The Saab Toppola compact camper

In the early 80s Arwo Pullola of Filipstad, Sweden got the idea for a compact camper shell that would attach to a standard Saab 99 Combi Coupé. By removing the rear hatch and fastening the shell an ordinary car could now become a camper van within less than half an hour.

Arwo decided to call his invention Toppola, which was born from combining the word ‘top’ with the suffix ‘ola’ – the latter to emphasize his Finnish roots.

The unit may look small, but it actually has a standing height of 2 metres and features a 170 by 200 cm double bed as well as a full kitchen and heating. It also only weighs 115 kgs, thus not affecting car performance too badly.

The Toppola was on the official Saab list of extra options in the mid 80s, being the most expensive one. Production actually went on to as late as 2006, but only some 300 were ever made due to logistic and other problems. Today they are naturally highly sought after by Saab ethusiasts.

If you fancy one you should know that 2 to 3 go on sale every year in Sweden were most Toppolas are to be found. You’ll be looking to pay anything between € 2,500 and € 8,000 though, but then the car is often included.

The Kasper Stromman Design Blog nevertheless find this to be a stroke of genius, and while there naturally are bigger campers on the market none of them make use of limited space in such a clever way. Or make us smile when we see them.

Can we have the Toppola back please?

www.toppola.com