Yahoo Autos Porsche's $7,000 Roof Tent Makes Camping Not Suck
The campground at Leo Carrillo State Park in Malibu, California is lovely, but you’re not exactly roughing it. There are park restrooms with indoor plumbing and a Starbucks 10 minutes down the road. Each campsite has a fire pit with a built-in cooking grate and there’s a cute little store where a disaffected local teenager will sell you firewood, medicine, snacks and booze. Every night, you can catch a postcard-worthy sunset on the beach of the Pacific Ocean. It’s camping for people who don’t totally love camping. It’s camping for people like me.
That’s why I totally dig Porsche’s new rooftop tent. It’s hella easy to set up and pretty comfy inside, and it makes a weekend in the great outdoors a lot easier if, like me, you don’t live your life like it’s an REI catalog. Yes, the tent is ridiculously expensive, at just over $7,000. But if you’ve already spent the money on a brand-new Porsche — in this case, a $170,000 Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo — an extra 7 grand is probably just a drop in the bucket. I assume, anyway.
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Full disclosure: Porsche loaned me a Taycan with a rooftop tent installed so I could go camping with Jalopnik writer Kyle Hyatt and his wife. I built a fire and cooked a s’more while Hyatt fetched me a premixed Aperol spritz, because he’s a true friend.
Available through Porsche’s Techquipment accessories catalog, this $7,028 tent can be fitted to any of the company’s cars – ones that can support roof rails and crossbars, at least. A butch wagon like the Taycan Cross Turismo is perfect for this setup, but note that Techquipment has lots of pictures of this tent on top of various 911s, so please, future 911 Dakar buyers, go wild. All packaged up, the tent weighs 123 pounds, so getting it on and off the car is not a one-person job. But setting it up at the campsite is totally something you can do on your own while your friends are yelling at each other trying to set up their rickety Target tent — and it only takes, like, 10 minutes, tops.
Once you’re parked at camp, a key unlocks two latches on the passenger side of the tent. The hard shell lifts up, revealing a strap to pull down the ladder. Because the tent is meant to work on cars of various sizes, the ladder’s steps are adjustable. That’s also helpful if you’re parked on rough or uneven ground, not that you’ll find much of that at Leo Carrillo; my Taycan Turbo’s summer tires never left the pavement.
Before you actually get inside the tent, get on the ladder and undo the zipper by the entrance flap so you can secure the two tension rods. This’ll make a cute little zip-up archway that you can easily crawl through. Get up in there, position the two-piece sleeping pad to cover the length of the hard floor and then use the other two tension rods to secure each window awning. That’s it. You’re done. Super easy.
The zip-up windows can be completely open, covered by a mesh screen, or fully closed off from the harsh light of day. There’s also a skylight above you that works the same way, though it’s best to keep that one closed or morning dew will drip in. (Ask me how I know.) Under each window you’ll find zip-up storage pockets for stuff like your wallet, glasses or phone. But there isn’t really a lot of room inside for other stuff. Even up there by myself, I had room for a backpack by my feet, but I wouldn’t try to keep a suitcase in there and still sleep comfortably. Guess that’s what the inside of the Taycan is for.
