August 31, 2007
Exotic and German
In my profession, I see odd vehicles on the highway, from time to time. Oddly enough, the odder the vehicle, the less often I see one of its type. A Ferrari will pop up, a couple of times a year. I followed a Maserati, once, in Buffalo. That, though, is the usual sort of exotic car.
Recently finding myself in Fairport, I noted a strange car traveling in the other direction. Some sort of German military vehicle? No, not quite, I decided. Then it hit me (figuratively speaking), what it must be, unlikely though it seemed... and a look at the tail of the car as it passed confirmed...
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It was an Amphicar, that ultra-rare floating car from the 1960's, as the twin propellers made undeniable.
Looking it up in Wikipedia, I see that it is, indeed, German. "Designed by Hanns Trippel, creator of the war-time Schwimmwagen." Browsing to the Volkswagen Schwimmwagen, I found that it was a an amphibious military vehicle, so the aesthetic feel of a German jeep was, perhaps, not entirely inappropriate. We're not used to seeing civilian amphibious vehicles, which no doubt contributed to such thoughts.
Apparently, fewer than 4,000 Amphicars were produced, and I am highly confident that I had not previously seen one in person. You might ask, then, how I knew what it was. Well, back in the misty mists of history (the latter half of the 1980's), I had regular access to automotive performance magazines such as Hot Rod and Car Craft. One or the other of these publications had a tiny article, giving a capsule history of the Amphicar, with a couple of black-and-white photos. I was reminded of its existence, several years ago, by an appearance in a television commercial for something utterly unrelated, like Pizza Hut, or something.
The phrase "you don't see that every day" may be trite, but it is accurate.