Credit World War II for making cars that can swim. And though the largest numbers of amphibian passenger cars were made way back in the 1960s, the prospect of a car that can navigate waterways like a boat continues to attract inventors.
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| Amphicar |
Amphicar
Even though less than 5000 German-designed Amphicars were built, you can still see them. Most came to America and many are still in use.
The Amphicar was built for five years starting in 1961; it was a compact convertible with a steel unibody and double seals on the doors. Using a 1.2-liter four-cylinder Triumph engine mounted in the rear, it drove the rear wheels through a Porsche transaxle. A transfer case switched power to two 12-inch propellers when you entered the water. With 11 inches of ground clearance, entering a lake or river was easy, and the Amphicar would cruise at 8 knots. The front wheels served as rudders. Top speed on the highway for the 43-hp car was 70 mph.
To publicize the car, the company once drove it across the English Channel. Legend has it that President Lyndon Johnson liked to terrify joyriding houseguests by pretending that his car's brakes had broken and driving the Amphicar into a lake.
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| Gibbs Aquada |
Gibbs Aquada
Alan Gibbs of New Zealand commissioned British automaker Lotus in 1996 to undertake an engineering viability study for an amphibious car. Neil Jenkins, who helped build the Jaguar XJ220, contributed to the clever frame and body/hull design; he now runs Gibbs Sports Amphibians, which announced this year it is beginning to work on producing the Aquada.
The Gibbs will come with hydraulically retractable wheels on struts. A single 165-hp 2.5-liter Rover four-cylinder engine will power the rear wheels and also a jet pump drive for marine travel. That engine will get the 4000-pound plastic-hull aluminum-framed Aquada to 100 mph on land and 30 mph in the water. A prototype crossed the English Channel in 40 minutes in 2004.
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| VW Schwimmwagen |
VW Schwimmwagen
VW Beetle creator Ferdinand Porsche produced the four-wheel-drive Kübelwagen for the German Army in WWII. He then made an amphibious version of it in 1941, followed by a smaller version of the first amphibious car called the Schwimmwagen. It was powered by a 1.2-liter air-cooled flat four, which also drove a single propeller. The amphibious car used the front wheels as rudders when in the water. On land, the propeller would swing up, disengaging it from the engine. The Schwimmwagen was heavy and slow but had good traction off-road.
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| U.S. Army DUKW |
U.S. Army DUKW
GM built the DUKW, called Duck when it was produced, for the U.S. military in 1942. It was adapted from a troop-carrier truck. The awkward name came from GM's official designations: D meant the 1942 model year, U stood for utility, K was GM's code for front-drive, and W was the code for two rear axles.
The DUKW's capacity was 5000 pounds or 25 soldiers. It'd do 50 mph on land or 5 mpg in the water. George Patton made the vehicle famous by using 1000 DUKWs to land in Sicily in 1943; 2000 participated in the D-Day landing in France in 1944.
In sum, GM built 21,000 Ducks. Today the amphibious cars are mostly seen giving aquatic tours. Milwaukeean Melvin H. Flath bought a surplus DUKW and charged 50 cents for tours in 1946; now tour companies in various cities use a couple hundred of the vehicles.
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| Terra Wind Motorhome |
Terra Wind Motorhome
In September 2004, commercial pilot John Giljam built an amphibious motor home that cost $1.2 million and was 42 feet long. Powered by a rear-mounted 330-hp diesel engine, the all-aluminum bodied home on wheels uses two propellers and two rudders when it's floating. It has two inflatable pontoons on its sides for stability but can travel on water without them. Giljam now builds other amphibious machines through a company called Cool Amphibious Manufacturers International, which also builds DUKW-type vehicles for tour companies.
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| Dobbertin Surface Orbiter |
Dobbertin Surface Orbiter
Using a double-wall stainless-steel milk tank from the back of a truck, Rick Dobbertin from Cazenovia, N.Y., built an amphibious truck that he drove from Florida to South America via the Gulf of Mexico, and back to the U.S. on land in 1995. It took him four and a half years to build the craft, which is 32 feet long, 7.5 feet wide, 10 feet high, and weighs 9 tons fully loaded. Its GM diesel V-8 makes 250 hp and powers all six wheels. The "surface orbiter" has traveled 33,000 miles on land, 3,000 in the sea, and was sold in a 1999 divorce auction for $200,000.
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| Rinspeed Splash |
Rinspeed Splash
Well-known Swiss sportscar tuning firm Rinspeed built an amphibious car in 2003 that can go 120 mph on land and 45 knots on water. Under 30 knots, the Rinspeed can cruise in water like a conventional boat. Above 30 knots, fold-down hydrofoils raise the car's a lightweight carbon composite body shell 12 feet above the water. A single propeller lowers into water with the foils, and the wheels can lift out of the water.
Power comes from a 140-hp two-cylinder 750-cc engine running on natural gas. The vehicle's total weight is just 1800 pounds.
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| SeaRoader |
SeaRoader
Englishman Mike Ryan designed and built his first Land Rover-based SeaRoader amphibian in 30 days back in the 1980s. He's built amphibious motorcycles, a Lamborghini-bodied amphibian, and his shop engineered the three floating cars featured on Top Gear in 2006.
The SeaRoader is Ryan's first production amphibian, made with steel body panels. It sells for $42,000. The on-road propulsion comes from the Land Rover's original 1.7-liter turbodiesel engine. In the water, a separate marine engine and output jet in the back can push the SeaRoader to 6 mph.
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| U.S. Army LARC |
U.S. Army LARC
In 1952, the massive Lighter Amphibious Resupply Cargo amphibious vehicle, capable of carrying a 60-ton tank, made its maiden voyage in Washington state. Gross weight fully loaded: 319,000 pounds. One GMC 265-hp marine diesel engine powered each of the LARC-60's nine-and-a-half foot tall Firestone tires. The same four engines were used to drive two propellers in the rear via a transfer transmission. The 17-foot tall, 63-foot long LARC can travel at 20 mph on land and 7 mph in the water.
Two smaller versions were also produced—one that could carry 5 tons and another that could carry 15 tons.
Source: popularmechanics.com
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