The eleMMent Palazzo: The New Standard For UGLY Motoring!

And for a mere snip at 3 million dollars.

Generally when you announce the world’s most expensive anything, it is a surefire way to attract media attention, but when the thing is a US$3 million recreational vehicle (motor home or caravan to the non-Americans out there), we have to ask the question beyond the obvious “Why?” whilst trying not to imply that the geniuses behind it should be locked up to ensure public safety even if the designers are convinced that some mythical potentates from Dubai will be buying it.

But laugh at the designs as much as you want, the factory to manufacture these inordinately expensive recreational vehicles, or RV’s as friends in the USA refer to them, is already up and running and accepting orders.

The brains behind this mobile eyesore is an Austrian trucking magnate, Mario Marchi; it is from here that we get the name Marchi Mobile for the eleMMent Palazzo and obviously where the capitalised double M’s in the name comes from. Not sure where the double Z’s in Palazzo comes fom though; perhaps it is the good night sleep it will afford…

This Leviathan is based on a Volvo drivetrain and chassis which should make servicing the vehicle easy due to the number of Volvo trucks plying the world’s roads. The truck underpinning is essential as the payload above will be heft, and includes marble and gold fixtures and fittings, assuming that they ever find a buyer for one.

When you read the press release, the company talks about sweeping lines and aerodynamic capabilities, although it looks about as speedy as a brick. However, when you consider that the original was penned by none other than the octogenarian, Luigi Colani, the father of the so-called biodynamic design school and who has worked extensively for the likes of Fiat, Alfa Romeo and BMW, I think we would have expected something a little more graceful; after this, perhaps we should be happy that he is mostly retired these days.

The Palazzo is equipped with many features that you will see in most standard RV’s, such as a slide-out room, not unlike those found on nicer trucking rigs. It also offers a ‘Sky Lounge’, complete with banquette seating, that comes out above the body to create a sort of rooftop nightclub, albeit a small one, complete with mood-lit canopy, audio system and a bar. In a way it is like a sky bridge, which you may well spot on yachts bobbing around in some plush yacht harbour such as Cannes; we are therefore tempted to start referring to the Palazzo as a land yacht. Sometime in 2015 will be when the Palazzo will make landfall in the US of A, but it seems absurd that as we are all trying to find vehicles with smaller and smaller carbon footprints, vehicles such as this are being marketed. Let’s face it - if we need to spend time away from home, shouldn’t we drive to our destination in an electric-powered vehicle or plug-in hybrid, and spend the night in a local hotel? Or pitch your tent…?

Want to take a tour?

image: marchi-mobile.com