Home » Only An Idiot Would Let The ‘The World’s Worst Car’ Live On Through The Seventies, And I’m That Idiot

Only An Idiot Would Let The ‘The World’s Worst Car’ Live On Through The Seventies, And I’m That Idiot

Amphicar Iii Topshot 2
ADVERTISEMENT

“You can’t turn a pig into a gazelle, but you can make an awfully fast pig.” In the automotive world, that old adage has been proven true many times over. Your Aunt Cassie’s Buick Regal or a tenured professor’s Volvo 240 will never truly rival a BMW, but transformed into a black Grand National coupe or a GLT “Turbo Brick” wagon they can certainly show taillights to more than a few Roundel-badged cars. You can improve virtually anything with wheels.

Recently we’ve tried to use this swine-to-speedster method to dispel another common belief that “any amphibious car will be unmitigated shit.” These car-boats are often vehicles that are less than spectacular at the tasks of a road vehicle while at the same time having poor capabilities of boats; that’s understood. Even if you could build a machine that was any good at both, it would typically cost as much as the average four-bedroom American home.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

Still, accepting that you aren’t going to have a Cigarette-level power boat that turns into an Aventador doesn’t mean you can’t have something amphibious that’s a fun, affordable compromise. We looked at taking the “faster pig” approach with an infamous car/boat a few weeks back, and now we’ll take it to the next level.

Amphi II: The Amphi Strikes Back

For the last few weeks, Jason has been attempting to redeem the entries in Craig Cheetham’s tome of alleged terribleness, The World’s Worst Cars. He’s taken umbrage at most of these entries and slowly been defending them one by one, but the car on the cover of the book is one I’ve personally taken on: the Amphicar.

Worst Book 8 8

ADVERTISEMENT

Amphicar 8 8

With nearly 4000 examples sold, the Amphicar was easily the best-selling consumer amphibious car ever made. Slow as a car and slow as a boat, it was also rather dorky looking to boot, living up to the common belief about amphibious cars and earning it a place in Cheetham’s book.  Still, if you wanted a car to get to work or the store on land and just hang out on the water every few weekends or so in summer it did exactly that. What’s so bad about it then?

Amphi Ride 8 10

Nothing’s wrong with that, at least nothing that can’t be fixed. I looked at Volkswagen taking over the Amphicar works and making changes to improve this relatively popular offering (I mean, popular for an amphibious car). For my 1967 redesign, I started with new styling that looked more boat-like and removed the silly tailfins. Next, a far more powerful flat-four motor from the ill-fated EA266 was put in the middle of the car for better weight distribution and larger VW wheels helped with road drivability and to act as rudders in the water.

Amphi New Shcematic 8 9 2

ADVERTISEMENT

Front View 8 8 Amphi 2

Rear View 8 8 2

The more appealing looks and far better performance would almost certainly have helped increase the sales of the Amphicar. As I mentioned in my post, the total Amphicar sales were equal the sales of all Porsche 911 models sold in 1967, so the first Amphicar might have been a niche player but like that sports car that niche likely would have expanded.

Amphicar Front Anitmation8 9

My changes would have made the Amphicar far better on the road where it would have spent ninety-five percent of its life, but many commenters mentioned that it still would have been a major dud off of the shore. A bigger challenge might have been the looming American safety regulations including the dreaded 5MPH safety bumpers, something that neither the original Amphicar nor my reimagining would have passed.

ADVERTISEMENT

Let’s bite the bullet and design the third-generation Amphicar to answer these critics and face the changing times.

What Would Have Floated The Public’s Boat?

Small production-run cars are a great way to test new mechanical systems, and in our alternate reality, the water-cooled flat-four from the EA266 project could have been tried out in the Amphicar before becoming a mainstream Beetle replacement powerplant.

True to expectations, in my alternate reality the EA266 motor would have proved expensive to build and maintain, clearing the way for the front-drive Golf/Rabbit to debut in 1974 and putting paid to the whole mid-engined EA266 program based on the results of the second generation Amphicar motor.

