You know what may be my most controversial automotive opinion? I suppose I have many, considering my automotive tastes are basically the equivalent of being something that, were they lifestyle fetishes, would probably take a string of letters and acronyms about two feet long to describe. But I think of all my automotive perversions and fetishes, the one that garners me the most raised eyebrows is my firm belief that amphibious cars should be mainstream.
The fact that every major auto manufacturer doesn’t offer at least one model capable of being driven into a body of water is, at the very least, criminal. Doing things on the water is fun. Dicking around happily on a boat on a lake is a great way to while away an afternoon, but the cost to do so, in time, money, and effort, is just too dear. But all of that changes if you have a car you can just drive into the water.
In fact, I maintain that one of the best driving experiences one can have, of all driving experiences, is driving a car right into water, just plowing on in with the cool aplomb of an astronaut rock star. I’ve gotten to do just that twice, and it was sublime. If you’d like to see this delightful event happen, over and over, then feast your eyebones on this incredible video an Autopian named Nick sent to me:
70 amphibious cars, all on the water at once! It’s glorious!
This incredible and damp gathering happened between August 1st and 8th of this year, in Berlin. It seems next year’s gathering will be in London. What’s especially nice about the video is that the person who shot and uploaded it took the time to tag all the various vehicles shown in the video:
0:00 GAZ-46 0:07 Self-built vehicle 0:27 Amphicar 0:39 Ford GPA “Seep” 0:52 Amphicruiser 1:17 Volkswagen Schwimmwagen (Type 166) 2:00 Dutton Commander 2:11 Volkswagen Schwimmwagen (Type 166) 2:27 Amphicar 2:53 RMA Amphi-Ranger 2800 SR 3:34 Dutton Mariner 3:46 Europa Jeep 4:16 Ampi Jeep 4:36 JetRanger (self-built vehicle) 4:54 Ford GPA “Seep” 5:14 RMA Amphi-Ranger 2800 SR 5:35 DUKW 6:34 All 70 amphibious cars on water 8:11 Volkswagen Schwimmwagen and GAZ-46 leaving the water 8:48 Ford GPA and Volkswagen Schwimmwagen leaving the water 9:17 Amphicars leaving the water 9:43 Amphicruiser and JetRanger leaving the water 10:18 Ford GPA, Volkswagen Schwimmwagen and Amphicars leaving the water 11:10 Polish self-built vehicle leaving the water 11:55 Ford GPA and Volkswagen Schwimmwagen leaving the water 12:55 Several Amphicars leaving the water 13:26 Ford GPA towing Volkswagen Schwimmwagen 13:50 DUKW 14:14 Amphibuggy 14:26 Amphi-Ranger 15:00 Amphicar and GAZ-46 leaving the water 15:39 Beijing Qijian BJ5022 and Ampi Jeep leaving the water 16:28 Dutton Mariner 16:41 DUKWs leaving the water
That’s an all-star cast of amphibious cars, right there. There’s the most famous one, the Amphicar, the Volkswagen Schwimmwagen, which was the most-produced amphibious car ever, there’s Duttons and the famous Ford “Seep” amphibious jeep, big DUKWs and so much more. Let’s look at a few of these:
These Dutton Commanders are some of the more common amphibious vehicles. Dutton was primarily a kit car maker, but in 1995 moved into amphibious cars. The Commander is based on a Suzuki Samurai, and Tim Dutton, the founder of the company, is the only person to have crossed the English Channel in an amphibious car twice.
There’s the famous Schwimmwagen! These were based on the early KdF-Wagens, the car that would be known as the Beetle, but with a 4WD system and a shortened wheelbase, as well as that boat-like body. While I’m not crazy about what these were built for and by whom, they’re pretty great.
These Amphi-Rangers are quite large amphibious vehicles, German-made and quite uncommon, with only around 70-100 having been built. Unlike most amphibious cars, this one wasn’t built for recreational use, but rather utilitarian things like pipeline inspection and costal rescue purposes.
These seems very capable and cool machines, and are a good bit larger than most commercially-available amphibians.
This one may be one of my favorites – it’s a home-built machine from Poland, and it seems very well executed. Check out in the video how the propeller gets deployed:
That panel on the left automatically opens, the propeller arm deploys into the water, and then the panel closes itself. It’s so slick!
Why aren’t these more popular? Dealing with boats is such an ass-pain, the trailers take up a lot of space, launching them into the water is a pain, they spend most of their time sitting in your yard – for the vast majority of what people want out of a boat, an amphibious car can handle just fine.
Here, reminisce with me about a time I got to really enjoy a deeply, wonderfully strange amphibious car:
These should be a thing! Let’s make this a thing! An amphibious car in every driveway!
You know, we expect any car we buy to carry us safely through rain and snow–why not water?
Note, though, that almost all of those vehicles are partially or completely open-top, and not just so they can have colorful parasols to shade the occupants. I think it’s more about the possibility of drowning in the event of a bad leak.
Also: think of all the money we’d save on building bridges.
Great ‘seaworthy’ test upon entering the water:
must immediately turn portside to avoid hitting something!
The only thing missing was a leaf-spring-era monster truck on dually 66s.
“There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of ‘em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always something else to do.”
– The Wind in the Willows
As difficult as it can sometimes be to keep an old car going, it’s happy times compared to maintaining an old boat. You’ve got to hand it to these people for keeping all those driving.
I like the idea of amphibious cars, but the reality is a little dinghy.
when i ask, “but, why?” please understand it comes from a place of genuine curiosity and not malice.
There’s an amphibious car meet here in Ohio somewhere & I’ve been meaning to get to it some day.
(Ok, apparently at least two, in Celina and Put-In-Bay.)
“These should be a thing! Let’s make this a thing! An amphibious car in every driveway!”
Whatever floats your boat.
This is a buoy to my spirit.