WaterCar
AdventureBuildSignature
Contact UsBuy Now

Amphibious Encyclopedia · Amphibious cars

Amphicar 770

The Amphicar 770 is a small German convertible that can be driven on roads and steered through water like a boat. Designed by Hans Trippel and backed by the Quandt Group, it was launched in 1961 and sold mainly in the United States, with 3,878 built by the most widely cited count [1][2][3]. The National Park Service describes it as the only civilian amphibious passenger car ever mass-produced [6].

  • Amphibious cars
  • 1961 to 1968
  • West Germany

History

Hans Trippel, a German engineer, had worked on amphibious vehicles since the 1930s, and his four-wheel-drive SG6 amphibian existed by 1934 [3]. His postwar prototype, the Eurocar Alligator, was shown at the 1959 Geneva motor show with a 948 cc Austin A35 engine [3]. With backing from the Quandt Group, the production car was launched as the Model 770 at the 1961 New York Auto Show [4]. It was built at Lübeck and at Berlin-Borsigwalde in West Germany [1].

Trippel hoped to sell 20,000 cars a year, but output fell far short [3]. The most widely cited total is 3,878 cars, of which 97 were right-hand drive, mainly for Britain [1][3]. Other totals appear in print, including 3,770 [7]. At launch the car cost about DM 10,000 in Germany, roughly twice the price of a Volkswagen Beetle [3].

Sources disagree on when production ended. Wikipedia states that production stopped in 1965 and that cars from stock were marketed until 1968 [1], while the owners club gives the build years as 1961 to 1968 [2]. Old Cars Weekly notes that the last cars were probably built in 1965 or 1966, and that dealers stamped the model year when a car was sold, so some cars carry later model years than their build dates [8].

Sales in the United States

The United States was the main market. The International Amphicar Owners Club (IAOC) reports that 3,046 Amphicars were imported into the US between 1961 and 1967, about 90 percent of all sales, at prices between $2,800 and $3,300 depending on the year [2]. Hagerty also puts the American share at about 90 percent [3].

No 1968 model-year cars were imported directly, because new US federal emissions and safety rules took effect that year, a serious financial blow for the importer [2][3]. After the factory closed, the remaining parts stock was bought by Hugh Gordon of Santa Fe Springs, California, whose business has remained a main parts source for owners [2].

The 1965 English Channel crossing

On 16 September 1965, two Amphicars carrying four men left London, entered the sea at Dover and set out for Calais on their way to the Frankfurt Motor Show [5]. Hagerty reports that the wind was force 3 at the start and rose to force 6 in mid-Channel [3]. About halfway across, a blocked bilge pump let one car flood, and the other towed it the rest of the way to France [3][5]. The crossing took about seven hours, and the cars reached the Frankfurt show on 17 September [5].

Design and how it works

The engine sits at the rear. It is a 1,147 cc four-cylinder from the British Triumph Herald, rated at 43 hp by the owners club, while other sources give 38 or 39 bhp [1][2][3]. In the water the engine drives two propellers mounted under the rear bumper, and the front wheels steer, acting as rudders [1][2]. A 1963 Los Angeles Times road test, as summarized by Slate, found the change from road to water simple: the driver entered the water, engaged the propellers and kept steering with the wheel [7].

Top speed is about 70 mph (113 km/h) on land [2][3]. On water the figure is usually given as 7 knots (8 mph, 13 km/h), while the owners club states 7 mph (11 km/h) and explains the model number 770 as 7 on water and 70 on land [1][2][3]. Keeping the car afloat depended on its seals and bilge pump. Writing for Time in 2007, Dan Neil judged that its buoyancy depended on the pump keeping pace with leaks [7].

Lyndon B. Johnson's Amphicar

President Lyndon B. Johnson kept an Amphicar at his Texas ranch, where he used it on the lake [4][6]. His car was lagoon blue, one of four colors offered [6]. Johnson liked to surprise guests with it. In an account by his aide Joseph A. Califano Jr., retold by the National Park Service, Johnson drove toward the edge of the lake shouting that the brakes had failed, and the car rolled into the water and floated before Califano realized it was amphibious [6][7]. Johnson laughed and teased him about it for the rest of the evening [6]. A White House photograph from April 1965 shows Johnson driving the car on the water with guests [7].

Clubs and the car today

Owners meet at gatherings called swim-ins, where they drive their cars into lakes together [1][7]. The IAOC holds its national swim-in at Celina, Ohio, on Grand Lake St. Marys, a site chosen partly because it lies close to the geographic center of the club's members [8]. In July 2018 the club marked 50 years since the last production model year there and hoped for 75 to 100 cars [8]. At the July 2026 Celina Lake Festival, about 50 Amphicars took part in the club's 28th year at the event [9].

Amphicars also still carry the public. Since 2015 a restaurant at Disney Springs in Florida has offered rides on its lake in eight re-engineered Amphicars [1].

Sources

  1. Amphicar, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphicar
  2. History of the Amphicar, International Amphicar Owners Club. www.amphicar.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=719899&module_id=365743
  3. Cars That Time Forgot: Amphicar 770, Hagerty UK (Richard Dredge) (2023-03-06). www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/cars-that-time-forgot-amphicar-770
  4. 6 amphibious cars to whet your aquatic appetite, Hagerty UK (Nik Berg) (2020-09-15). www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/6-amphibious-cars-to-whet-your-aquatic-appetite
  5. Amphibious cars arrive in Frankfurt after sailing across the English Channel, Sky HISTORY. www.history.co.uk/this-day-in-history/17-september/amphibious-cars-arrive-in-frankfurt-after-sailing-across-the
  6. Presidential Vehicles, National Park Service, Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park. www.nps.gov/lyjo/learn/historyculture/presidentialvehicles.htm
  7. When LBJ Drove on Water, Slate (Rebecca Onion) (2013-03-06). www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/03/06/photo_lyndon_johnson_drives_in_a_lake_in_his_amphicar.html
  8. Amphicar Owners Club set 50th Anniversary Swim-in, Old Cars Weekly (2018-02-27). www.oldcarsweekly.com/news/international-amphicar-owners-club-50th-anniversary-swim
  9. Liberty on the Lake, The Daily Standard (Celina, Ohio) (2026-07-25). dailystandard.com/archive/2026-07-25/stories/55278/liberty-on-the-lake

Last reviewed November 2026. Spotted something to correct or add? Tell us and include a source.

About the Amphibious Encyclopedia

WaterCar has designed and built amphibious vehicles in Southern California for more than 25 years. We keep this encyclopedia so anyone curious about vehicles that cross between land and water has one place to start, with the sources listed for every fact.

Browse all entries → · The WaterCar machines → · How a WaterCar works →