Would that have meant the end of the Amphicar? Absolutely not. By 1974 we’d have been ready for a third-generation car/boat anyway, and a certain real-world low-volume manufacturer of amphibious cars offers a great inspiration for our next Amphicar. A British kit car company called Dutton that was up for sale a little while back (the whole company!) made a series of car-boats including a Suzuki Jimny (Samurai) based off-roader called the Dutton Surf and a sporty one called the Dutton Reef.

Dutton Full Range 9 1

ADVERTISEMENT

Available as a kit or fully assembled product, the Dutton Reef used gutted stock Ford Fiesta components to make a mid-engined amphibian that even managed to provide small rear seats, a feat most car companies seem unable to achieve with land-based midship sports cars.

Dutton 1 9 1

On-road performance of this Fiero-like machine was not spectacular, but it was more than able to keep up with traffic on the highway. As a boat, the Reef is what’s called a “full-displacement design” which in this case means you’re limited to a hull speed of around 6mph. Unlike speedier boats that can “break over the hump” and run “on plane” to lift the bow so only a small amount of the hull is actually in the water, the Reef’s hull remains fully dunked at any speed.

Dutton 1 9 2

That’s just like the Amphicar (the real one and my redesign), and those limitations as a watercraft met some resistance from a few commenters in my last post as being “slow, shit boating.” Amphibious cars capable of “planing” have indeed been offered, such as the Gibbs Aquada that I showcased in the previous article. The Aquada featured a sophisticated wheel retraction which cut drag in the water to allow it to allegedly reach speeds of up the 30MPH in the water.

ADVERTISEMENT

Gibbs 8 8

Why not do that with an Amphicar? Two reasons: cost and weight. A non-planing 6mph-on-the-water Dutton Reef was reportedly available as a kit (without the Fiesta donor) for under $18,000; a fully assembled car could have been bought for around $30,000. On the other hand, the high-performance Gibbs Aquada with the complex wheel retraction (but no opening doors) was pushing $300,000 before the whole venture went bust.

The sales numbers speak for themselves; Gibbs sold only about 45 cars (they were projecting 4000 units) while the little Dutton firm moved over 260 units of different amphibious cars, or around six times the number of Aquadas (by the way, the Dutton company was bought by Polish firm so hopefully we’ll see production happening again sometime soon). Jason Torchinsky’s belief that a lot of people just want to putter around on a lake and not have to deal with a tow car, a trailer, and place to store a boat is proven by the fact that the silly old Amphicar did sell the nearly 4000 units that Gibbs targeted but couldn’t come close to producing 1/100th of that.

If a tiny UK firm can do this you have to believe that a brand now backed up by VW couldn’t do this, right? I mean, in Volkswagen Group tradition it would be far more complex than a Dutton, break down, and cost thousands to fix ten years later, but they could make it happen.

Amphi III- The Return Of The Amphi

In a manner similar to a Fiero and the Dutton Reef, the third-gen Amphicar would take the whole Golf/Rabbit powertrain and move it to the rear axle of the car; the radiator would mount at the back of the car with air intakes above. This would allow us to shape the front end as needed to make it better as a boat, and to eliminate any needed openings at the front of this new Amphicar. Instead of dual propellors, there will be a single jet boat-like propulsion unit below the bumper that can turn with the steering wheel to make the Amphicar III turn much more responsively in the water than the earlier ones.

ADVERTISEMENT

In 1974, styling trends would have evolved to far more angular lines, and I don’t see why this now-Volkswagen subsidiary wouldn’t have used the same design firm that they had entrusted with their bread-and-butter cars: Giugiaro’s Ital Design. The Gen III Amphicar would take on the popular-at-the-time wedge profile that would be very similar to the new-for-1974 Mk1 Scirocco. I know that the Karmann-Ghia has a lot of fans but I think this Golf-based sports coupe is one of the best-looking Volkswagen ever made.

