r/interestingasfuck • u/The_Love-Tap • 3h ago
The Volkswagen Schwimmwagen had a rear propeller that turned it into a boat once it hit the water. More than 15,000 were built during WWII
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u/Bodod_Begag 3h ago
Its going for a schwimm
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u/Magister5 3h ago
My Germans a little rusty, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess this translates to “shiggity shiggity shwim”
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u/Basic-Aspect 3h ago
I want one
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u/Cryogenics1st 3h ago
Right? I want to fix one up to look like an ordinary modern car and watch people's faces when I just casually drive it in and out of the water.
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u/Homerpaintbucket 2h ago
There was an American version, the amphicar or something. LBJ had one and he used to drive visiting dignitaries around camp David in it and then drive down a hill towards a lake and pretend the brakes went out without telling them it was an amphibious car.
Fun fact, there are a bunch of these they have in Disney world at Disney springs. You can pay for a very slow and boring ride in one.
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u/birgor 2h ago
The Amphicar which LBJ had was also German, and was partly based on another ww2 schwimmwagen, the SG6.
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u/iulius 2h ago
In the Wisconsin Dells they also have these and they are called “ducks”. But they are big 12-20 passenger tank-looking things. Not cropped off Beetles.
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u/Homerpaintbucket 2h ago
The duck boats are different. They have them in Boston and are huge. The amphicar wasn’t designed for military use and is just a tiny little subcompact car.
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u/Unindoctrinated 2h ago
A company at a tourist town near me bought six of these and then spent a fortune refurbishing them, only to later discover they couldn't be registered for road use because they didn't meet the required safety standards.
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u/daydreamersunion 2h ago
Horrible on land. Horrible in water. And yet somehow awesome to the extreme!
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u/RevolutionaryAge47 2h ago
There's also a variant with the 128mm anti tank gun, able to knock out an IS-2 tank at 5000 yards.
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u/The_Love-Tap 3h ago
The Volkswagen Schwimmwagen (Type 166) is a light, four-wheel-drive amphibious military vehicle used extensively by German ground forces during World War II. Designed by Erwin Komenda under Ferdinand Porsche, using mechanical elements from the Volkswagen Beetle and the Type 82 Kübelwagen. Powered by a rear-mounted, air-cooled, 25-horsepower, flat-four (boxer) engine. It has no water rudder; the driver simply turns the front wheels with the steering wheel to steer in both land and water modes