that I loved the vehicle and kept it from June of 88 til January of 2000 or 2001. I put about 70,000 miles on it and never failed to have people follow me til I stopped to ask where they could buy one. Unfortunately they went out of business in Jan or feb of 1989. THey built about 150 of the model I had which was called the 1989 Vixen SE. I got as much as 23 mpg with my gas version but mostly it was about 18 to 21 mpg and since the egine was in the rear it was very quiet. You can go to the vixen owners association web site to find out more about this most unique vehicle . http://www.vixenrv.org/viki/tiki-index.php By the way it is considered a class A since it was built from the chassis up and is not a converted van.
Dave Spain
Cocoa Beach, Florida

[dgrud]

I will be listing my Vixen on ebay in the next few weeks.

[AdlaiJN]

I wish some of these shorter Class B models were still around! Then I'd be able to fit it through my carport and park it at home, instead of having to pay for a parking space in a gated storage facility!