Amphicar 770

The Amphicar 770 is the only amphibious passenger car ever built in series for ordinary private buyers. Designed by Hans Trippel and built by the Quandt Group at Lübeck and Berlin-Borsigwalde, roughly 3,878 were completed between 1961 and 1965, with sales continuing from stock until 1968.

The name encodes its performance: 7 knots on water, 70 mph on land.

Design

The hull is a welded steel monocoque with the doors sealed by rubber gaskets and secured with an over-centre latch. Power comes from a rear-mounted Triumph Herald 1147 cc engine driving the rear wheels on land, and in water a pair of nylon propellers beneath the rear bumper, engaged through a second gearbox. The front wheels steer in both elements — there is no rudder.

A bilge pump was fitted, and a degree of leakage was accepted as normal rather than treated as a fault. Owners' lore holds that the car is best thought of as a boat that happens to be road-legal.

Reception and legacy

Contemporary reviewers noted that it was a modest car and a modest boat, but that nothing else did both. Most production went to the United States, where the novelty found a market that Europe did not provide. Survivors are now valuable, well supported by an active owners' community, and the car remains by far the most recognisable amphibious vehicle ever made.