Caterpillar Track Motorcycle

February 1938:

            

                                                        

            

                                                        

 

           

Named the “tractor-cycle” by the inventor, J. Lehaitre, the vehicle is said to be superior to an ordinary motorcycle in its ability to climb steep and rough grades, although its speed on level ground is limited to about 25 m.p.h. Fitted with a machine gun, the cycle could be used by dispatch riders or entire military units to travel over shell-torn terrain.”

- Modern Mechanix
                       

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Police “catwalk car” in Holland Tunnel, New York

1954:

 

PRES. LYNDON B JOHNSONS AMPHI CAR

 

“President Lyndon B. Johnson was known as an owner of an Amphicar. Apparently he liked to scare new visitors to his ranch by driving them downhill in his Amphicar directly into his property’s lake, all the while shouting that the brakes had broken”

The Amphibious Car that lives on the Seine, Paris

  The shiny red vintage car that sits proudly on the back of a houseboat in Paris, is a sight well known to Parisians that take time out from the bustling boulevards to walk along the banks of the river Seine. This evening I saw it again, for the umpteenth time and finally, it clicked. How could I have missed it? Ofcourse! This was the same car captured by LIFE magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt crossing the Seine in 1963– the Amphicar!

 

 

   A little further digging (why has it taken me so long?) and a website dedicated to Amphicars had the scoop from a Paris resident who is friends with the owner:

The amphicar in Paris is owned by Undersea Architect and visionary Jacques Rougerie. Its a 1964 and he has had it for about 15 years.
It was restored in France, with all of the parts being purchased from Hugh Gordon in California. Jacques and I have cruised the Champs-Elysee many times in it, but Ive yet to take it in the Seine. It has some very unique cleats above the front wheel wells. I have no idea where they came from, but they look great.
The boat that it sits on is a Pineche, or French river barge that has been converted to his home and office. Inside, he has an aquarium full of lake sturgeon which you can actually dive into and hang out in a bell. The rest of Jaques daily life is equally as interesting.

I wonder if this is the exact same car in Eisenstaedt’s photograph. Amphicars are known to be prone to rust but a modern paint job and some wax would have fixed that.

Let’s find out more about the Amphicars…

 

  They were manufactured in Berlin from 1962 to 1967 and around 4500 were produced, of which at least 3700 models were sent to the US. Up to 500 amphicars are still in regular use today; almost 90 cars still in Europe.

Amphicar was and still is the only non-military amphibious vehicle ever put into production on a commercial basis. The many rules and regulations for road and amphibious vehicles make it very unlikely that another one will ever be produced commercially.

Amphicar is capable of over 70mph on road and 8 knots on water. It’s comfortable enough to drive 500 miles a day and road behavior is similar to a good 1960s European saloon car or a 1980s American car.

 

 

  It cost around $5m to design in the late 1950′s and is totally watertight. Two rubber strips seal the doors like the seal on a refrigerator. The engine is in the rear, it is the same as used in the Triumph Herald, 1147cc, 43HP and the transmission drives the rear wheels through a unique land/water gearbox. It steers in water using the front wheels.

Amphicar unfortunately failed and the company later went belly up because it was too expensive when first-hand and the marketing was all wrong. Amphicar didn’t even employ marketing staff, only engineers. However, it is capable of some serious sea crossings, for example from Africa to Spain, San Diego to Catalina Island and England to France (3 times, once in a force 6 gale).

 

  The last two companies to attempt production of amphibious vehicles were Hobbycar of France and AmphiRanger of Germany. The production always was small scale / build to order but the factories finally closed in 1996

When they go on the market, these vehicles can fetch up to $100K today. Ofcourse, you would need two licences, one for land and one for water.

Here is a stunning example of an Amphicar that sold recently…

 

 

Thanks to Amphicars.com for enlightening us on this automotive amphibious

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The Cutest & Tiniest Cars Ever Made

BMW Isetta, 1957

  It’s said to be the very best microcar of its time. BMW teamed up with Milan-based refrigerator company, Iso Spa of all things on this one, thus the name “Isetta”, meaning “little Iso”. Probably the most unusual thing about it is the fact that you entered the car via the front windscreen!
 

The Messerschmitt, 1960

  This is a three-wheeled German car and it was made by an aircraft engineer which might explain why this little thing looks more like a cockpit on an old fighter jet.

 

1959 Autobianchi Bianchina 500

Produced until 1970, this little one was originally equipped with the smallest Fiat engine.

