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Amphibious Encyclopedia · Amphibious cars

Hobbycar B612

The Hobbycar B612 is a French four-seat amphibious car with a mid-mounted Peugeot diesel engine and twin water jets, designed by François Wardavoir and built by Hobbycar at Thenay, France [1][6]. Shown at the 1992 Paris Motor Show, it was expensive and sold poorly, and only about 50 to 60 were made before the company closed in 1996 [1][2][3].

  • Amphibious cars
  • 1992 to 1996
  • France

History

Hobbycar was the project of French designer and engineer François Wardavoir, working with a well-funded partner, Serge Desmarais [1][2]. Wardavoir filed a patent for an amphibious car chassis with a French priority date of 5 October 1992, and it was published as a European application in 1994 in the name of Hobbycar S.A. [6]. The company built a purpose-built factory at Thenay, about 200 km (125 mi) south of Paris [2]. The Lane Motor Museum puts its cost at $25 million, while Hagerty gives £20 million [1][4]. In the early 1990s the company employed about 35 people in research and development, 45 in assembly and paint and 12 in sales and marketing [2].

The B612 was shown at the 1992 Paris Motor Show [1][4]. It cost 280,000 French francs, about $56,000, which the Lane Motor Museum compares with the price of two contemporary Jaguar or BMW sedans [1]. Sales were weak. The Lane Motor Museum and Hagerty give production as 52 cars, while the auction house Artcurial says about 60 were made [1][3][4]. The factory went into receivership, and its vehicles and contents were auctioned in late 1996 [2]. Artcurial has described one car that was first sold new in 2002, after the company's bankruptcy [3].

According to the Lane Motor Museum, Hobbycar produced three models. The first two were amphibious. The third, the Passport, was an all-wheel-drive multipurpose road vehicle with a 204 hp turbocharged Opel Calibra engine, and only a few were completed [2].

Design and how it works

Wardavoir's chassis design places the main structure inside a watertight hull, with structural parts reaching outside it [6]. A 1.9 liter Peugeot four-cylinder diesel of 92 hp is mounted crosswise in the middle of the car [1][3]. On land it drives all four wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox. In water the same engine drives two water jets of 150 kg (330 lb) thrust each, steered with a joystick inside the car [1][5]. Hagerty reports that the car used Citroën hydropneumatic suspension [4].

The B612 seats four, and three of the seats can be removed [1]. Its freeboard, the height of the hull sides above the waterline, is only about 10 cm (4 in) [1]. Top speed on land is 140 km/h (87 mph) [1].

Surviving cars

Artcurial reported that fewer than 20 B612s were in working order in France [3]. The Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, owns a 1992 B612. On 11 August 2018, during a members' amphibious ride event, it took on water and sank in Percy Priest Lake. Everyone aboard reached shore unhurt [5]. A dive team found it about 25 ft (7.6 m) down, and it was pulled out the following Tuesday. The museum's mechanic believed a faulty bilge pump caused the sinking [5].

Sources

  1. Hobbycar B612 (amphibious) - 1992, Lane Motor Museum. www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/hobbycar-b612-amphibious-1992
  2. Hobbycar Passport - 1994, Lane Motor Museum. www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/hobbycar-passport-1994
  3. Lot 71: 2002 Hobbycar B612, Artcurial. www.artcurial.com/ventes/4164/lots/71-a
  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. Lane Motor Museum Retrieves Sunken Amphibious Car from Tennessee Lake, The Drive (Talon Homer) (2018-08-20). thedrive.com/news/22922/lane-motor-museum-retrieves-sunken-amphibious-car-from-tennessee-lake
  6. EP 0592274 A1: Châssis de véhicule automobile amphibie et véhicule comportant un tel châssis, European Patent Office (1994-04-13). data.epo.org/publication-server/rest/v1.2/patents/EP0592274NWA1/document.pdf

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

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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.

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