Boyink! - Spring Forward on the Web

When I was a kid we used to have a dune buggy, and spent may weekends at the Silver Lake Sand Dunes here in Michigan.  One of the things we used to see when we went there was one of the ‘60s-era “Amphicars” - the amphibious cars. If you haven’t ever seen one of these, here’s a link to the Amphicar Owner’s Website which has a pretty good FAQ.  To a young boy the idea of driving a car in to the water then zooming off was just pure magic.  Ever since that time I’ve always wanted to ride in one.

Today I got that chance—there was a local show of them where 5 of the cars showed up, and we were suprised to hear the owners were taking turns giving out rides.

Did we want to?  You bet!  I think I was just as excited as my two kids were.

We got a ride in a “Regatta Red” version owned by Marc of Dearborn MI - a super nice guy who patiently answered our questions about the car—which I’m sure were the same basic questions as everyone else had asked. I do have to say - that few seconds of approaching the boat launch in a car and not stopping just plain felt wrong - but also as fun as I ever imagined.

I took a few video clips and put them up on YouTube for your enjoyment:

Comments are closed, but you can read the comments other people left.

1. Olivia on September 08, 2007

   Purrrr-itty nifty!

2. salguod on September 10, 2007

   Cool stuff indeed.

3. Erwin Heiser on September 11, 2007

   I can really relate to this as when I was growing up we had an action series on Belgian TV called Captain Zeppos in which the eponymous hero drove around in an amphicar.
   http://www.oldtimersweb.be/jansartikelen/amphicar.htm

   Back in the late 60’s it was just magic seeing the captain go offroad straight into the river and give chase to the bad guys. :)

4. Jim Pannell on October 08, 2007

   Unbelievably cool! I’m so envious ;-)

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