Extravagant Diesel-Powered RV Shows What Money Can Buy

This Performance S has a BMW tucked in its garage.

During the Roaring Twenties of the last century F. Scott Fitzgerald purportedly said to his writer friend Ernest Hemingway, “The rich are different from you and me," to which Hemingway quipped, "Yes, they have more money." The verbal exchange my be more fiction than fact, but it's certainly true that some folks do have a bit more to spend than others, especially when it comes to luxuries.

A Slash/Gear article by Alvin Reyes shines a spotlight on what is no doubt the world's most luxurious recreational vehicle, the Volkner Mobil Performance S. It certainly garnered attention when the German motorhome manufacturer rolled it out at the 2021 Caravan Salon Dusseldorf recently.

The multi-million dollar motorhome has more features and options than you can imagine. To star with, there is a hydraulic-controlled under-vehicle garage between the front and rear axles. The Performance S motorhome unveiled at Dusseldorf had a Bugatti Chiron in its belly. 

This view shows solar panels on the roof
and a Mini tucked underneath.

In addition to being the most luxurious, it's also among the most expensive. The base price without extras and absent your expensive supercar, is a mere $2.2 million. The fully loaded Performance S chimes in at $7.7 million. That would include the Bugatti.

It's the features that make this ride such a spectacle on wheels. Let's start with the $355,000 Burmester audio system. (This will make your Bose surround sound seem primitive.)

The master bedroom comes with a roomy shower and stylish upholstery, though you can also customize everything to the Nth degree if you like. There's probably no limit to what you can do there.

Then there's the full kitchen, with all the appliances you've come to expect in a modern kitchen. Again, if you want additional amenities, Volkner Mobil will be happy to oblige. A wine cabinet? Sure, no problem. 

To move your mobile home and garage down the road you'll need a power plant suited for the job. Even in this you have options, Reyes says. You can choose the 454-horsepower Volvo diesel engine or the Mercedes-Benz diesel that generates 424 horses. The automatic transmission keeps things less complicated. 

The Performance S has a 700 to 1,000-liter freshwater tank, which is one more reason you need all that diesel power. Numerous other features get cited as well, though at this level of sophistication you probably just expect these kinds of things like air suspension and all the automated safety warnings.

Not every wealthy person with bags of money is interested in space travel like Elon, Jeff and Sir Richard. As for impressing your peers, The Volkner Mobil Performance S does seem like on way to do the trick. What do you think?

Here's a link to the full story along with some sizzling photos and video.

Ferretti's Diesel-Powered Yacht Is Making Waves in the Luxury Boat Market

The Robb Report is an American luxury and lifestyle magazine that covers automobiles, airplanes, watches, yachts and even real estate. Its beginnings, however, were much narrower.

Now owned by the Penske Media Corporation, it was originally founded by Robert L. "Rusty" White as a newsletter designed to sell his Civil War memorabilia and Rolls Royces. As anyone familiar with the publication will attest, it has truly evolved. 

This past weekend the Robb Report's Boat of the Week feature focused on a cutting edge 100-foot wide-body yacht by the Ferretti Group, an Italian multi-national ship-building organization specializing in the design and production of custom luxury yachts. Ferretti's new yacht, the 1000, is not the largest it has ever built, but it has features that look to disrupt the industry. Stefano de Vivo, Ferretti Group's chief commercial officer. described it as a "crucial" design that will be "a template for other models going forward."

The article spends time detailing the spaciousness of the interior rooms. Photos give the impression that we're looking at restrained extravagance. One rule of thumb here is that design must not defeat functionality. The spaces feel big, and the ocean views are even more vast.

Our fascination with this yacht has to do with its power source. Of this the author writes, "What’s unusual is its 28-knot top speed, thanks to twin 2217-hp MTU diesels. That’s lightning fast for a boat its size." Indeed.

The yacht itself looks like it would be right at home in a James Bond film. And who doesn't like Ferretti's tag line for the 1000: A thousand reasons to fall in love. 

Full story here, with lots of nice photos: 

Why Ferretti’s New 100-Foot Wide-Body Flagship Could Disrupt Its Entire Class