Adria Twin GT

Bosses at Adria could just be saying, ‘I love it when a plan comes together’, as the launch in the UK of the Twin GT coincides with the debut of the new A-Team movie. You can also order this camper-with-a-difference in a metallic orange finish. With black and orange upholstery. And black alloys, naturally.

Whichever colour scheme you go for, your Twin GT will certainly stand out from the crowd.

We can’t imagine that the conservative folk at Auto-Sleepers or Murvi are about to launch anything like the Twin GT. As a Düsseldorf concept vehicle and showstopper it was surprising; on your average dealer forecourt it will look like it’s landed from another planet.

To tell you the truth, though, the standard £45k Twin GT doesn’t look quite so bold. Yes, it comes with huge 20-inch alloy wheels with 45-profile tyres, duo-tone leather upholstery, silver/grey furniture and a huge choice of graphics.

But if you want the full blinged-up-to-the-max effect you’ll have to dig deep for one of the various options packs.

The Twin GT’s Grand Look & Sound Pack (£3690) adds a subwoofer under the rear seat, Alpine audio system, Hertz door speakers and Bose speakers in the living area.

Not enough? Then the Grand Look, Sound & Video Pack (£5900) takes all the aforementioned features and goes one step further with an Alpine TV receiver, Gorenje 19-inch flatscreen TV, Glomex TV aerial and Blaupunkt speakers in the bedroom.

Our demo came with the Twin GT Full Pack – at £7490, gulp! – which completes the spec with an Alpine sat-nav with Bluetooth, reversing camera linked to the Alpine unit in the dash, reversing sensors in the rear bumper, an Alpine 10-inch flip-down TV screen in the cab ceiling, a 600W invertor and a digital aerial.

Then there are the more typical motorhome options such as Truma Combi 4E gas/mains heating (instead of gas only), cab air-con, passenger airbag, additional battery and cruise control. Add another £2606.

That makes this a £56k van conversion. Steep, perhaps, but it’s not the first to reach such dizzy heights, and nothing else has come close offering so much audio-visual gear as a factory fit option. And that’s before we consider the aesthetic additions.

Underneath the black paint, red stripes and roof rails, and big alloy wheels, this is another long-wheelbase Fiat Ducato van, the king of the van conversion world.
As standard, the GT comes with the top-spec 3-litre Multijet Power engine.

And ours also featured Al-Ko adjustable air suspension which adds air springs at the back and gauges for their pressure. On the road – rattly sliding door window blind aside – it was one of the best-driving Ducatos we’ve ever had on test.

Inside, too, it’s all familiar Fiat... with a twist. The cab seats have been retrimmed in black leather with bright red suede-style centres, and if that isn’t eye-catching enough, the facia trim is not the usual mock wood but lipstick red!

The red suede continues on the doors and of course there’s that complex radio/CD/DVD with big touchscreen display in the centre. It’s an impressive bit of kit and the display automatically switches over to the rear view camera when you select reverse, but we were surprised to find that the sat-nav is a separate Alpine unit that suckers to the windscreen.

The GT does retain the standard Twin’s successful – and much copied – fixed bed layout, albeit here with a right-hand sliding door.

Up front there’s the usual half-dinette with swivel cab seats lounge, complete with Midi-Heki sunroof, smart chromed swivel spotlamps and flexible wand reading light over the driver’s seat.

A raised floor in front of the rear passenger seat means no dangling feet and the fit and finish of all the trim and upholstery is exemplary.

There are neat details too, like the underfloor storage hatch, the stylish roman blind, the rear head restraints and the pivoting extension leaf for the table.

Strangely, though, despite the GT’s four televisions, a couple can’t watch comfortably from the cab seats. You could, I suppose, view the 7-inch in-dash screen, but the flip-down TV in the cab ceiling faces the half-dinette and above that is just a framed picture of a 1937 Alfa Romeo.

At least the high-level Bose speakers provide really top quality sound if it’s CD rather than DVD that you want.

Better, perhaps, then to hope for a bit of global warming so you can regularly eat outside. Not only because you can simply lift the dining table out and clip it on to the external wall of the galley and there’s room beneath the rear bed for whatever type of outdoor chairs take your fancy, but because set into the back of the kitchen is a 19-inch flatscreen TV.

Your better half can make herself comfortable on the rear bed, propped up with those four scatter cushions watching the latest chick flick on DVD. Back here the screen is an identical 19-inch size, but with Blaupunkt speakers built into the TV’s surround.

The bedroom isn’t just a better place to watch TV than the lounge, but it actually offers a bigger bed than many fixed bed coachbuilts.

With just a two-burner hob to cook on, a bacon sandwich might be as adventurous as your culinary exploits get, for the GT’s kitchen sadly loses out on the standard Twin’s Smev grill, gaining instead a slide-out worktop extension which is somewhat unnecessary as it almost blocks the entrance.

And while we’re nit-picking, siting the galley’s mains socket over the sink seems a little risky. At least there’s another covered three-pin socket by the half-dinette.

What the kitchen may lack in cooking gear, it makes up for with surprisingly generous cupboard capacity, including a good-sized drawer and a fitted bin bag holder, plus a large eye-level shelved cupboard.

Alongside the galley, beneath the wardrobe, there’s a smart 96-litre Thetford three-way fridge with all-black décor and full-width freezer compartment.

Indeed, the practicalities of motorhoming haven’t been forgotten in the GT, which retains the Twin’s clever tip up mattress so this camper can carry bikes on board.

The rear doors open wide to reveal van-like capacity, but while you’re here look at the thoroughness of the trim around the doors, the head and tail of the bed and notice the bedside magazine pouch and the reading lights.

Even with the bed in situ there’s still masses of storage underneath. And that’s more impressive still when you see that the gas locker and Combi boiler are built in under the left-hand side of the bed and the 100-litre fresh water tank lives under the right-hand side.

The GT retains the Twin’s own central washroom with tambour door. It’s necessarily a compact space but even here the GT has its own look, with grey furniture throughout – pity they don’t do a silver cassette toilet!

Space for showering will seem tight if you’re larger and the cassette toilet is set a bit high, but if you prefer to use your own facilities you’ll find that everything you need is here, including flannel hooks, a large mirror, an opening window, toothbrush mug and shower curtain.

You’ll have to hand hold the showerhead (which is the basin’s tap extended) though, and the single tiny drain hole in the shower tray remains a minor bugbear inherited from the Twin, but on the plus side you can adjust the heating and hot water settings before you get out of bed.

A longer version of this review was published in the November 2010 issue of Which Motorhome magazine.

If the styling puts you off motorhomes, this is a refreshingly different look to the practical Adria Twin. But we ’pity the fool’ that has to pay the £56K pricetag!