Schwimmwagen!

I had a chance to check out a Schwimmwagen the other day. Not too many of these things left!

very cool. I gathered they were completely utilitarian, but I didn't know they were that sparsely furnished. they make a regular beetle look plush

These things are too cool, of all the ugly fiberglass bodies made for beetle pans how did an approximation of a schwimmwagen never get made/take off?

BrokenYugo wrote: These things are too cool, of all the ugly fiberglass bodies made for beetle pans how did an approximation of a schwimmwagen never get made/take off?

Done properly too, they probably could have worked as well as the real thing

Row, row, row your Bug, gently down the stream...

mad_machine wrote:

BrokenYugo wrote: These things are too cool, of all the ugly fiberglass bodies made for beetle pans how did an approximation of a schwimmwagen never get made/take off?

Done properly too, they probably could have worked as well as the real thing

You'd definitely be missing the 4x4 parts but making the schwimm bit work shouldn't be too hard, biggest challenge is probably routing the hot exhaust air out of the car well enough that a 1600DP will live.

Very odd animals to climb around. There is want but I have no clue what I would do with it.

Pete Gossett wrote: Row, row, row your Bug, gently down the stream...

It does come with paddles

Nautical beetle shenanigans were pretty common - I think one crossed the English Channel.

The Schhwimmer is a different matter altogether.

And there's this...

Looks like it's missing its water drive, I've always loved these Porsche's ;)

Adam

So will someone build a Challenge car that also can go on water?

The VW was also great in the snow

Here's a shot of the Collings Foundation one with the outdrive attached. I wonder where you store it when not, uh, schwimming ? Kind of looks like it just swings up over the engine.

This combined with just watching the beach buggy episodes of Grand Tour is filling my head with bad thoughts. $100 for my neighbor's buggy body.

Love the look of those but, talk about rare. They didn't make that many of them in the first place, much less ones that survived the war.

In reply to LopRacer:

Google seems to indicate 150-200 kilobucks for a fully restored example, which isn't all that bad in the realm of early VW/Porsche stuff especially considering less than 200 still exist.

I had a ride in a schwimmwagen owned by a friend in Germany. The 4 wheel drive will take the car just about anywhere on land. We drove out into the Main river and I lowered the prop with a special hook- it sits on top of the engine cover. The driving force of the propeller keeps it engaged with the engine. The prop is returned to the stowed position with special hook.

I built a couple of those in Tamiya 1/35 format when I was a kid.

I would float the hell out of that car.