MY FEEDLY

The Amphicar 770: A Vintage Car That’s Also A Boat

The Amphicar 770 is the most successful civilian amphibious production car of all time, 3,878 were sold between 1960 and 1968 with a few hundred surviving to the modern day thanks to their enthusiastic owners – one of whom was US President Lyndon B. Johnson.

The model name “770” comes from the fact that the Amphicar can do 7 mph on the water and 70 mph own the land – hence 770. Owners like to think of it as “the fastest car on the water and fastest boat on the road.”

Fast Facts – The Amphicar 770

The Amphicar 770 was designed by German engineer Hans Trippel, it’s been described as a descendant of the WWII-era Volkswagen Schwimmwagen, and it was manufactured in West Germany between 1960 and 1965.
The 770 has a steel cabriolet body, four wheels, two propellers, and a rear mounted engine that drive either the rear wheels, the two propellers, or all of them together – used when entering and exiting the water.
Power is provided by the 1147cc Standard SC inline-four engine from the Triumph Herald, power was a somewhat modest 43 bhp at 4,750 rpm however the engine proved to be simple and reliable, which were the key criteria required for the 770.
3,878 examples of the Amphicar 770 would be built over its production run, the majority were sold in the United States. Many were used by civilians but some were used as rescue vehicles, and others were used to give people rides at Walt Disney World’s Disney Springs in Florida.

The Amphicar 770 And President Lyndon B. Johnson

The most famous story you’ll hear about the Amphicar is that President Lyndon B. Johnson owned one. He kept it on his ranch in Johnson City, Texas and he used to delight in taking guests on tours of the property in the car with the top down.

President Lyndon B. Johnson driving an Amphicar, April 10, 1965. Image courtesy of the LBJ Presidential Library.

Ever the practical joker, President Johnson’s favorite trick was to drive the car into his lake while yelling about the brakes having failed, as his guests riding in the car with him screamed for their lives.

Once in the water he would engage the propellers and drive the Amphicar through the water laughing heartily as his passengers tried to collect their wits.

The Most Successful Amphibious Production Car Ever

Building cars that double as boats isn’t a new idea, but is is an idea that had struggled to find its feet. Much like flying cars, amphibious cars have been plagued by difficulties and engineering challenges, not the least of which is that cars don’t make very good boats, and boats don’t make very good cars.

The Amphicar 770 was designed by German engineer Hans Trippel, taking some inspiration from the WWII-era Volkswagen Schwimmwagen – an earlier example of a successful amphibious vehicle.

Trippel was careful to avoid unnecessary complexity in his design, the same engine was used for driving the wheels and twin propellers, the front wheels act as rudders, and the engine was a mass-produced unit from Triumph.

Above Film: This vintage episode of Motor Week covers the Amphicar 770, and it shows them entering the water and leaving again.

The car has a body made from stamped steel panels and it was only ever offered as a cabriolet (convertible).

The engine is installed in the rear and it has a special gearbox that allows it to drive only the rear wheels, only the twin propellers, or both together allowing the car to be driven in and out of the water on a typical boat ramp.

The Amphicar would remain in production from 1965 to 1965, however the company was still selling them in 1968 when it closed down. Of the 3,878 that were made many have survived thanks to the committed nature of the car’s enthusiasts.

The 1961 Amphicar 770 Shown Here

The car you see here is a 1961 Amphicar 770 that has been subject to a bare-metal restoration including extensive structural repairs carried out by marque specialist East Coast Amphicar.

It’s showing just 5,435 miles post-restoration, and it’s finished in the factory combination of Beach Sand White over red and white interior with white top.

The price guide on the car is $80,000 – $100,000 USD and it’s due to cross the auction block with RM Sotheby’s in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on the 26th March.

If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

The post The Amphicar 770: A Vintage Car That’s Also A Boat appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/amphicar-770/
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Full Documentary: The Fast One – A History Of The Chevy Small Block V8

The Chevy small block V8 was first released in 1954 in the 1955 model year Chevrolets, the company can’t possibly have known it at the time, but their new engine was about to revolutionize the American automotive industry.

Today the small block V8 is one of very few engines that even non-car people will typically recognize, largely thanks to the fact that it’s been a core staple of the American car world for 70 years and counting.

