"cletus44 aka Clayton Seams" (cletus44)
08/28/2015 at 10:10 • Filed to: None
10
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"cletus44 aka Clayton Seams" (cletus44)
08/28/2015 at 10:10 • Filed to: None | 10
| 6 |
Smoke pours out of the open engine cover as flames lick the still-sparking starter motor. “That’s OK,” says owner Fred Pierce, “we’ve got lots of fire extinguishers.” It might seem strange for an owner to react to such an emergency so casually, but Pierce and his beloved 1963 Amphicar 770 have been through a lot over the years, including two retrievals from the bottom of the lake bed. A little fire? Nothing they can’t handle.
I’ve been trying to track down an Amphicar to shoot a video on for months. I wasn’t about to let a little gas-fueled fire get in my way. I eventually tracked down Fred Pierce and his lovable teal Amphy. Fred’s father-in-law bought the car new for the very practical reason of shortening his weekend commute to his cottage by being able to take a shortcut across the lake.
The original owner was out on the lake one night enjoying some brews with a friendly police officer when the officer decided he’d like to step out of the car and relieve himself. As he opened the door, water rushed into the car and the poor little Amphicar sank to the bottom. It was eventually retrieved and continues to putter around happily in Lake Ontario. (Despite the odd fire here and there)
Being both a car and a boat means that the Amphicar has some amusing quirks. For example, the blower motor for the heater is also a part of the bilge pump system. The twin props both turn clockwise and this makes left hand turns difficult, but the car loves to turn right. It also requires both a driver’s license and a boating license to operate.
I greatly enjoyed my time on the roads (and water) with the little Amphicar and I wrote a
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
if you’re interested. Though they made about 3,500 of them, only 300 or so remain seaworthy. I really think I need one in my garage...
Sn210
> cletus44 aka Clayton Seams
08/28/2015 at 10:27 |
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So cool! They had a few of these giving tours at Downtown Disney in FL last time I was there. I wish I went on one.
I lol’ed at “that was an expensive pee”
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cletus44 aka Clayton Seams
> Sn210
08/28/2015 at 10:31 |
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Yeah I don’t know if they still do the tours. These silly cars are a perfect fit for Disney haha
valis86
> cletus44 aka Clayton Seams
08/28/2015 at 10:56 |
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“The original owner was out on the lake one night enjoying some brews with a friendly police officer when the officer decided he’d like to steop out of the car and relieve himself.”
This is my kind of
everything;
cop, car, town, person......the whole shebang. What Lake Wobegon would look like if it was populated with my family; none too sharp, but generally good people to have a beer with.
HammerheadFistpunch
> cletus44 aka Clayton Seams
08/28/2015 at 11:28 |
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They were selling one of these at the lake I go to years back for peanuts. My dad and I looked at it and decided we weren’t that kind of crazy and we walked away. Still, could have been fun. Looking back at it now though, his retirement plan to work on cars with his boys didn’t really materialize so it would have just been a burden on us...glad he didn’t buy it.
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cletus44 aka Clayton Seams
> HammerheadFistpunch
08/28/2015 at 11:46 |
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Yeah it’s essentially the cost of maintaining a boat AND a classic car
Stephen the Canuck
> cletus44 aka Clayton Seams
08/29/2015 at 21:20 |
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Is this privately owned? There was one in the Canadian Auto Museum in Oshawa a couple of years ago when I was there, pretty sure it was the same colour too.