The Bischofberger camper
There was a time in the eighties, when it was "en vogue" to convert passenger cars to campers. The reason was that the "real"
campers were too large to be easy to handle. When the development of campers with comfort nearly as good as in standard
passenger cars yielded campers like the VW "Bus", the time of those conversions had run out.
The Audi 100 Type44 is not known to be on the small side of cars. But as a camper, it grows again: 4.9meters long, 1.9meters
wide and 1.8meters high show that the advertisement "very handy and easy to manoeuvre" is meant in comparison to campers
based on light trucks. The weight of only 1300kg is pretty low and should result in good driving, together with the presumably low
cD-coefficient.
I do not know from when to when Bischofberger built that conversion. But technically, a conversion of an Audi 200 20V or even an Audi V8
would have been no problem.
The conversion cost 20,000DM (around 10,000Euro or Dollar today).
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Juergen, the webmaster of www.VWPassat.de and AlltagsOldtimer Stammtisch Schorndorf sent the following, very useful information:
"Here some more Info about the Bischofberger Audi:
The first prototype was built ca. 1983 using the Golf I (Rabbit I), (NOT the Caddy=Golf Pickup). The rear axle of the Audi 100 was built into the Golf to widen the rear track. The shape of the body was carried over from the VW Type 2 (79-90) as Bischofberger successfully converted those to campers and the cut-off bodys could be used. The body itself consisted of GFK, my father built the dies (tools) for them.
The Golf did not do well as a basis, as it was too small. So a small series was built upon the Audi 100, but on the Type43! They were cheaply available on the used car market, even some Audi 200 (Type43) were used, the first converted Type43 still exists. At first, it was painted in Indianarot-Metallic, then repainted Mexico-Beige.!
But the biggest number of conversions was performed on the Type44. The Type44 from the brochure (WN-RY 657) still lives, in the hands of Mr. Bischofberger himself. While the brochure shows the version with an extendable roof, there was a version with a fixed "high roof" available, too. I once had the opportunity to sleep in such a car. For two persons absolutely sufficient. The targeted buyers were couples without kids, who wanted to go on holidays fast and comfortably.
There were bodys in that style for the Caddy, too, but those could be taken off of the Pick-up bed. One Caddy was built with a non-detachable body. Even a caravan (camping trailer) with such a body was built!
Building campers was ceased in ca. 1990 by Bischofberger, as far as I know, all tools/dies and remaining vehicles were sold into the UK.
Oh, there was something more: Two VW Type 2 were converted using an extended rear-end like the Audi 100 camper. They were called "Maxi Joker" but were no success."
Many thanks to Juergen for sharing his in-depth knowledge with us!
Juergen worked from 1987 to 1990 at Bischofberger, his father worked there for quite some years.
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