Tall tales about the Amphicar
A president who faked brake failure, a designer credited with the Mercedes gullwing, and a name that may not mean what it says. The Amphicar has gathered stories for sixty years.
MythThe name means 7 knots in the water and 70 mph on land.
FactThe owners’ club FAQ says only that ‘it is said’ the 770 stood for 7 knots (about 8 mph) in the water and 70 mph on land. IAOC FAQ The club’s history page says the name ‘Model 770’ came from a top speed of 7 mph on water and 70 mph on land. IAOC history The same FAQ later gives about 70 mph on land and about 6 knots (7 mph) in the water, ‘in spite of’ what some early adverts claimed. IAOC FAQ
MythIt was the first amphibious car.
FactAmphibious cars are almost as old as the car: Der Spiegel dates the first, the Magrelen Amphibium, to Denmark in 1899. Der Spiegel, 2006 The US National Park Service calls the Amphicar the only civilian amphibious passenger car ever to be mass produced, built in Germany from 1961 to 1968. National Park Service
MythYou could stop it in the water with the brakes.
FactAfloat, the brakes do nothing: you stop the way any boat does, by putting the propellers into reverse. IAOC FAQ Der Spiegel puts it more bluntly: no stamp on the brake pedal, however brave, will stop an Amphicar in the water. Der Spiegel, 2009
MythAmphicars leaked so badly that they sank.
FactIn TIME’s 2007 list of the 50 worst cars, Dan Neil wrote that it was not particularly watertight, and that its flotation depended on whether the bilge pump could keep up with the leaks. TIME Can one sink? Yes, says the owners’ club, like any boat that takes on more water than it weighs; but it says that is not common, and that the cars are very seaworthy despite their early bad press. IAOC FAQ The Berlin-Brandenburg business archive describes the bilge pump as there to pump out the ‘little water’ that usually got in. Berlin-Brandenburg business archive
MythHans Trippel designed the gullwing doors of the Mercedes 300 SL.
FactHemmings calls him ‘the designer of the gullwing doors found on the Mercedes-Benz 300SL’. Hemmings Backfire News is more cautious, saying he ‘eventually’ contributed to the 300SL’s gullwing doors. Backfire News
MythIt was an American car.
FactHagerty’s price guide calls the backers ‘the American Quandt Group’. Hagerty price guide Der Spiegel says the Amphicar came out of Trippel’s partnership with the industrialist Harald Quandt, and was built in Berlin and Lübeck. Der Spiegel, 2009 The Lane Motor Museum says 3,046 of the 3,878 went to the US and the rest were sold in Europe. Lane Motor Museum
MythPresident Johnson drove his cabinet into a lake.
FactThe ClassicCars.com Journal says it ‘has even been reported’ that he played the trick on cabinet members, without saying where. ClassicCars.com Journal His aide Joseph A. Califano Jr. recalled riding in the back with a secretary, Vicky McCammon, beside the President: at a steep slope by a lake the car rolled towards the water, and Johnson shouted that the brakes had failed and they were going under. National Park Service
MythIt was built from 1961 to 1968.
FactHagerty UK says production, which began at the end of 1960, was stopped within three years, but so much stock had been built that the last cars were not built and sold until 1968. Hagerty UK Old Cars Weekly says the cars left the factory with no year on the VIN plate; the dealer stamped the year when he sold one, so a car built two years earlier could be sold as new. Old Cars Weekly It says the last cars were probably built in 1965 or 1966, though that cannot be verified, and that a few registered as 1968 models give the ‘last production year’. Old Cars Weekly
MythIt crossed the Channel with ease.
FactIt adds that two English cars tried three years later, and that one took in water halfway and had to be towed, the trip taking more than seven hours. Der Spiegel, 2006 One car’s bilge pump clogged with debris, its engine stalled when the electrics flooded, and the other car towed it; the towing car needed refuelling at sea. Hemmings
MythThe critics loved it.
FactCar and Driver, as quoted by Hagerty, called the ride billowy and wobbling, the steering vague, and said the brakes ‘required the strength of Hercules’. Hagerty price guide Neil also allowed that it was reasonably agile on land and fairly manoeuvrable on water, if painfully slow. TIME
President Johnson’s lake trick
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Amphicar was Lagoon Blue, and he liked surprising unsuspecting guests with it. National Park Service
The story is told many ways. The one first-hand account we found comes from Johnson’s aide Joseph Califano, as quoted by the National Park Service.
His aide Joseph A. Califano Jr. recalled riding in the back with a secretary, Vicky McCammon, beside the President: at a steep slope by a lake the car rolled towards the water, and Johnson shouted that the brakes had failed and they were going under. National Park Service
Califano started to climb out before the car levelled and he realised it was an Amphicar; Johnson teased him all evening for trying to save his own skin. National Park Service
A Texas Hill Country local history says one of Johnson’s favourite jokes was to fake a brake failure and drive guests into Lake LBJ. Texas Hill Country
The ClassicCars.com Journal says it ‘has even been reported’ that he played the trick on cabinet members, without saying where. ClassicCars.com Journal
Hagerty says simply that Johnson liked to bob around the lake on his Texas ranch. Hagerty, 2020
Where and when?
The US National Archives dates a photo of Johnson steering his Amphicar into a lake to 11 April 1965, and places it at his ranch in Stonewall, Texas. US National Archives
Lisa Waller Rogers, working from the LBJ Library’s photo record and the President’s daily diary, places that ride on 10 April 1965 at the Haywood Ranch near Kingsland, on what was then Granite Shoals Lake, with Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Paul Glynn aboard. Lisa Waller Rogers
Granite Shoals Lake was renamed Lake LBJ in 1965, at the request of Kingsland’s chamber of commerce. Texas Hill Country
The photo’s date and place: sources differ
- The US National Archives dates a photo of Johnson steering his Amphicar into a lake to 11 April 1965, and places it at his ranch in Stonewall, Texas. US National Archives
- Lisa Waller Rogers, working from the LBJ Library’s photo record and the President’s daily diary, places that ride on 10 April 1965 at the Haywood Ranch near Kingsland, on what was then Granite Shoals Lake, with Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Paul Glynn aboard. Lisa Waller Rogers
The two dates are a day apart and the places are two different ranches, so one record may have the wrong ranch or the wrong day. The LBJ Library’s photo record and the President’s daily diary are the more detailed source, so we lean towards 10 April at the Haywood Ranch. Califano’s story does not give a date, so it may have been a different ride.
We could not find any first-hand source for the claim that Johnson played the trick on cabinet members. It may be true, but it rests on “it has been reported”. What the sources do agree on is that he liked to fake a brake failure and drive guests into the water, and that he enjoyed their reaction.
His car is on display at the LBJ Ranch, now part of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park. ClassicCars.com Journal
Johnson’s ownership did not seem to help sales, Hagerty says. Hagerty, 2016
The Mercedes gullwing
Hagerty and Hemmings both credit Trippel with the gullwing doors of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL. Hagerty, 2020
Hemmings calls him ‘the designer of the gullwing doors found on the Mercedes-Benz 300SL’. Hemmings
Backfire News is more cautious, saying he ‘eventually’ contributed to the 300SL’s gullwing doors. Backfire News
We found no Mercedes-Benz source that credits Trippel with the 300 SL’s doors, and the more careful account says only that he contributed. Treat it as unproven.
What the name means
Every source agrees the 7 is for the water and the 70 is for the road, in miles per hour on land. Whether the 7 was knots or miles per hour depends on who you read: see the on the water page for all thirteen versions.