Scirocco 1 9 1

Remember also that in the early seventies all manufacturers were convinced that, in addition to 5MPH bumpers, the US Department of Transportation was going to institute federal rollover standards for cars. This very real fear caused essentially all convertibles to disappear by 1976, and you’d think that VW would want to find a new solution for the Amphicar.

The answer I have in mind is the same one used by most American manufacturers: the T-bar or Targa removable roof panels. Front and rear frameless and pillarless side glass would fully roll down and the individual fiberglass roof panels could lift off and store under the hood over cargo in the frunk. The end result is very Scirocco-like and would fit right in with the VW/Audi family aesthetics of their early FWD cars. The black rubber surrounding trim on the VWs would be moved higher and made thicker for the Amphicar to protect you in docking situations.

Amphicar 3 Front 9 6
Source: VW

Clear covers over the headlamps also extend to a transparent cover for the license plate in a manner similar to a Citroen SM, with the plate accessible from the frunk. Smooth wheel covers will help aerodynamics on the road, lower water resistance in the water and to allow the front wheels to act better as front rudders to help with steering in boat mode. The sail panels in back could feature vents, but I’d rather keep the lower ones as fake so that the sail panels might act as a way to keep water from splashing into the engine bay vents behind the rear window (which, supposedly, was part of the purposed of the absurd-looking tailfins on the first Amphicar).

ADVERTISEMENT

Amphicar Rear 9 6

Supposedly most of the original Amphicars were sold in America, so what will VW do about the dreaded NHTSA regulations? Well, I’m not gonna lie to you: it won’t be ideal. The 5MPH bumpers will literally have to hang off the front and back of the car, though we can smooth them out enough that they might pass off as “water diverters” or something (no, they won’t, but rules are rules). The composite Euro headlamps and covered license plate in front will give way to retractable units and black plastic trim to at least give a reasonable approximation of the better-looking non-federalized nose. Both Euro and US cars feature red and green navigation lights located behind the rear-view mirror and visible in the top of the windshield, as well as a retractable white light on the roof bar.

Amphicar Usa 9 6

Would This Make You A Back Seat Driver?

The interior of the Amphicar III is a 2+2 affair, but it would be great to be able to offer on-the-water fun for more people (“Hey good looking, we’ll be back to pick you up later!”) No problem: Amphicar III has you covered.

How many readers here grew up with VW Type 3s and 4s? Remember as kids looking in at the open, empty trunk and saying “Damn, I could sit on that ledge between the wheels”? You tried it out before Dad said to get the hell out of the trunk, right? Well, fortysomething years later we’re making that silliness a reality.

ADVERTISEMENT
Type 4 Frunk 9 1 2
Source: Midwest Car Exchange

The hood of the Amphicar could be removed with quick releases and replaced with a temporary vinyl tonneau cover. Under this cover would be some seat cushions so that, in a manner similar to bowrider boats, would let passengers sit up in the “bow” ahead of the driver. Why squeeze into the tiny rear seat when you could sit up front? That also lets the driver and passenger fully recline seats to get sun in the days before we worried about skin cancer.

Yes, you could in fact ride up in da frunk when the Amphicar is used as a road car, but the owner’s manual and local regulations would strongly advise you not to. Once you’re done with the boating season just put the hood back in place to replace the tonneau.

Amphicar 3 Shcematic 9 6

As an option, you could get a rack to carry the roof panels over the engine instead of in the frunk (allowing room for air to get to the motor) which would also give you a “poop deck.”  Yes, that’s what it’s called in the boating world, and it would give the ability for you to sunbathe at the back of the car or just sit (though that dude I put back there does appear to doing what the name of the deck implies).

Where the party at?!? It might only top out at 6MPH on the water, but the Amphicar III would have been all about on-the-water fun.

ADVERTISEMENT

Domed-Out Dash

I was about to put a very conservative German Golf/Scirocco dash in this thing but I ended up going off the rails as I often do. Because the Amphicar can be a boat, I put a dome-topped nautical compass in the center of the instrument panel, and it looked very out of place with the car instruments.