Goggomobil, 1959

Less than 67,000 of these German beauties (it’s just 10 feet long) were manufactured between 1957 and 1969 and manage a top speed of only 52 mph. It’s only ten feet long and powered by a two-stroke, two-cylinder engine.
 

More here

1960 Goggomobil T-300

And the following year came the T-300 in all its tiny glory. If you’re lucky, you could find one on Ebay in the range of $5000 to $8000.

View more here

 

 

Fiat Marine “Eden Rock” 1958

This was actually a prototype but no less amazing! With a a wooden-slat wraparound bench in the rear, this would be perfect for a weekend seaside break.

FIAT 600 Multipla

   Sorry for the cheesy picture but may I present to you the Fiat Multipla– the mini minivan.  It was widely used as a taxi in many parts of Italy but moreso as a family car in other parts of Europe (you can see just how many people it could fit in the image below). It reached a top speed of 57.1 mph (91.9 km/h) and could accelerate from 0-50 mph (80 km/h) in 43.0 seconds.

Fiat ‘Jolly’

With all the Italian seaside resorts of Italy, beach buggy conversions of regular became somewhat of a trade. A little company called Ghia (now owned by Ford) specialized in these conversions and was chosen to create who the ‘Jolly’ conversions on Fiat’s 500, 600, Multipla (as seen in the previous model) and Giardiniera
platforms. 

Known at home as “La Spiaggina”, literally meaning  ”beach-ette”, the Fiat beach-buggy was marketed worldwide as the Jolly, meaning “joker” in Italian. They were available in pink, coral, white, pale yellow and sky blue.   Considered a success, the model had a healthy run from 1958 to 1966.
 

More via here

 

 

 

The Mini Mini

This is not an official Mini model but the Mini Mini has become a bit of a trend amongst Mini enthusiasts.  It’s a simple concept – take one classic Mini, remove the roof, cut into 3 sections widthwise, thow away the middle and weld the front to the back!
 

and here’s another customized mini– the Mini Pick-up truck!

More info via here

The Volkwagen Nano Series

Piaggio Ape Calessino

The Ape Calessino is a limited edition with only 999 of these vehicles available in the world. Designed during the economic boom of the 1950/1960’s, a period which was called La Dolce Vita, the Ape Calessino was extremely fashionable and embodied the very essence of an Italian holiday. Today I’ve seen them popping up around Paris as part of a special taxi service.
 

More info via here

Vespa 400

An adorable town car made in France from 1957-1961. I wish they would bring these back!

More via here 

 

 

 

Fuldamobil

It looks suspiciously like Mr. Bean’s car but I can’t say for sure! Manufactured from 1950 to 1969, the original design was conceived by Norbert Stevenson, a freelance-journalist for a very simple three-wheeled car with room for two people inside. It ended up being pretty popular and was constructed in four different continents.
 

More via here

 

 

 

Nissan Figaro

   Only 20,000 models went into production in Tokyo in 1991 and then came back into fashion a few years ago when they began being imported en masse to Europe.
 

The Lost Three-Wheeled Dymaxion

 

  It was voted one of the 50 worst cars of all time and deemed ‘unworkable’– but I think it looks pretty rad if you ask me, as long as you don’t actually try to drive it or anything. It resembles a torpedo but its fastest documented speed was only 90 miles per hour (although the inventor of course maintained it could reach up to 120 mph). Designed as a prototype in 1933 by American inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller, considered one of the 20th century’s greatest nut jobs, the vehicle’s body was an unusual teardrop shape and measured in at 20 feet long (over 6 metres).

 

  But the Dymaxion was damned from the get go when the prototype debuted at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and crashed, killing the driver even though he was wearing a seatbelt, and badly injuring two passengers. The accident saw the vehicle roll over and with only a canvas roof, the prototype offered very little crash protection. Perhaps they would need to rethink a few things before

 

  The true cause of the accident was never determined, while Fuller reported that the accident was due to the actions of another vehicle that had been following closely, of course. Unsurprisingly, the Dymaxion project was scrapped pretty quickly, although its beautiful design did heavily influence several subsequent automobile designs, including the iconic Fiat 600 Multipla, picture below.

 

Fiat 600 Multipla

     Of the three original prototype Dymaxions produced, one was badly damaged, another is on display at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada and the third changed hands so many times it was lost and presumed scrapped by the 1950s. In 2010 architect Sir Norman Foster recreated the car, producing the last Dymaxion in the world.

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