Waterlogged: 1967 Amphicar 770
Back in February, Josh showed us an Amphicar that looked like the Rock of Gibraltar compared to this one. This 1967 Amphicar is in Chester, New Hampshire and is currently listed on eBay with, believe it or not, two bids! The current top bid is $510 and clearly someone sees something here that’s worth about $500 more than I do. I sure love these cars, and maybe with several months of hard work and several pounds of welding rods someone could make this one watertight again.
That there is even $10 worth of parts here is beyond me, but someone must need a nice lens cover or a trim piece. The Amphicar was built between 1961 and 1968 and they only made 3,878 of them so they are rare. The “770” means 7 mph on water and 70 mph on land. Amphicars had some wacky owners!
I wonder if this car could possibly be brought back to life? I guess that’s a dumb question, anything can be restored. But, unless a person was going to do 90% of the work themselves this one would be upside down, price-wise, in a hurry.
It looks pretty good in here, a few hours and you should be.. er.. Well, yeah, unless a person needs parts, this one may be past the point of ever being on either the road or the water again. 3,046 of these wheel-to-water wonders were imported into the US between 1961 and 1967. This one is Fjord Green, probably my favorite color for this car. These were all 4-speed cars, but in the water they had forward and reverse.
And, they all had 1147cc Triumph Herald engines with around 43 hp. You’ve probably all heard the saying that these cars weren’t the best on the road or in the water, that they tried to do both and didn’t accomplish either too well. The US accounted for most of the sales for these cars and when the DOT and EPA enacted new regulations for 1968 the Amphicar was doomed. The company sunk in 1968. I’ve never ridden in one either on land or in the water, but like any car nut I’ve wanted one for years. Have you ever been in an Amphicar?
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Comments
How many car nuts does it take to bail water in this.
Call Barret Jackson 100 large easy.
Sombody needs to make a Bondo song.
“I’m going for a swim with James Bond oh.”
“Your bullits will just bounce off Mr Bond oh”
With the way these have taken off, price-wise, the bidding starts at $40g’s. This is what happened to a lot of these. Serious rusters. If only they were fiberglass. This doesn’t even qualify as an “ambitious” restoration. Never saw the attraction in these, when you could have a boat , like the Cadillac boat ( and a car to pull it) for so much less. I suppose there are a lot of good parts there for someone, ( like that special housing or gear that’s not made anymore)
Yes, taking on this restoration project you’d soon be underwater…..
If you really want a ride in one of these, they have a fleet of them at Disney World in Florida that have a Captain to take you around in the water!
Yeah at the tune of a 20 min ride at the cost of…..$125 bucks!
These are great cars, and if you ever get up here for a visit, I can take you for a swim in ours, or even let you drive it if you want. The owner of this car, Dave, is a really great guy, and while this is in pretty rough condition, with only about 3,000 made, parts are relatively valuable. Although most mechanical parts are still readily available from Gordons Imports, who bought out all of the original stock from the manufacturer, larger components like the land/water transmission are very difficult to obtain and quite valuable. So a decent tranny alone would be worth between $2,000 and $3,600 depending on condition. I suspect that this is why the bidding is more than you would have expected.
Where is UP HERE? I would LOVE a ride in one!! Steven from Wisconsin!
Thanks for explaining it to the uninitiated Chas. That “waterproofed” trans could be in salvageable shape under this mess. Steering wheel is fixable too.
Remove the transmission, fold along the waterline, reattach the steel chain to it, and toss this boat anchor back in the lake it came out of.
the steering wheel looked salvageable.
Seems body parts, maybe bodies are available.. I’d love one, but bidding is now up over $1200… oh well.
There are still axles, engine block, prop shafts, steering components and other stuff that has value in addition to the transmission, as well as guages, trim, and controls.
Regrettably, the ad says that the transmission is missing.
Actually the photo of that Amphicar towing the camper trailer in the water in your “Wacky” link above is not so crazy. There was a waterproof, floatable camper trailer produced specifically for use with the Amphicar, and these are extremely rare today. I saw an Amphicar owner in Germany who had one attached to his Amphicar and he took it into the Seine River when we attend the German Amphicar meet almost ten years ago!
https://wewastetime.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/amphicar-770-suleica-f430-caravan-1967.jpg
Desperately needed parts car.. That’s all it is..
I live in NH and I am 99% sure I have been at that location. He owns 37 of them along with 28 hidden acres of boats, cars, busses, airplane , you name it.
Saw one sink when I was a kid. Drove off the boat ramp hit a ferry wake and sunk like a stone. I think will sell just for the serial number plate.
Cool photo of the girls and the camper. I have been told they could only cruise a couple of knots an hour. Hard to believe they could pull a camper.
It’s too bad that it’s so far gone….I have a 1961 Triumph Herald 948cc, which as I understand was the base on which the first Amphicars were modeled upon. I got to see the Amphicar fleet down in Florida, at Downtown Disney. Beautiful. And plus I got to see an Amphicar driving through Okeechobee Florida that was in a private collection. I must say, I was very envious!
A local radio station in Nanticoke, PA had one in the 1960’s. I wonder whatever happened to this one.
My brother has one the same color. The first time I drove it into the water was a little unsettling. They are bad boats and worse cars but a ton of fun! If you want to see a bunch of them and watch the owners “splash” into the water check out the Florida Amphi “swim in” each March at Lake Dora. And if you are nice some owners will take you for a ride free, no crazy Disney prices!
I wonder if Dave still has the “Amphisine”, one of these with a 4 foot “stretch” in the middle. He also had a pristine Yugo with very low mileage, stuffed in an aluminum-bodied bread truck and had started a small fleet of homemade bio-diesel powered VW Jettas. Very interesting chap with a lot of nifty ideas.
yard art
Glad you want a ride. I had 3. They all rusted. They went 12 kph. Exactly. They took 50to 52 seconds to reach 100 kph. The dutton Reef is much better, but even slower. Looks like a real catamaran and is fibreglas.