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AirPetey3.jpg

Description :

One’s first impression of this one-of-a-kind motorhome is that there has to be a story behind it, and indeed there is. The story goes that a General Motors fabricator was irritated because he felt that the GMC motorhome was misnamed as the foundation of the vehicle was really an Oldsmobile (a GM product, but one that had its own loyal following). He decided to build his own Oldsmobile motorhome. The bones of this unusual motorhome are a 1969 Oldsmobile Toronado front-wheel-drive automobile with a generous 455-horsepower engine. The motorhome’s body is a 1967 Airstream Globetrotter, perfectly wedded to the Toronado by the addition of a stainless-steel panels, which were through bolted to the frame. The driver’s compartment of the motorhome retains the Toronado’s tilt steering wheel and unique rotating speedometer. Just about every gauge imaginable has been added to give the vehicle the look and feel of an airplane cockpit. Of special interest is the windshield, which came out of a 1953 Ford Stake Truck. In order to protect it from breaking, the builder provided the windshield with its own set of shock absorbers. The project was finally completed in 1982 after approximately four thousand hours of work. After vehicle-enthusiast Greg Karam, who has owned twenty-two Oldsmobile Toronados, acquired the vehicle he added a few of his own touches, including highlighting the tailpipes by installing two 5-foot semi-truck exhaust stacks sideways, adding a 1973 Harley Sprint on the back, and giving the Globetrotter a mirror-like finish by applying liberal amounts of jeweler’s rouge followed by even more liberal amounts of elbow grease. Greg rechristened the vehicle the Airanado Airscream. Photo © Petey Faber with enhancement by Douglas Keister. Photographed near Charlevoix, Michigan.