Fast Facts – The Chevy Small Block V8

Chevrolet developed the small block V8 to compete with the popular Ford Y block V8 that had been released in 1953.
The name “small block” is a bit of a misnomer, as some of the small blocks that were built had displacements up to 400 cubic inches (6.6 liters). The name had originally come about to differentiate the small block V8 from the larger Chevy “big block” V8s.
With the release of the legendary flathead V8 in the 1932 Ford and the later Ford Y block V8 that had come to replace it in 1953, Ford was the undisputed king of building mass-market V8s. The Chevy small block V8 was designed specifically to take this title from Ford.
The Ford flathead V8 had democratized V8 power for the masses when it was released in the 1930s, but it would be the Chevy small block that did the same in post-WWII America.

The 1955 Chevrolet with its all new optional small block V8 would fundamentally revolutionize the American automotive industry, and give Ford a run for their money.

This 43 minute long documentary does a fantastic job of showcasing the conception, development, and release of the small block V8, as well as the importance of the first production cars they were fitted to – the 1955 Chevrolet.

The small block V8 was almost certainly the best mass-produced V8 in the world when it was introduced.

This new engine was smaller, lighter, and more powerful than previous American V8s, and hot rodders soon realized that it was very responsive to tuning – making it popular for street performance cars and race cars up to and including the professional level.

The small block was so named to differentiate it from the big block V8. The small block was available in sizes up to 400 cubic inches (6.6 liters) and it was smaller, lighter, and more powerful than its competition when it was released.

The post Full Documentary: The Fast One – A History Of The Chevy Small Block V8 appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/full-documentary-the-fast-one-a-history-of-the-chevy-small-block-v8/
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Koenig C62: 1 Of 3 Road-Legal Porsche-Based Group C Race Cars

The Koenig C62 is the kind of road-legal race car that could only have been conceived by someone with the imagination, engineering ability, and inherent madness of Germany’s Willy Koenig.

Just three C62s were ever made, each started out as a Porsche 962 Group C Le Mans race car chassis, which then had a custom composite Kevlar body added, and a highly-tuned Porsche 930 turbo engine fitted that produces 550+ bhp.

Fast Facts – The Mighty Koenig C62

The Koenig C62 is one of the more extreme creations from the mind of Willy Koenig, the founder of Koenig Specials GmbH – a company that became famous for building some of the wildest modified supercars in the world in the 1980s and 1990s.
Willy Koenig started out in the printing business, he became wealthy and spent some of his money on his true passion – racing. He became the German Hillclimb Champion in 1962 driving a Ferrari 250 GT SWB.
In the 1970s Willy Koenig started modifying high-end cars in the 1970s, by the 1980s his company was one of the most famous, and most outlandish, in the world.
The Koenig C62 has a Porsche 962 chassis, a 550 bhp Porsche 930 engine, and a new composite Kevlar body that was designed specifically to ensure that the car could be road registered and used on regular public streets – unlike the Porsche 962 on which it’s based.

Willy Koenig + Koenig Specials GmbH

Willy Koenig made his fortune in the printing industry, but his true passion was racing and high-end sports cars.

Although it looks a lot like the Porsche 962 the Koenig C62 shares no common panels with it, it has a new Kevlar composite body that slightly increased the height of the headlights and fenders to allow the car to be legally road registered.

In 1961 Willy bought an open-wheeled Formula Junior Cooper from the Formula 1 driver Wolfgang von Trips, and a year later in 1962 he won the Deutsche Bergmeisterschaft (German Hillclimbing Championship) driving a Ferrari 250 GT SWB.

This victory would get him invited to visit Ferrari in Maranello where he met Enzo Ferrari, and a special event was held in his honor.

The cordiality of this relationship wouldn’t last however, and within 20 years Ferrari would be threatening Koenig with lawsuits, and demanding that any Ferrari he had modified had all of its original Ferrari badging removed – as it could no longer be considered a true Ferrari.

There are many cars you could point to as the peak of Koenig Specials GmbH achievements, the highly-modified 850 bhp Ferrari F50, the 1,000 bhp twin-turbo Ferrari Testarossa, or perhaps the car shown here – the Koenig C62.

The Koenig C62 – Specifications

Just three examples of the Koenig C62 were ever made. The car is closely based on the Porsche 962, a Le Mans-style sports racing car that was never intended for use on public roads.

