Amphib 2018 Amsterdam - I almost wanted a floating car!

in #blog6 years ago (edited)

cinemagraphamphib.gif

Sometimes the suggestions that the AI of social media gives you are spot on! One of these instances happened last week when Facebook showed me a video of these cars floating in the Amsterdam canals. My first reaction: "Oh shoot, I must have missed that. That looks so cool!".

But no, they were staying a couple of days and there was still a full Saturday to be spend in the city centre of Amsterdam by these amphibious cars.

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I am far from an expert on this topic and I hardly know anything about this event (or the cars). And there was also hardly any information online that I could use. A Facebook page told me that they would gather at some point at 8PM and that was about it. I had nothing better to do (I already spend all my upvotes and comment-creativity for that day) so I grabbed my camera and headed there.

The cars were a bit late (they don't drive nor float that fast) but at some point, they dribbled in one by one. The bright colours and the unique gathering of these rare oldtimers was quite a sight. Between 1961 and 1965 they manufactured 3,878 of these Amphicars. From what I understood, a European (A lot of Germans) group of Amphicar owners meet at least once a year at some location in Europe, but because they all wanted to go to Amsterdam, they added an extra event to the calendar.

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My favourite colour of the bunch

They all parked their cars for the public, waiting for it to become dark. The plan was to close off this weekend with a candlelight tour and I couldn't be more excited. The canals and their lights are just gorgeous, so that would be a very nice setting for these boatcarthings.

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Many funny decorations on the cars

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While I walked around I learned a little more about these cars. They steer in the water by turning their wheels which isn't an optimal way of steering. Their speed on the water isn't impressive either, a measly 12 kilometres an hour that is. On land, they reach just slightly over 100 km/hr. Final fun thing that I discovered is that most of these cars actually leak because there are some holes in the bottom (by design..wtf?).

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They are just so beautiful and I don't even like cars that much!

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Just look at it!

I just couldn't get over how cute they looked and I was mostly obsessed with the fenders hanging on the cars and the 50/60's look.

When President Johnson was visiting his ranch in Texas, he'd invite friends down and take them for a joyride in his car. He'd drive down a steep incline toward the lake, pretend to lose control, and then yell, "The brakes don't work! We're going in! We're going under!" The car would splash into the lake, and as everyone else was screaming, Johnson would be doubled over laughing. Turns out, Johnson was the proud owner of an Amphicar, the only amphibious passenger automobile ever mass-produced for civilians. Source


Hitting the water

It is so much fun to see these cars drive into the water. Most of the owners were filming the experience themselves too while I was standing next to it capturing it in a timelapse.

(repost of my dtube post)

Underneath the rear, they have 2 propellers just waiting to touch the water. To my surprise, they still sounded like cars when they were in the water. It makes total sense when you think of it, but just remember that I have never seen cars in the water 😉.

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Candlelight tour

It was dark enough and so they turned on the boat lights (not the car ones). While they toured the canals I walked towards the end of the route to set up all my stuff for another timelapse. I was just in time to capture that in front of a nice Amsterdam bridge.

(repost of my dtube post)

And so I walked away excited. I fell in love with a car that I shouldn't buy. But maybe.... instead of a Lambo, I could go for the Amphicar? Right?

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Wow! What beautiful looking carboats @roosj3 and amphibious cars are well suited for Amsterdam and also the rest of the Netherlands. There could be Tesla carboats everywhere before you know it, but the old classics you're showing are so cool. Great photography! :-D

they are just so cute! Thanks :)

Aww - just got familiar with you on Steem Chat - had to check out your blog. Love the old timers - wish I had seen it live but loved the time lapse and fotos.

steem.chat, such a nice way to get to know each other ;)

The amphicar is the next step after the Lambo. But you could totally jump the first step! :)

yeah, I'm not much of a Lambo person anyway... Let's do it!

I know you're more of a Ferrari girl


Now that I found this, back to Lambo ;)

scissor doors are the best for packing grocery bags

how would that work if you shop online? ;)

Amazon Prime delivery guys driving lambos?

not my Lambo they don't!

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I think this would be good to places that gets flooded especially during the rainy seasons. Were you able to ride one? The spectators seem pleased and happy.

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We need the lambo version of these floating cars!!!

This is awwwwwwesome, damn I would really love to go in one of those. All these amphibians are super cool. I saw one last year on sint maarten that was a bit of the opposite. It was a boat in general that surprisingly also was able to come out of the water. Big surprise hahahah

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