Wang Hongjun amphibious car

The Wang Hongjun amphibious car was designed and built over ten years by Wang Hongjun, owner of a motorcycle repair shop in Qian'an City, Hebei Province, in northern China. In May 2002 he demonstrated it to reporters from the Xinhua news agency at a reservoir near the city.

Design and testing

The car has a streamlined body and weighs about 1.7 tonnes. Wang made most of the parts himself, buying in only the engine, transmission and wheels. It floats thanks to a double-skinned chassis with air pockets and is driven in the water by a propeller under the rear. During the demonstration it reached 120 km/h on land in just over ten seconds - Wang claimed 180-190 km/h would be possible on a good road - and cruised for nearly an hour at about 50 km/h on the deep reservoir. He said he had carried out about a dozen similar tests.

Aftermath

Wang held two patents on the car but could not afford to apply for six more. He reportedly turned down an offer of one million yuan for it, hoped it might one day be sold to motoring enthusiasts, and complained that bureaucracy prevented further road testing. He wanted to try it on the Yellow River, the Yangtze or even the sea.

The folder also holds a short 2008 blog item about a yellow Chinese amphibious car with gullwing doors and numerous fins and propellers, said to be built on a Volkswagen Santana frame; it is not clear whether this is the same vehicle.