World’s Smallest and Fastest Camper Is a DIY, Solar-Powered Chevy Camaro Conversion

If this was a competition, Arslan is convinced his “camper” conversion would take top prize for the world’s smallest and fastest camper. After all, name one vanlife influencer out there who can boast of living in a space that’s only about 100 cubic feet (2,832 liters) in size, let alone in a pony car conversion, like he does. You can’t, he wins.

Whether his Camaro camper is the smallest or the fastest camper in the whole wide world is difficult to establish. So let’s agree on this: as far as mobile homes go, it’s definitely one of the most ingenious setups you’re likely to see. Not only does it feature the closest thing to a kitchen and a sleeping area, but it even has a living room area and, perhaps more impressively, it’s completely solar-powered.

Arslan is from New Jersey and, according to his own account, he’s been living in cars for several years now, downsizing even more with each one. He started out in a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, then downsized to a Chevy Suburban conversion, and eventually to the Camaro. It’s a fifth-gen model in very good condition, that he bought for $6,000. The conversion to camper was more of a dare, from what we understand: to prove that it could be done.

He did all three conversions himself, as experiments that would allow him to study the cheapest methods of turning a vehicle into a home. As the home became smaller, so did the budget for the conversion: he started with $8,000, worked his way down to $5,000, and eventually to just $1,500 for the Camaro. Not bad for a home on wheels.

Arslan works as a medical technologist and he’s still paying for his tuition, which means two things, one good and one bad: it helps if he’s not tied down to a single zip code, and he could use it to cut down expenses by, say, NOT paying rent. This is how he came up with the solution of living out of his car, and become a proponent of what he calls stealth camping.

His Solar Camper Car (that’s what he calls the Camaro conversion) is the very definition of stealth. It might not be much of a home, especially if you’re expecting the usual creature comforts of one, but it’s stealthy. Arslan did the conversion himself, over 10 full workdays, concentrating on the essentials both inside and on the exterior, like removable covers and semi-permanent tint for the windows, the solar cells on the roof, sleeping and meal-prep, and even some safety measures like using a propane and a CO2 detector when he’s cooking.

Oh, that’s not a typo: Arslan cooks inside his Camaro. He once prepared a lovely ribeye steak with thyme and rosemary, and shrimp with pasta another time. On both occasions, the job was more challenging and perilous that he tried to let it show on camera, but at least it went smoothly, without incident.

The kitchen is located where the passenger seat once was and consists of a two-drawer cabinet with a ceramic cooktop or a propane stove. Also there is a 10-inch sink with a battery-powered, button-activated faucet feeding from a 5-gallon (20-liter) freshwater jug and emptying into a 1-gallon (3.7-liter) jug. Both are hidden between the cabinet and the dashboard, in the footwell – together with the portable urinal that Arslan uses. For number two and showers, he uses his Planet Fitness membership, as many vanlifers do.

The rear seats are still in place, but serve different purposes now. The one behind the passenger seat is Arslan’s living room slash the place he does his cooking and work from. The other holds snack storage and is completely covered by the 6-foot long (183 cm) 30-inch (76 cm) wide bed that goes through a maple plywood partition and extends all the way into the trunk.

The way the bedroom area is arranged sounds even funnier in writing than it looks in reality, and it’s definitely not a solution that would serve every nomad out there. For one, lying down or getting up from the bed requires a certain degree of flexibility and expert maneuvering; secondly, the bed is meant to serve someone who sleeps on their back, Dracula style, or on their belly, and has no room for you to move around. At all.

Half of the trunk is occupied by the bed, with the other serving as Arslan’s wardrobe. For power, the camper relies on the EcoFlow River 2 Max lithium-iron phosphate power station, with a 512Wh capacity, and the two EcoFlow 100W panels bolted to the roof.

Also inside the cabin, he has stuff like a small garbage can, magnetic rechargeable LED lights, and a solar-powered clock that works as a Bluetooth speaker and colorful nightlight. It’s details of this kind that add a homey feel to the car, but Arslan’s enthusiasm in talking about the conversion also helps sell the idea. For example, he says he painted the bed platform black to match the theme of the rest of the camper, including the kitchen cabinet, and you have to give it to the guy who talks of “themes” inside a makeshift home inside a car.

Speaking of enthusiasm, it doesn’t look like Arslan’s has diminished in the months he’s been living in the Camaro camper. He says this is his way of giving landlords the finger, living by his own set of rules, free of debt and free to move around as he pleases. A smaller camper allows him to park in better spots, even on crowded streets, and to move about the city faster, if need be.

He agrees that his choice of lifestyle isn’t for everyone, but then again, neither is the modern form of nomadism, right? If you don’t like it, you can still live vicariously through his camera lens. Because he’s documenting everything for social media, of course.