Above Video: This is racing driver Billy Johnson at there wheel of a Koenig C62 at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. Be sure to turn your sound on.

The team at Koenig Specials had ample experience working on the Porsche 911, but the Porsche 962 was an entirely new beast. They bought improved 962 chassis from a company called Thompson, that specialized in building safer, more rigid chassis for racing teams.

Koenig C62 Specifications

Though the C62 looks exceedingly similar to the 962 the cars actually share no body panels at all, an entirely new composite Kevlar body was designed that increased the height of both the fenders and headlights in order to meet German requirements for road legal cars.

The engine is a twin-turbocharged Porsche 930 3.4 liter flat-six with a series of modifications bringing power up to 550 hp and 553 lb ft of torque at the rear wheels via a 5-speed manual gearbox. The suspension was modified for street use, the original set up was stiff for racing use, so Koenig added slightly softer springs and shock absorbers.

Original Porsche 962 brakes were used however they were fitted with more street-focussed brake pads, both for usability and legal reasons.

The interior of the Koenig C62 makes very little attempt to be comfortable, exposed composite panels are visible and there is no carpet, climate control, stereo, or cruise control – it was designed to be as close to a street legal Porsche 962 race car as was practicably possible.

Very few allowances for comfort were made when developing the Koenig C62, it was intended to be as close to a road legal Porsche 962 as possible.

Koenig Specials had originally planned to build 30 examples of the C62, however just three were ultimately made – possibly because of the $1,030,000 USD price tag (in 1991 dollars).

The Koenig C62 Shown Here

The car you see here is the second of the three cars made, it was built between 1990 and 1991, then delivered to its first owner in Japan.

It would remain in Japan for most of its life, passing through a small number of exclusive private collections before being imported into the United States in 2019.

In the three years that the car has been with its current owner it’s been used sparingly, it has just 2,502 kilometers on the odometer from new.

It’s been fitted with new tires, GPS sender for the speedometer was installed, an inoperative fuel gauge was repaired, and it had a servicing by the technicians at R3 Motorsports in Van Nuys, California.

The car is now being auctioned live online by Collecting Cars, at the time of writing there are still a few days left to bid and you can click here if you’d like to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

The post Koenig C62: 1 Of 3 Road-Legal Porsche-Based Group C Race Cars appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/koenig-c62-car/
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A Rideable 727 BHP Barstool – The Hoss Fly “Big Block” Barstool

This is the “Big Block” version of the Hoss Fly Barstool – as the name suggests it’s a motorized barstool powered by a 572 cubic inch V8, it produces 727 bhp at 6,300 rpm and 680 lb ft of torque at 4,900 rpm.

Exactly why anyone would want a barstool with similar power output figures as a 1980s-era Formula 1 car is unclear, but the fact that it has open headers means you won’t be able to hear the owner explain their reasoning anyway.

The Hoss Fly V8 Barstool

Motorized barstools are nothing new of course, they’ve been around for decades in one form or another, though most of them are powered by small ~3 bhp Briggs & Stratton motors, not fire-breathing V8s.
Hoss Fly is based in the small town of Friedens, Pennsylvania. They sell the Hoss Fly V8 Barstool in kit form, providing everything you need to build one with the exception of the engine.
The prices of the kits start at $8,900 USD for the least expensive, on up to $10,900 USD for the Big Block Deluxe kit which is the most expensive option.
The kits include the go kart-like tubular steel frame, all four wheels, the steering assembly and steering wheel, the seat that attaches to the top of the air cleaner, a fuel tank, and the automatic transmission.

Barstools + Big Blocks + Madness

No one knows who it was that invented the barstool, it’s an innovation who’s creator has long been lost to the annals of history.

The fuel tank and radiator are mounted at the back, the driver sits on a padded stool atop the carburetor, with their feet at the front on either side of the steering column.

What we do know with reasonable certainty is that the Hoss Fly is the most powerful kit-built barstool in the world – with a power-to-weight ratio higher than any Formula 1 car in history.

Hoss Fly was founded in 2007 in the small town of Friedens in Pennsylvania, the town has a population of just over 1,500 people, some of whom spend their days building kits to turn American V8s into self-propelled barstools.

