A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Amphicars at The BOATHOUSE
By Dave Shute
Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.
THE AMPHICARS AT THE BOATHOUSE
By Jim Korkis
An Amphicar combines the two words “amphibious” (able to operate on both land and water) and “car”. The Amphicar is still the most successfully mass produced amphibious car for the general public and was made from 1961 to the beginning of 1968 when a change in safety and emission standards prevented its continued sale in the United States.
The Amphicar Corporation in Germany produced 3,878 of the amphibious passenger automobiles total and less than 400 still exist today. Advertisements proclaimed, “The car of the future is here today. The sportscar that swims.”
The BOATHOUSE at Disney Springs is the only place in the world that offers people an opportunity to ride in these unique examples from automotive history unless they personally own one.
(c) Disney
The convertibles were offered in only four colors: Beach White, Regatta Red, Lagoon Blue and Fjord Green (Aqua). Disney Springs has two of each color car that cruise on the lake.
Steven Schussler is the creator of WDW restaurants Rainforest Café, T-Rex, and DAK’s Yak and Yeti. He is also responsible for The BOATHOUSE as well that opened April 13, 2015. Schussler has owned three Amphicars since 2005.
Offering the Amphicar tours around the perimeter of the lake was meant to be a way of preserving some of the cars remaining, as well as introducing the quirky creation to a new generation of fans and attracting attention to the restaurant.
Some of the cars were not in great shape and Schussler had modifications done on all of them including positioning the rear seat back further to offer an additional three inches of legroom as well as some mechanical changes to the bilge pump system and all new fuel injection and exhaust systems.
In an interview, Schussler did admit that some 3,200 components (generally unseen by the naked eye) were engineered specifically for the Amphicars in use at The BOATHOUSE to guarantee reliability and safety and that each car required $65,000 to $75,000 worth of upgrades, on top of its purchase price which could run as much as a hundred thousand dollars.
The BOATHOUSE has its own shop dedicated to repairing and maintaining the cars daily. Disney Springs has a small towboat anchored to the shore in case one of the BOATHOUSE Amphicars stalls out and the drivers all have hand held radios to communicate that situation.
The two front doors have a double seal with rubber strips like those used on a refrigerator. The car is not made of fiberglass but steel (which can make it prone to rusting without proper care). The steel is thicker than on a regular car and much better assembled with continuous welds and lead filling around the joints to make it watertight.
The wheels are set low, so that the vehicle stands well above ground level when on dry land. Its water propulsion is provided by twin propellers mounted under the rear bumper. The engine is mounted at the rear of the craft. In water as well as on land, the Amphicar is steered with the front wheels.
The car is driven straight into the water in first gear until it floats off the bottom and the propellers take over. First gear is then disengaged. A special two-part land-and-water transmission built by Hermes (makers of the Porsche transmission) allows the wheels and propellers to be operated either independently or simultaneously.
The car was more of a novelty than anything else and did not revolutionize the automotive industry as predicted. The iconic car still generates smiles, waves from those on the shore, a sense of wonder and more important, a sense of fun.
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Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!
In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Gremlin Trouble! The Cursed Roald Dahl Film Disney Never Made, Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew
, which reprints much material first written for this site, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.
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