Scan 20240906

Did I make the compass look more like an automotive gauge? No, that’s too easy; I did the opposite and changed all of the instruments to dome shapes. I really don’t know why. Now they all look like the nautical gauge, or to my eye like a Pop-O-Matic dice flipper. Imagine how these glowing domes would have looked like sticking out of your dash at night. Yes, a rotating dome clock would likely have been tough to read.

Screenshot (1396) 9 6
Source: Plastimo, WalMart

Third Time’s The Charm?

Like the original, the Amphicar III would remain a niche product, but a niche that possibly would have expanded during the malaise era when gas was scarce, interest rates were high, and the prospect of owning a boat and a car would have been too crippling for some. Most cars were slow back then, so shouldn’t they have made a car that’s enjoyable in ways that don’t involve pure speed? I mean, that’s how custom vans became popular then, but I’m talking more, you know, wholesome fun than what those dens of iniquity provided.

With VW behind it, one could see Ferdinand Piech getting involved in the Amphicar development just because he could. An amphibious car isn’t any sillier than Piech’s idea of a car that could go 186MPH all day in 120 degree weather while keeping the cabin a 72 degrees, which nobody bought. Well, almost nobody.

ADVERTISEMENT

In a time when people put bubble windows on crappy Pinto wagons and giant “Le Car” stickers on little hatchbacks at the factory, wouldn’t a less-than-perfect car/boat have fit right in?

 

Relatedbar

Let’s Give The Cover Star Of The ‘Worst Cars’ Book The Makeover It Deserves – The Autopian

Finally, The Galileo Shuttlecraft Amphibious Camper You’ve Waited Years For – The Autopian

ADVERTISEMENT

The Entire Dutton Amphibious Car Company Is Up For Sale And You Could Buy It – The Autopian (dev-jazelc.com)

Our Daydreaming Designer Re-Imagines Vector If They Made Amphibious Supercars – The Autopian

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on reddit
Reddit
Subscribe
Notify of
43 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Laika
Laika
1 month ago

If there isn’t an Amphicar out there with the license plate “C SICK” there really, really should be.

Torque
Torque
1 month ago

I like the astetics of the design, the binnacle dashboard is a fun touch.
Outside in addition to the original Scirracco the 3/4 front view especially reminds me of the 1980s Audi 80 too.

Gewf631
Gewf631
1 month ago

Use carbon fiber (or fiberglass) sandwiched with foam for floatation, and take hundreds of pounds off the GVW.
Like the mid/rear engine design as it throws weight to the rear, making it easier to get the boat on plane

Freelivin2713
Freelivin2713
1 month ago

So does this have junk in da frunk and junk in the trunk?
Yeah, the Scirocco was a great design
Another great article! Thank you

Njd
Njd
1 month ago

You have made a grievous error sir! You can’t have the compass right by the stereo like that!

Brau Beaton
Brau Beaton
1 month ago

Who gives a dang about the NTSA! Any sea worthy ship-car requires a helm and “Binnacle” not an instrument panel. Secondly, speed control needs to be operated by the passenger (crew) via oral command “Ahead 3/4 or … Full Speed, Gilligan”. Obviously, left turn (Port) lights must be red, and right ones green (Starboard).

On another note, this updated Amphicar looks a lot like an X19. Hmmm.

The Dude
The Dude
1 month ago

I’ll take mine in black and I’ll hoist a pirate flag. Sure my family wouldn’t be caught dead driving or boating with me in it, but at least I can break out some sweet pirate talk to my fellow motorists.

Last edited 1 month ago by The Dude
Freelivin2713
Freelivin2713
1 month ago
Reply to  The Dude

Anyone who talks shit will walk the plank…

Ford_Timelord
Ford_Timelord
1 month ago

This is great. The only slight disappointment is that it doesn’t have the amazing colour schemes of early 80’s VWs including the two tones of the VW T2.5/T3 Caravelles.