The company offers three kits, the east expensive is the Hoss Fly Raw Kit at $8,900 USD. This is followed by the Small Block Deluxe Kit at $9,900 USD and the Big Block Deluxe Kit at $10,900 USD. The example you see pictured here is the big block version.

It’s not publicly known how many Hoss Fly barstool kits have been sold or how many have been completed, we only see them come up for sale infrequently and this is the first time we’ve seen one appear for sale with a big block engine fitted.

The Hoss Fly Big Block V8 Barstool Shown Here

The Hoss Fly barstool you see here is powered by a 572 cubic inch (9.37 liter) Chevrolet crate engine capable of 727 bhp at 6,300 rpm and 680 lb ft of torque at 4,900 rpm.

The ZZ572 Big Block V8 weighs approximately 580 lbs depending on final specification, combined with the Hoss Fly kit weight of ~200 lbs the total weight is ~780 lbs giving it a power-to-weight ratio of over 2,050 bhp per tonne.

Exactly how this much power can be made to work effectively in such a tiny, lightweight vehicle isn’t clear, though we do know that it has a top speed of 25 mph at 5,000 rpm.

The padded stool seat is mounted directly to the top of the carburetor just behind a small steering wheel, the driver then essentially sits on the engine with their feet on either side of the steering column.

At the back of the engine you’ll find the fuel tank, transmission, and radiator. The exhaust system is made up of individual open headers pointed up and back in a similar style to many drag racers, it’s clear that anyone within 100 yards would need to be wearing industrial ear protection to keep from going deaf.

But that’s probably half the fun.

If you’d like to read more about this Hoss Fly or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Mecum. It’s due to cross the auction block in late March and it’s being offered with no reserve.

Images courtesy of Mecum

The post A Rideable 727 BHP Barstool – The Hoss Fly “Big Block” Barstool appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/hoss-fly-big-block-barstool/
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For Sale: A BMW 507 Front End Mounted To A Display Base

This is the front end bodywork from a BMW 507, widely considered to be one of the most beautiful BMWs of all time. Elvis Presley was a fan, he bought himself a 507 and used it as his daily driver during his time stationed in Germany while serving in the US Army.

Though it’s undeniably beautiful, the BMW 507 very nearly caused the bankruptcy of BMW. The original plan had been to sell thousands of them a year to the Americans but by the end of production just 252 had been made.

The idea behind the 507 was solid, it had been conceived by influential New York automobile importer Max Hoffman who wanted a car that was priced halfway between the expensive Mercedes-Benz 300SL and the smaller, cheaper sports cars from Triumph and MG.

The design of the BMW 507 was penned by Albrecht von Goertz, a famed German industrial designer who also designed the BMW 503, and who contributed influential first design sketches for the Toyota 2000GT.

Hoffman insisted that BMW hired the designer Albrecht von Goertz for the job and he excelled himself, creating a design that incorporated all the best elements of the Jet Age and none of its excesses.

The alloy body was fitted to a shortened BMW 503 sedan chassis and it was powered by the 3,168cc BMW M507/1 V8 engine producing 150 bhp at 5,000 rpm.

Hoffman had specified that the car should be sold at $5,000 USD ($53,000 in 2022 dollars) however cost overruns on production drove the price up to $9,000 USD ($95,300 in 2022 dollars), then finally to $10,500 USD ($111,200 in 2022 dollars).

Though the public loved the car the price was untenable for all but the wealthiest of buyers, one of whom was Elvis Presley who bought a white BMW 507 when in Germany serving in the US Army.

As the story goes, the local German girls quickly realized it was Elvis’ car and every time he left it parked anywhere he would return to find it covered in phone numbers and love notes all written in red lipstick.

This front end is said to be from a 507 that was damaged, it’s been mounted to a display base and it still has al its original lighting and brightwork fitted.

Every time he drove onto the base he would be teased about the lipstick messages all over his car so he solved it, quite cleverly, by painting the whole car in the same shade of red as the lipstick.

The BMW 507 front end you see here is said to be from an original car that was damaged at some point in the past, the aluminum front bodywork was removed and placed on this stand as a display piece.

It’s now due to be auctioned by Artcurial on the 20th of March with a price guide of $19,800 – $27,500 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.