1 of 16: 1974 Dodge DayStar St Tropez
DayStar Motor Homes was a short-lived name in the RV business, building as few as 16 lavish custom rolling homesteads in the 1970s. They used a Dodge commercial chassis for their platform and were powered by 440 cubic-inch V8s supplied by the same source. This ’74 St Tropez is in rough shape but was running a couple of years ago until it overheated. The RV, with its unusual bulbous shape over the driver’s part of the vehicle, is available in Grand Marsh, Michigan, and here on Facebook Marketplace for $10,000. Another interesting tip from NW Iowa!
Unlike many motor homes, the DayStar used a Cor-Ten steel body instead of fiberglass, which explains why we saw see holes caused by rust in the body of the seller’s RV. We understand that the interiors were prefabricated and imported from Asia, built to pamper their occupants. This included Rosewood paneling used to surround things like the refrigerator, kitchen, and bathroom. A full-size wardrobe and two sofas were included (that converted to sleeping quarters). Naturally, they were air-conditioned with two roof-mounted units.
These motor homes were designed for the rich and famous, with a starting price north of $400,000 in today’s money ($70,000 in 1974). The company – which supposedly went into the business to raise money for building church facilities – got itself into some trouble over how its money was managed and spent and went under in 1975 after just a handful of the unusual machines were built.
We don’t know the history of this DayStar, but the seller must have owned it for at least two years. That’s when he parked it inside and hasn’t touched it since. The body has lots of problems and the specially-made glass for the windshield has a hole in it. We wonder what the interior must look like by now as the lone photo of the driver’s area doesn’t look very promising. If you’re interested in vintage motor homes, this could be a cool restoration project – but you’d better have a sizeable pocketbook.
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Comments
More like death star!
It’s worth 500 bucks for the engine and transmission.
Would be interesting to see who 3BUH067 was registered to in California.Jay
Really interesting design and the 440 beats the 318 many campers had in the past. Nothing else positive to bring to the conversation.
hmm not a single interior pic of the back end. so no idea what the layout is or if the innards are worth saving
I could never grasp why people list motorhomes for sale without interior pictures. That’s like listing a house for sale with no pictures of the interior.
Usually it’s for the same reason. The interior is trashed. I’ve seen that to be the case many times, both house hunting, and looking at older RVs.
Cor-ten was used for a lot of building structures with the goal of letting the weathered steel take on a patina which acted as a protective layer and slowed further rusting. I have frequented John Deere corporate many times which was constructed with Cor-ten.
Opting for this as opposed to fiberglass have to wonder what this RV weighed fully loaded with full tanks and what the MPG’s were. But, I guess if you had the cash to spend back then, the buyer wouldnt have been too concerned with such trivial matters. lol
GLWTS.
I like the left hand shift control…. dash mounted !
Ahhhh, the aroma of vermin urine reeking right through my lap top screen.
How do these so called luxury vehicles fall into such repugnant condition ?
Definitely a major project.Is that you Brian?Mr GJ
Not sure how much work you want to put into one of the rarest RVs on the planet. The interior is 70’s boudoir and probably needs beaded curtains.
Interesting but at 10k, I think I’ll dodge this box of rust.
Fine a new windshield…!!!
are you serious! $10,000 for this pile of rusted and failed core-10 unusable junk. it will likely fall apart when attempting to pull it on a trailer. while there is a succer born everyday that may even become a short list of buyers.
That is a different looking design, I’ve never seen one like it! Interesting, if nothing else. Maybe they should donate it to an RV museum and take a tax write-off…
They have the right numbers…. but the decimal point is in the wrong place. That broken front glass, unless it was borrowed from another vehicle, could be a project killer all by itself. This would be a very ambitious (translation = expensive) restoration. Hopefully they kept some of the interior parts to be used as templates.
Creepy! Looks like something out of a horror movie. He wants $10 large??? If this thing was on my property, I’d pay to have it hauled away.
I owned a 79, Field and Stream , class C motor home on a Dodge chassis. It had a 440 V8 and it averaged 6 MPG. If you got on any grades, the mileage dropped severely. This was when fuel was under dollar per gallon. I couldn’t afford to put fuel in it.
The way it looks, I don’t think anyone is going to have to worry about gas mileage, except to haul it to the scrapper.
Greg–EXACTLY. We had a 1970 Class A “big ugly box” Dodge with the fabled 413. Our gas mileage was same as yours (6mpg). You would get 6mpg going downhill, or uphill. You would get 6mpg with the AC on . . . or off, 6mpg with a tailwind . . . 6mpg into a wind. 6mpg towing a vehicle . . . or not. I remember discussions with people, such as “Try dual exhausts”, Get a Holley @#$%^&*( carb, minimize weight by not putting water in tanks until you are “camped”, etc., ad nauseum. I never tried any suggested “improvements”, because it was obviously only going to get 6mpg no matter what.
Probably got 6 mpg in park.
I just laughed when I saw the pics. This is a joke right?
This why I am addicted to B/F. It is amazing what pops up. I have no words.
Ran when parked!! 😂🤣