Wheel House Floating

If the flying cars we've been talking about recently appeared at the same time as the birth of the aircraft, the first amphibia machines that can move on land and on the ground appeared when neither Wright brothers nor Carl Bentz were even in the project! More specifically, at the end of the 18th century. And the first self-propelled amphibia, driven by a ferry engine, was created in 1805 by the American inventor, Oliver Evans, who just wheeled a floating excavator to deepen the bottom.

But the main push in the direction of the amphibian cars, as often happens, has been given by the military. And one of the firstborns here was the Army Volkswagen Type 166 Schwimmwagen of 1940. The military quickly assessed all the advantages of floating headquarters machines and transporters, then reached all possible geologists. ♪ ♪ But today, we will not recall military vehicles and all the water-floating equipment, but civilian amphibia cars, most of which were made purely for entertainment. ♪

The 4th West German convertible Amphicar 770 is now the only civilian automobile in history that has been produced in a more or less mass fashion. Created a floating car by a German-sampagne designer, Hans Trippel, who started designing amphibia before the Second World War. By the way, he designed it for Mercedes-Benz 300 SL his famous doors, "The Chicken Rail."

The production of Amphicar 770 began in 1961 at the German Quandt Group plant, but almost all cars went to US exports, for which the amphibia was established. By the way, one of those cars even got himself the then President of America, Lindon Johnson.

The interior and backward Amficard, of course, was less sophisticated because it was supposed to swim, not paint. On the water, he traveled at the expense of a water-resistant body and two fucking rifles in the back, and turned the vessel at the front wheels. At the same time, the lower edge of the doors was lower than the waterway, which increased comfort but required constant monitoring of the door seals. And in case of this heating, there was a watermelon. Amphibia was equipped with 1, 1-litre motor from a British Triumph Herald 1200 car stationed up to 43 ls and working in a couple with a 4-speed Mechanica. On water, the engine speeded at about 11 km/h and on the highway at 112 km/h.