I bought a MK1 Golf just for the fantastic Santos Green that reminded me of the Porsche 911 Targa of the time.

Boulevard_Yachtsman
Boulevard_Yachtsman
1 month ago

Very cool! I kind of want that dash in one of my cars on general principal. Also, a fairly remarkable coincidence as I just saw an Amphicar at a small-town car show last week. Then I saw a different Amphicar at a small-city car show yesterday along with not one, but two different Pinto wagons – both with bubble-windows. No Le Car though.

Torque
Torque
1 month ago

As a kid next door neighbors had a French Renault “The Car”

At one point in the 1st 1/2 of the 80’s we had some small 5 5 door hatchback Fiat in Neon Green that was a hysterical little car… using image search, I think maybe it was a Fiat Uno. How in the world we ended up with a small Fiat 5 door in IA of all places I don’t know

Last edited 1 month ago by Torque
Allen Lloyd
Allen Lloyd
1 month ago

Well shit now I am brainstorming turning my Fiero into and amphibious car.

Chartreuse Bison
Chartreuse Bison
1 month ago

How is that jet-drive supposed to steer?

SCOTT GREEN
SCOTT GREEN
29 days ago

Vectored thrust, maybe.

JDE
JDE
1 month ago

the VW thing could have been converted into amphibious duty somewhat easily I believe. if they had also raised the suspension and given it a bit more offroad appearance during the heydey of the 70’s for Butch styled things, they definitely might have sold another 4,000 units?

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
1 month ago

Cool – especially the wood on the dash…
…but putting a person on the bow? That’s a great way to push the bow down into the water and swamp the boat/car rather than planing up – So that’s a no-go.
I’m also not convinced that sitting on a slippery stern and dangling your feet in the water around the propellers is a great idea either.

But – Let’s consider where VW went in 1975:
GTI

What else happened in 1979?
Roll-bar hoop Cabriolet.

And another thing that was happening in the early 70’s:
Jet Boats/Jet Skis

Now put them all together.

Manwich Sandwich
Manwich Sandwich
1 month ago

How many readers here grew up with VW Type 3s and 4s?”

Not me. Theoretically I should have as I was born in the early 1970s and my dad actually owned a VW Sqareback.

Problem is, we lived in the rust belt and that VW Squareback rusted like crazy… so by the late 1970s, the VW Type 3s and Type 4s were a relatively rare sight. Did see a lot of VW Microbuses and Beetles.

But even those became a relatively rare sight by the late 1980s.

Now about amphibious cars… the way I see it, they will always be a niche product. And past amphibious cars were shit as cars and shit as boats.

The only way to build an amphibious car that has any chance of success is to go with something that is high performance… with enough power you can hit planing speeds and by extension, have enough power so it won’t be slow as shit on the road.

And it also has to be practical… so that means a 5-7 passenger SUV body (which I’ll get into further)

Also emissions, noise and efficiency matters… so I think the best bet would be to start with a high performance BEV and harden the parts for marine use.

At the same time, I’m thinking that instead of a complicated system where the wheels get folded into the body, have a simpler air suspension where the car’s wheels get put into the lowest setting when in boat mode so it will sort of be like a ‘stanced’ car.

Also the latest thing in boat tech is hydrofoil ‘flying boats’… where the hull is completely out of the water except for they hydrofoils
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofoil

And since it willd be electric, have the hydrofoils and propellers be electrically extended once the thing is in the water.

As for use cases, honestly I think the best use case is to target this at wealthy people who live in islands in places like Muskoka.

People who live in places like that often have to spend money for a place at local marina to park their car and also leave their boat. I know for a fact that alone costs people at least a couple of thousand per year… not to mention the inconveniece of having to move from the car to the boat and vice versa. And that’s especially inconvenient if you’ve gone to the mainland for a shopping/supplies trip because it means having to transfer all the stuff.

And that brings me back to it needing to be practical and how I mentioned it should have to have an SUV body.

