Vintage 1966-style Winnebago ‘Brave’ motor home — production begins this week

Plus: 11 vintage photos of classic 1960s and 1970s “eyebrow” Winnebagos

Retro revival fever continues to run high in every corner of the U.S. consumer marketplace. Now: Winnebago is introducing a new RV styled after its classic 1966 “eyebrow” Winnebago.  The Winnebago Brave and Itasca Tribute — sister models (like a Ford and a Mercury) — come in hippie color schemes including Mellow Yellow, Crimson-N-Clover, Woodstock, Aquarius, Bell Bottom Blue and Tobacco Road. Production of the Winnebago Brave and Itasca Tribute started just this week — they’ll be rolling off the assembly line and into dealerships just in time for summer. Read on, retro road warriors, for more information and some groovy historic Winnebago photos, too.

We reached out to Sheila Davis, PR representative for Winnebago, to answer our questions about timing, pricing and gas mileage. Her reply:

The Brave shown in the photos was our prototype that we introduced at our Dealer Days event in Las Vegas in April.  We are just starting production this week, so the first units will be going to our dealers within a couple of weeks.  It will take a few months for them to populate all our dealer network.

MSRP starts at approximately $95,000.  I would estimate the mileage at approximately 8-10 mpg.  The Brave is built on a Ford F53 chassis with 362-hp 6.8L 3-valve Triton V10 SDF1 engine.  So it has a lot of power and can tow up to 5,000 lb. to bring along a boat, motorcycles, jet-skis, passenger car, you name it.

According to Sheila, the two models — the Winnebago Brave and the Itasca Tribute — are the same in all ways except available colors.

From the Winnebago press release:

It Was “Out Of This World” As Winnebago Unveiled New 2015 Models
— The Brow Is Back —

FOREST CITY, Iowa — The Brow is Back!  Winnebago has blended vintage with a modern twist with the introduction of the all-new Brave and Tribute. In the ’60’s and ’70’s, there was no mistaking a Winnebago motorhome with the distinctive “eyebrow” design and flying W logo.  It was the motorhome that made America fall in love with the RV lifestyle. The new Brave and Tribute breathe new life into the legendary design, providing the opportunity to re-live childhood memories for a new generation of motorhome enthusiasts.

Beyond the retro styling, the Brave and Tribute are loaded with today’s best features and offered in two versatile floorplans with exciting color schemes like Good Vibration with Cherry Cola Cherry cabinets, as well as a price to fit the budget of a young, traveling family.

“This is the most exciting product launch I’ve ever been involved with,” said Winnebago Industries’ Chairman, CEO and President Randy Potts.  “The new Brave and Tribute are going to take the market by storm.  The retro, yet modern image they project is fun, while they offer great new features that are sure to capture the eye of new buyers.”

“They hit the nail on the head with the new Brave retro look,” said Carl Jensen from Sierra RV, Sunset, UT.  “The updated interior styling was wonderful and the colors are bright and fresh.  The new Brave and Tribute will appeal to all ages.”

It seems to us that whenever a company revives a retro product or makes a new one with retro styling, it is always referred to as fun and exciting — but we knew that already, didn’t we?

We love the exterior colors and exterior graphics, in particular. We wish that Winnebago had been able to push the retro touches on the interior even further — but we can guess that they needed to walk a very fine line between satisfying retro enthusiasts and the much larger market of potential mainstream customers who aren’t quite that far along (or back), design wise.

You can see the interior and learn more about the Winnebago Brave on the company’s informative YouTube Video.

We read through the Winnebago history and learned that the ‘eyebrow’ Winnebago RV design originally debuted in 1966 under the name F-19, built on Dodge chassis. It wasn’t until 1970 that the motorhome line expanded to include the affordably priced ‘Brave’ model. We’re surmising as in “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.” Who knows for sure? The vintage ads are rockin’ wonderful!

Mega thanks to Sheila Davis from Winnebago for sending photos and answering our many questions!

All photos, floor plans and color swatches Courtesy of Winnebago Industries, Inc. Unauthorized use not permitted. Copying of images for further distribution or commercial use is prohibited without the express written consent of Winnebago Industries, Inc.

And hey, while we’re at it: A reminder that all photos as featured on this blog are copyrighted by this blog. If you would like to publish any of the photos published here, please contact us for permission first. It’s good karma, too. Thank you.