(upbeat music) - My name is Craig Lavold and I own a 1988 Vixen XC.

It's definitely different.

It's hard to say what it is 'cause they made the first ones were definitely an RV but this one is a little bit different 'cause it was outfitted more like a limo.

So it's somewhere in between an RV and a limo.

(upbeat music) Well they were made in Pontiac, Michigan.

It's an American vehicle but it has a BMW turbo diesel for the engine and a Renault five speed manual transaxle.

So it's kind of, it was kind of a hodgepodge of parts that they pulled it together.

The whole thing was kind of pieced together but then it was a custom fiberglass shell that they put over that and wind tunnel tested it.

It's actually slightly more aerodynamic than a C5 Corvette according to the wind tunnel testing and gets 30 miles to the gallon on the highway at 55 miles an hour.

So it was kind of a really different vehicle and fits in a normal garage.

It's just under seven feet tall.

It's lightweight, 6,000 pounds.

It was really different than most of the RVs of the day.

(upbeat music) Airplane like door.

And inside it's been restored pretty much the way it was when it was originally built.

It's got a tiny little bathroom here, just big enough to fit a toilet with a little privacy extension there.

So you have enough room, but very compact, keeping the whole inside very open.

And then this is, as it was originally with the little wet bar, these seats fold together in frontier to form another bed.

There was a little black and white TV originally in there but of course we added a modern stereo and a flip down TV for movie nights and then upgraded the electronics.

But otherwise, this is much as it would've been back in 1988.

There's a permanent bed in back over the engine and then the seat here can flip down to fit a larger bed and make things fall down.

And then we added this air conditioning unit on the wall just for our own comfort.

But the overhead lights and all of this is the way that it originally was from the factory.

So they had reading lights 'cause it was intended for executives to sit here in comfort and travel and sip their champagne or whatever.

But yeah, otherwise it's pretty much as it was intended Because this was an XC, it wasn't intended for camping, necessarily.

And so it had a secondary air conditioning unit in the back for the interior.

But that only ran with the engine.

So when you're parked, there wasn't any heat or air conditioning.

So we added that just to make it more comfortable for camping, actually it's a standard household type mini-split air conditioner with the outside part on the bumper.

And then the inside part mounted in place of one of the lights that were there.

(upbeat music) I grew up hearing my mom talk about the little BMW Isetta that she had before I was born.

And so I'd always kind of kept an eye out for one and thought it would be fun if I could ever find one.

Every morning, I had a little routine that ran, kept me up to date.

If any of 'em popped up in one morning it popped up on Craigslist north of the Twin Cities.

It said don't call before eight.

So at 7:45, I called them and I was on my on the road with a trailer on the way there.

This had been sitting in a shed for 40 years.

That was a pretty good find.

So it's a German car and they were very popular in Europe and it was kind of known as the car that saved BMW.

After World War II, Germany had a very depressed economy and people could not afford to buy a car.

So BMW came up with this vehicle as an inexpensive car that people could afford to buy.

And then they also imported a few thousand of 'em the United States, but they weren't as popular here.

The car was actually designed by an Italian company called Iso and they made refrigerators amongst other things.

And that's why the front looks a lot like a 1950s refrigerator door.

The steering column is hinged and connected to the door.

So it kind of swings away as you open it to give you a little more room to get in.

That's how you get in and out of it is you climb in through there and if you ever get stuck in the door it's got a nice sun roof you can climb out of.

So it's just got the one door.

(car engine revving) it's a 300 CC one cylinder engine.

The same basic engine that they were using in BMW motorcycles of the day.

And it does have a hemispherical combustion chamber.

Technically it is a hemi.

The shift is actually on the left hand side and the gear pattern is backwards.

So it's one, two, three, four.

So you're using your left hand and you're shifting in a backwards pattern.

So it does take a little while to get used to.

You're not gonna race anybody, but it gets around.

I've had it up to 50.

It can get there, it just takes a while.

The promotional picture showed a family with like two adults and a small child.

And I was, I always thought those must be really tiny people 'cause you can get two people in there but they gotta be kind of friendly.

It's been a hoot.

I actually have another one too that I'm doing a full restoration on.

I'm gonna keep this one as is 'cause it's kind of earned its dents and dings and stuff.

And the other one was too far going so that one will be a complete restoration.

So hopefully have a fleet of two after a while.

(upbeat music) (car engine revving)