Past Amphibious vehicles had stupid/impractical bodies that barely fit 4 people. They were barely more than recreational toys.

You couldn’t use those POSes to go from your island in Muskoka to the local mainland grocery store and fit all your groceries along with family.

But if you made something like an Amphibious Chevy Suburban with an electric powertrain, fast charging capability, hydrofoil tech so it would also be decently fast on water that would make going from your island to the local mainland grocery store and back way more convenient, THAT might have a chance of selling as it’s more than just a recreational toy. It would be something that would provide a meaningful functional benefit for those with the money. You could drive straight from your home, to the marina, straight down the ramp into the water, switch to boat mode and straight to your cottage on the island… without having to transfer your stuff to a boat that you either towed or had stored at the marina.

Now as I type this and as someone with a boating license, I think there should be two versions… a high speed hydrofoil version and a regular non-hydrofoil version that would be slower, but better suited to places with shallow water.

Knowonelse
Knowonelse
1 month ago

Hands aloft! I did. My cousin and his friend had squarebacks and Iiked them. My brother has one. Only since I could not find a squareback when I absolutely needed a car, I got a Fiat. Sold it a couple of years later to buy a ’67 squareback. That was in 1978. I still have the squareback.

Tim Beamer
Tim Beamer
1 month ago

Most excellent! Where can I pre-order one of these? 🙂

Church
Church
1 month ago

No notes. Bring it back!

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
1 month ago

“Recently we’ve tried to use this swine-to-speedster method to dispel another common belief that “any amphibious car will be unmitigated shit.” These car-boats are often vehicles that are less than spectacular at the tasks of a road vehicle while at the same time having poor capabilities of boats; that’s understood. Even if you could build a machine that was any good at both, it would typically cost as much as the average four-bedroom American home”

Counterpoint: The GMC DUKW
The DUKW was designed by Rod Stephens Jr. of Sparkman & Stephens, Inc. yacht designers, Dennis Puleston, a British deep-water sailor resident in the U.S., and Frank W. Speir from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[10] Developed by the National Defense Research Committee and the Office of Scientific Research and Development to solve the problem of resupply to units which had just performed an amphibious landing, it was initially rejected by the armed services. When a United States Coast Guard patrol craft ran aground on a sand bar near Provincetown, Massachusetts, an experimental DUKW happened to be in the area for a demonstration. Winds up to 60 knots (110 km/h; 69 mph), rain, and heavy surf prevented conventional craft from rescuing the seven stranded Coast Guardsmen, but the DUKW had no trouble,[11] and military opposition to the DUKW melted. The DUKW later proved its seaworthiness by crossing the English Channel.

Many were used after WWII by civilian organizations such as the police, fire departments, and rescue units. DUKWs were used for oceanographic research in Northern California, as related by participant Willard Bascom. Drivers learned that DUKWS were capable of surfing large winter Pacific waves, with care (and luck).[26]
The Australian Army lent two DUKWs and crew to Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions for a 1948 expedition to Macquarie Island. Australian DUKWs were used on Antarctic supply voyages until 1970.[18] From 1945 to 1965, the Australian Commonwealth Lighthouse Service supply ship Cape York carried ex-Army DUKWs for supplying lighthouses on remote islands.[27]
One DUKW is in use by the Technisches Hilfswerk (THW) of Germersheim in Germany, a civil protection organisation.[28]

Tourist attractions
DUKWs are still in use as tourist transport in harbor and river cities across the globe. The first “duck tour” company was started in 1946[29] by Mel Flath in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. The company is still in operation under the name Original Wisconsin Ducks.[29]

These things were in use from WW2 till 2012 which proves a properly designed vehicle can do just fine as a land AND sea transport.

Last edited 1 month ago by Cheap Bastard
4jim
4jim
1 month ago

The former Scricco owner wants one that can float. Great idea and a great design.

