Amphicar 770 - the 60s sports car that swims!

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Amphicar 770

A lot of people see the Amphicar and think it’s American, for quite a few reasons. The very American styling with those supersize fins, the fact the vast majority of these cars, around 90%, were exported over there and of course, the fact one was owned by President Lyndon Johnson. Apparently it was his favourite car!

In fact, it was a German car designed by Hans Trippel. Now you’ll see online loads of stuff that Hans was inspired by the amphibious military vehicles of the Second World War like the Volkswagen Schwimmwagen but here’s the thing, Trippel was toying with this stuff way before the war.

In fact, his early mid 30s designs caught the eye of Hitler who then recruited, or should we say, forcibly shuffled Trippel into the Bugatti factory to build amphibious cars as part of the war effort.

But once the war was over, it left Trippel to pursue his passion once more. It takes a bit of time for him to get things together again and he comes back to market again in 59 with the Eurocar Alligator. That was powered by the same engine they use in the Austin A35 and Morris Minors of a certain age - the 948 A Series.

It’s not a bad engine at all, but with only 34bhp you don’t move all that swiftly, which is why when the Triumph Herald came to market, Trippel ditched the A Series and picked the 1147cc engine which gives you a much healthier 43bhp. Remember, this is of its time, I realise today that might seem a bit lacklustre.

This new engine takes Trippel back to the drawing board and armed with quite a sizeable government backing, the Amphicar 770 was unveiled to the buying public in 1961.

However, it wasn’t a cheap toy. It retailed at roughly double the price of a Volkswagen Beetle in the home market. The Lane motor museum list the American sales price as between 2,800 and 3,300 dollars from new.

Although this might seem like a really cool car today and many seem to remember it fondly, it was pretty much a commercial flop.

There were sales forecasts of 20,000 units shifting through the factory every year, but by the time they stopped selling them in 1968, they only managed to shell 3,878.

Although I always try to steer clear of mocking cars which didn’t meet their expected level of success, because it’s with innovative ideas and experimentation that we get future designs and discoveries. So very rarely does something experimental not lead to a learning or progress.

I guess one of the biggest things learnt here was, was that boats are boats and cars are cars and the crossover market isn’t where you might like it to be!

However despite all this, it was a well made car. It might’ve rotted out due to exposure to water and the elements, but looking at other cars of its time, it’s well put together. It’s essentially a unibody steel two door car, but there’s some cool bits too like the electrically welded joints and the fact the ground clearance from the back means it wins the award of highest tail fins on any production car.

With less than 100 of these cars being right hand drive, we’re so lucky to experience this today. Remember if you want to see it in person, the Isle of Man motor museum details are in the description box below.