The car that drove into the lake on purpose

The great idea

Amphibious cars are almost as old as cars, but the US National Park Service calls the Amphicar the only civilian amphibious passenger car ever to be mass produced.

Afloat, two nylon propellers drove it along and the front wheels worked as rudders. It had a rear-mounted Triumph Herald engine, and the anchor, oar and fenders lived in the front boot.

It was designed by Hans Trippel, who had been building amphibious vehicles since the 1930s, and backed by the industrialist Harald Quandt. Trippel had been a Nazi party member since 1930, ran a factory that built arms during the war, and in 1947 a French court sentenced him to five years in prison; he was pardoned after three. The factual site sets this out in full.

What actually happened

Most went to America: the owners’ club gives 3,878 built, with 3,046 imported into the United States. Even the production years are disputed; the factual site’s myths page explains why.

President Lyndon B. Johnson had a Lagoon Blue one, and liked to roll unsuspecting guests towards a lake while shouting that the brakes had failed. Afloat, the brakes do nothing anyway.

Where it went wrong

It lost money. Hemmings says the company and its parent, the Quandt group, lost money on every car sold, and Hagerty UK says the hope had been 20,000 a year.

It was a compromise in both elements. Hagerty says the 21 inches of freeboard meant to keep out a passing speedboat’s wash hurt its handling on the road, and Americans found it too small, too weak and not comfortable enough. By the end it cost nearly double a Beetle.

Then the rules changed. New US rules for 1968 models meant no 1968 Amphicars were imported directly, and with the US taking about 90 per cent of sales, that was a financial disaster. Redesigning a car that lost money, Hemmings says, made no sense.

What changed

The Berlin factory closed for good in 1968, and Gordon Imports in California bought the leftover parts and still supplies owners.

Plenty survive. The owners’ club estimates about 2,000 still exist in some state, and repeats an owners’ guess that about 600 still swim; owners meet at “swim-ins” to take them into the water.

It even inspired a successor of sorts: two Californians, underwhelmed by the Amphicar afloat, designed the jet-driven WaterCar Panther, which reaches 46 mph on water. Johnson’s car is on display at the LBJ Ranch.

The department’s view: a car that is also a boat has two sets of rules to meet, and it only takes one of them to change.