4jim
4jim
1 month ago
Reply to  The Bishop

I had a gen 1 but super late it was titled an 82. Loved it. It did not run without a battery like my 78 rabbit. Did melt the rear hatch button melting an ice storm off of it. I would love something like that now. Small 5 speed and cheap as hell.

Torque
Torque
1 month ago
Reply to  The Bishop

A good friend in HS… his father had 2 Scriccos. Actually the person that got me in to VWs…

(I’m mostly smarter now, though some of the old vw models still tempt me)…

1st an 86′ 8 valve that the father sold to another of the son’s friend, who unfortunately totaled it in a crash.
Same father had an 88′ Scricco 16 Valve which was really nice. He also sold this to the same friend of the son that he sold the 1st one too. The new owner wrecked this one in a crash too!!!

Tbird
Tbird
1 month ago
Reply to  4jim

I so wanted a Scirocco in HS, but they were already thin on the ground in early ’90s Pittsburgh. Ended up with a ’78 LTDII coupe in all of it’s malaise era glory.

Spikedlemon
Spikedlemon
1 month ago

Totally related, Dutton was retiring a few years back and his whole business was up for sale (factory, stock, and all) but it looks like Tim Dutton is back from retirement this year and selling kits.

Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
1 month ago

Love these flights of fancy. Technically speaking, shouldn’t it be labeled a boat/car since its primary use would be as a car? As for 5mph bumpers, just do what they did with old tugs and other work boats and hang old tires on the front, back and sides. Probably have to be lawn tractor tires to avoid a massive weight penalty. I’d definitely want one of these if I lived in an archipelago for island hopping and mainland resupply trips.

Tbird
Tbird
1 month ago

I love this, puttering about is so much fun. As late Gen-X my dad had a 17′ canoe with a trolling motor we took out on the local lakes for fishing and what not as a kid. I miss those carefree days.

Tbird
Tbird
1 month ago
Reply to  The Bishop

I saw the mounting plate for such.

I’m gonna sound old but life is too fast. Slow down and enjoy time with kids and family. Create memories. I would not trade a collector car for the time and money I spent creating memories with my daughter when she was young. She’s about on her own now so…..

Cerberus
Cerberus
1 month ago
Reply to  Tbird

I converted my old 13′ plastic kayak to EV and it’s been a lot of fun. It only does about 5 mph, but that’s fine for narrow rivers or cruising between the moored boats in harbor. The problem now is that, when the battery runs out, I have to paddle a kind of shitty kayak, so now I’m looking at my much better and lighter 17′ wood kayak that would be easier to package and build and go faster or run longer even without adding a bigger battery, which I’d have no trouble fitting. I’d also go with a 55 lbs thrust motor instead of the 35 and not need the PWM and the somewhat complicated remote throttle arrangement and a simpler retracting mechanism.

Arch Duke Maxyenko
Arch Duke Maxyenko
1 month ago

I’m looking forward to when Ford buys out Amphicar in the late 80’s/early 90’s and makes them part of the Premier Auto Group

Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
1 month ago
Reply to  The Bishop

Swamp Fox?

Musicman27
Musicman27
1 month ago
Reply to  Canopysaurus

I mean, the name could work.

It would get peoples attention at least.

Last edited 1 month ago by Musicman27
Paul E
Paul E
1 month ago
Reply to  Musicman27

The HD truck version of the platform could be “Water Buffalo”.

Arch Duke Maxyenko
Arch Duke Maxyenko
1 month ago
Reply to  The Bishop

DN5 based and then Volvo P2

Tbird
Tbird
1 month ago
Reply to  The Bishop

The Fox gets a bad rep, but honestly spawned a whole family of time/place competitive small RWD cars. Same with the larger Panther. Not groundbreaking but versatile, durable and competent. Part of me still wants a nice MkVII LSC.

Scotty Scott
Scotty Scott
1 month ago
Reply to  Tbird

I don’t think anyone had malice toward the Fox family except that the Mustang had a bizarrely long run. They were honest cars that got the job done, and the sporty variants were at least equal to anything similar available from Detroit.

43
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x