THIS BOAT IS A CAR! (Jul, 1960)
THIS BOAT IS A CAR!
IT’S a boat! It’s a car! It does everything but fly! In fact, it’s Amphicar, a West German import that looks like a jazzy convertible and, when driven off the road into a lake or river, becomes an efficient motorboat.
The car’s water-tight body is 15-1/2 ft. long, has a wheelbase of 80 in. and weighs 1,738 lbs. Fuel consumption is said to be 32 mpg on land and two gallons per hour on the water. The Austin four-cylinder engine is water-cooled.
For on-water drive, a switch lever operates two stern propellers at forward or reverse speed.
Recommended for fishermen and outdoor sportsmen, the Amphicar will sell in the U. S. for under $3,000. •
I’m surprised that by 1960 it’s still worth noting that an automobile has hydraulic brakes.
Didn’t they have one of these in the 1966 Batman movie?
@LightningRose: I am currently reading the 1960 year of Popular Science; I started with January 1950. 1960 is an interesting year; while hydraulic brakes are common on many new cars, older car owners had to do a re-fit (kits and such were available, and advertised in PS). Also, power-brakes boosted by manifold vacuum are a new thing, and apparently dual-cylinder ones (separate cylinders for front and rear) are just coming into vogue. There were a lot of changes going on in automobiles (rear-transaxles were supposed to be the “future”, instead of front-wheel drive; also, the use of the booster for brakes apparently made it move to the firewall position it now occupies; before, the booster was located under the floorpan, and access via a small panel in the floor near the brake pedal).
Was this made for commuters in Venice?
I remember they had a bunch of these at the 1964-65 Worlds Fair in New York. You could buy a ride down a ramp, around the lagoon and back.
The Amphicar has been listed in several books I’ve read about the world’s worst cars. It wasn’t a very good car, and wasn’t a very good boat, either. Apparently, steering in the water with the front wheels didn’t make the car/boat very maneuverable, and it wasn’t particularly fast. On land, it apparently would cruise fine at 60MPH – if there isn’t a hill.
In the end, quoting the enthusiast at the Amphicar Club’s website, criticizing the Amphicar for not being a very good car or a very good boat is like criticizing a pig doing the tango – “So what if the pig is a little slow or sloppy in its chops and steps? What’s really notable is that there’s a pig doing the tango!, Right? “
Mike Brown: I think your memory might be mixing the Ford Magic Skyway with the Log Flume. There doesn’t seem to be any reference to Amphicars at the Fair.
No, my memory’s fine (on this point, at least, don’t ask what I had for breakfast).
There’s a page on a Worlds Fair website which even has a picture of one of the Amphicars at the fair: http://www.nywf64.com/a…