Picture credits
The drawings are our own. The photos are from Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons licences (Attribution, or Attribution-ShareAlike), except two US government photographs, which are in the public domain.
Photos
1966 Amphicar Model 770, front left, 09-07-2024.jpg
by MercurySable99, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
A water car in Heinola 1963 (JOKAIH2J04-1).tif
by Erkki Puputti, Finnish Heritage Agency, CC BY 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes.
Paris - Retromobile 2012 - La Trippel type SG6 38 - 1941 - 002.jpg
by Thesupermat, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Amphicar-main-ffm001.jpg
by dontworry, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Amphicar 1964 1172cc front three quarters.JPG
by Charles01, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Amphicar gearbox.JPG
by Neodarkshadow, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Geneva MotorShow 2013 - Amphicar 770 propellers.jpg
by Clément Bucco-Lechat, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
1966 Amphicar Model 770, rear left, 09-07-2024.jpg
by MercurySable99, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
AmphicarTallaSteerwheel.jpg
by Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Thumbnail IMG 7837 - The Amphicar 770 leaves the water.jpg
by Kuroczynski, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Amphicar on the Charles River.jpg
by EgorovaSvetlana, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Amphicar 770 1967 NoNum Leads 770 1965 0479 Afternoon swim 03 Lake Mirror Cassic 16Oct2010 (14690741988).jpg
by Valder137, CC BY 2.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes.
Amphicar (1).jpg
by 1971markus, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Classic Days Berlin 2017 Amphicar-001.jpg
by Fridolin freudenfett, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Amphicar front 20080315.jpg
by Rudolf Stricker, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
LBJAmphicar.jpg
by Yoichi Okamoto, White House photographer, Public domain. Cropped and resized; no other changes.
LBJ took "unsuspecting victims" for a drive in the German manufactured "Amphicar" and careened off the road towards the water (ff0fa529-155d-451f-6725-1e44c4888ddc).jpg
by US National Park Service, Public domain. Cropped and resized; no other changes.
Our own drawings
- Simplified side view of an Amphicar floating, front on the left. The water line runs along the lower body. Labels point to: a freeboard of about 21 inches, with the front bumper just above the water; the front wheels, which steer and act as rudders; the door, with two rubber seals and a separate water lock; the tall rear fins, which keep waves out of the engine; the engine behind the rear axle with the gearbox ahead of it; two propellers under the tail; and an electric bilge pump in the floor.
Our own drawing - Block diagram. The rear-mounted 1147 cc Triumph Herald engine feeds two gearboxes. The land gearbox, with four speeds and reverse, worked by one lever on the floor, drives the rear wheels. The water gearbox, with one forward and one reverse gear, worked by a second small lever, drives two propellers under the tail. The wheels and propellers can be driven separately or both at once.
Our own drawing - Bar chart of top speeds in the water quoted by different sources, in miles per hour. 7 knots, about 8.1 mph: the owners’ club FAQ, Hagerty UK, Hemmings and the Berlin-Brandenburg business archive. 8 knots, about 9.2 mph: Der Spiegel in 2006. 7 mph: the owners’ club history page and the Science Museum Group. 6.5 knots or 7 mph: the Lane Motor Museum. 12 km/h, about 7.5 mph: Der Spiegel in 2009 and the TECHNOSEUM. Cruising: 8 to 10 mph from the owners’ club FAQ, and 10 mph from Hagerty’s price guide.
Our own drawing - Bar chart of top speeds on land quoted by different sources, in miles per hour: 70, the figure in the name, from most sources; 68 from the Lane Motor Museum’s text; about 65 achieved by road testers, via Hagerty; 105 km/h, about 65 mph, from Der Spiegel in 2009; 113 km/h, about 70 mph, from Edle Oldtimer; 120 km/h, about 75 mph, from Der Spiegel in 2006 and the TECHNOSEUM; 125 km/h, about 78 mph, from the Berlin-Brandenburg business archive; 85 mph from some sources, via Hemmings; and a listed 90 mph, via Hagerty.
Our own drawing - Bar chart. Built: 3,878 from most sources; about 3,870 from Edle Oldtimer; about 3,900 from Sky HISTORY; nearly 4,000 from TIME; 3,770 from Slate; 3,500 by 1964 from Der Spiegel in 2006. Surviving: about 2,000 in some state from the owners’ club; about 1,000 from Der Spiegel in 2009. Still swimming: about 600, an owners’ guess quoted by the club; 300 to 600 seaworthy from Sky HISTORY; 500 from the club’s president in 2016. Left in Germany: 80, from Der Spiegel in 2006.
Our own drawing - A sketch map of the English Channel with Dover on the left and Calais on the right, joined by a dashed line, above a bar chart of crossing times in hours: two Frenchmen in 1962, 5 hours 50 minutes; the 1965 crossing, 7 hours 20 minutes according to Hemmings, or 7 hours 40 minutes from leaving Dover at 8.50 to landing at 4.30; and Richard Branson’s Gibbs Aquada in 2004, about 90 minutes.
Our own drawing
The drawings are simplified teaching drawings, not to scale, made from the sourced descriptions on this site. Useless the eraser is the network’s own mascot. Fonts: Bricolage Grotesque, Newsreader and Kalam (SIL Open Font Licence), served from this site.