1972 Toyota RV-2

Today, we're exploring the origins of the Toyota motorhome; production by third-party manufacturers began in 1973. Toyota was involved, expressing interest in selling motorhomes converted by those outside contractors through their independently-owned dealerships.

But the story doesn't really begin there. In 1972, Toyota began displaying a concept vehicle named the RV-2. Basically a pop-top two-door wagon, the RV-2 was a child of the swingin' 70s, painted in a wild shade of green and carpeted with crumb, dirt and smell gathering shag. It was clearly aimed at the "camper crowd" and was too small to sleep more than two people unless another legless, armless camper could fit in the glove box. That third person would eventually have gone for a swim and been named Bob and on alternate days, they would hang out in front of the house and been named Matt.

Photo: AllCarIndex.com

Toyota later realized they didn't want the liability of customers having issues with extremely heavy vehicles built on their mini-trucks by shops other than their own and put a stop to the whole shebang in the 90s. And although Toyota campers continued to be offered overseas, no motorhomes were officially produced in the States.

A word of warning should you research this amazing concept car; many of the pictures floating around on the InterWebz come from Playboy magazine, which ran an article about it back in the day. The images feature a topless woman and her banana-hammock wearing man. Thus, any image search online is probably not safe for work, as they say, unless you work in a strip club. That would be your business, not ours. But don't say you've been warned (about the images, you can work wherever you want to).