Friday, October 24, 2008

The Amphicar - an idea lost in time

I spotted this on www.flickr.com this morning and couldn't help posting it. What a great idea! I remember seeing one of these or a similar model around West Cork many years ago when I was a small boy and fascinated with the idea of car that could go on water. I'm sure they can't have been too safe though.

Still it would be very useful for a Sunday afternoon's boating - no bother with trailers, winches, mooring places or winter storage - just drive off to work with it every day and take a dip at weekends!

This one was photographed at the start of hte Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race in 1971 and is from the collection of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Australia.

According to the entry: - "The Amphicar was a German vehicle manufactured 1960-1968. It was the first commercially produced amphibious car and used a Triumph Herald engine over the rear axle to power the wheels and twin propellors. In the water, the front wheels acted as rudders. The body was steel.

From the collections of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales www.sl.nsw.gov.au


Information about photographic collections of the State Library of New South Wales acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/SimpleSearch.aspx

Persistent url: acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=146252

Uploaded by State Library

No comments: