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News

English lake district floods.

Another extreme weather event has resulted in significant flooding in the English Lake District this week. I've been asked if Amphicars and any other amphibious vehicles can attend to help and sadly the answer is mostly no.

Unlike the river flooding we often experience in this part of the UK the Lake District Floods have been due to concentrated excess rainfall, (more than 1 foot (300mm) in a single day), or to put that in context, about the same rainfall we have in this part of the UK in 6 months.

Such situations cause extreme currents with significant debris and danger, ordinary boats struggle, the only craft that work at all are inflatable lifeboats with self righting capability and jet power.

Amphibians can perform valuable search and rescue work but really need still water - or water with less than 10 knots of current - typically this happens downstream. There has been some limited amphibian use this week around Windermere where the lake has risen and closed the road but that's all.

Hopefully that clarifies the situation, all amphibious vehicle owners, wish those in Cumbria all the best and will monitor the situation and help where we can - but the unique circumstances of the flooding means that the help we can offer is limited at the moment.

David Chapman  24th Nov 2009

Tim Dutton.

I've been asked a few times over recent weeks for a statement regarding Tim Dutton and the problems he is facing as reported in these articles.

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/1.95074

and

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7368734.stm

I've met Tim Dutton a few times over the last ten years and have driven one of his vehicles on land and water. Mr Dutton is one of those people that make the UK what it is. He very much "paddles his own canoe". Anybody who tries to build an amphibious vehicle in 2008 is very brave as in addition to the numerous technical and operational issues there is an increasing amount of health and safety legislation both here and in other markets around the world.

There is a quirk of English laws that allows anyone to build a "production" vehicle. What Tim Dutton does is take an existing vehicle, normally a Suzuki jeep, and effectively fits a new body and water jets to it. It is very small scale production. Producing an amphibious vehicle this way allows an exemption from many of the rules that larger motor manufacturers have to comply with.

It is not for me to comment on the technical merits of the Dutton vehicles but there are some major ways in which they are different from Amphicar:

• First the Amphicar was designed and developed over many years purely as an Amphibious vehicle The substantial development costs, over $10M, were part funded by the German and US governments.

• Amphicar was produced in two huge West German factories with a worldwide dealer network.

• Amphicar is made of steel with many safety and performance features inherent in the design.

• Amphicar met every road and water safety regulation in existence in 1967 and is considered a safe vehicle today.

• Over 3000 Amphicars has been used throughout the world for more than 40 years with no significant incidents.

In the last 40 years there have been many attempts to produce amphibious vehicles that improve on the Amphicar but none have reached production levels of more than a few dozen and most far less. In my opinion, without the huge amount of R&D money that Amphicar had, it simply isn't possible.

It is important that during any reporting of the Dutton case the word "Amphicar" is not used. Amphicar is a trademark relating to the original 1960s vehicle. The Dutton vehicles can be described by the generic term "Amphibious Vehicle" or by their individual model names as registered by Dutton.

Press or other media feel free to contact me if further clarification of the above points is required.

David Chapman   (tel 01684 878162)

May 2008

UPDATE  SEPTEMBER 2008.

The case against Mr Dutton has now been concluded (there is no mention of appeal so we can assume it's over).

Attached below are two press reports.  For those not familiar with the English legal system a clarification of terms:

Suspended sentence a court has the power to suspend the passing of sentence and place the offender on probation. It is the passing of the sentence, not the sentence itself, that is being suspended. This means that if the person is convicted of another offence during the period when the passing of sentence had been suspended, then the person may be sentenced for the original offence.

Unpaid Community Work is what is says, comes from the idea of repairing damage so if somebody kicks over your fence when drunk then the idea of community work is they come around and fix it. The judge will decide what community work Mr Dutton needs to do and where.

Wound Up is the common term for when a company is closed down. It is a formal process that (if there is enough money in the company) means paying everyone what they are owed and putting the company "to bed". It does not always mean the company has run out of money, the term for that is "insolvent", if the original owner runs out of money then the term for that is "bankrupt".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7575208.stm

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/3614890.Sussex_businessman_s___30k_bill/

http://www.nwemail.co.uk/se/1.227126

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All about the Top Gear programme, this is the description from the BBC Website:

BBC Top Gear Amphibious Challenge Series 8, Programme 3, May 21 2006
 

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"This week on Top Gear, we took a look at the new Lotus Exige S, Jeremy, James and Richard all took to the drawing board to create amphibious cars and Philip Glenister is our star in a reasonably priced car.

Amphibious cars

The idea of a car that can drive convincingly on land and water isn't a new one, and some attempts have actually come close to being practical. But so far, no one has created an aquatic vehicle that has sold more than a couple of units. Most don't even make it past the prototype stage. The closest we've ever seen was the Aquada and that one does actually work. But at £150,000 its never going to sell like a Focus.

What we need is a team of devoted engineers to come up with a cheap, but practical solution. And with a combined 100 years of experience cocking about, who better than the Top Gear chaps to have a go?

So with that in mind James, Richard and Jeremy set off to purchase their cars and begin modifications. James bought a Triumph Herald, Richard a VW Camper, and Jeremy a Toyota Hilux.

How would each of them perform? Well, once Jeremy had extinguished the flames on his Hilux, James had fitted his mast and Richard had attached his duck, the challenge proper would begin.

Immediately, it became quite clear that James would not have a lot of success wherever speeds over 30mph were needed, or where there was a low bridge. Richard was only able to drive on perfectly flat ground, as his new 2.5 tonne camper was woefully underpowered. Jeremy on the other hand, had submitted to his expert, and had locked the suspension on the Hilux. So bumps were a real pain in the back.

As the team got to the water the inevitable question arose: who would make it across the reservoir without drowning, or getting hypothermia?

Well, it became fairly obvious, fairly quickly, that Richard had built something that had no chance at all of floating. Jeremy, however, had used enough foam to keep his Hilux nicely afloat. While, for James, the floating wasn't the problem. It was the complete lack of power.

Soon it became obvious that the only place Richard's craft was going was to the bottom of the reservoir. Jeremy, in a rare charitable moment, picked him up, and the two were on their way with James in pursuit (if that's the right word for someone who is scarcely moving at all). But soon, even Jeremy's super Toyboata was beginning to take on water. But it looked like they would make it to the jetty first, until one overzealous flick of the wheel saw the Hilux capsize. All of this meant that when he finally arrived 346 hours later, James was declared the winner. "
 

Above words and picture copyright BBC.

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Below I've pasted a bit more about the car being driven by Richard Hammond who shops in our local Tesco (lower shelves only) and can often be seen driving around the Malvern Hills area in cars with the seat pushed a long way forward (for a boy):

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Below words and picture copyright "this is Wiltshire" website.

Conversion floats Top Gear’s boat
By Lewis Cowen

FLOATING AN IDEA: The finished converted canal boat

PAUL and Michelle Wells will make their TV debut this Sunday after taking up a remarkable challenge by the producers of hit TV series Top Gear.

Mr and Mrs Wells, who recently moved to Melksham from Devizes, were approached by the programme makers in March after they saw the website of their company, M&P Steelcraft, on the Internet.

Mr Wells said: "We were asked if we would like to undertake the task of converting a Volkswagen camper van into an amphibious vehicle that resembled a narrowboat, which is what our company specialises in."

The couple jumped at the challenge and, following a preliminary meeting at BBC TV Centre in London, they had their first glimpse of the eBay-purchased horror that was to form the base for the new canal boat.

Mr Wells said: "With lights blazing and engine knocking it stumbled towards our yard. My first thoughts were, oh my God..."

The challenge involved three different contractors being asked to convert three different vehicles into three different craft. As well as the camper van/narrowboat, there is a speedboat constructed out of a Toyota Hiline and a Triumph Herald convertible being converted into sailing dinghy.

They were all due to be tried out at the programme's test track in Staffordshire yesterday and the results will appear on BBC2 at 8pm on Sunday.

For the female employees of M&P Steelcraft, based at Hilperton Marsh, near Trowbridge, March 15 was their red letter day when TV heart throb Richard Hammond arrived to do some filming.

But the day before the van/boat was due to be on set disaster struck. What was thought to be a minor leak from loose jubilee clips on the water hoses, turned out to be the head gasket that needed replacing. In fact, it was worse than that. The fuel pump had given up the ghost. Finally, a reconditioned Passat engine was found.

Then vandals struck and wing mirrors were ripped off and tyres slashed. A flat battery didn't help either.

But despite the frenetic timescale and all the hiccups and hold-ups, Mr and Mrs Wells say they wouldn't have missed it. Mr Wells said: "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

9:20am Thursday 18th May 2006

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SO WHAT ABOUT THE PROGRAMME.....

Well it's TV and great entertainment - just don't take it too seriously. I really enjoy the non-technical "laddish" nature of the new Top Gear. I really don't have time to do TV stuff these days, it's almost 10 years since my Amphicar and I did anything with the Top Gear team but they are one of the best to work with.

Regarding the "cars" well they had just the right mix - which also matched the personalities of the presenters. Of course a lot of magic can be done in the edit suite "post production" and when it comes to professional production and technical quality then without doubt the Top Gear team are the best in the world.

No doubt there was also a lot of spanner work on the cars between shots and expanding builders foam is a "TV amphibian in a can" as it means almost anything can float for a short time. A Nigel would say that none of the three were really Amphibious (definition being equally at home on land and water) as none could drive out of the lake at the end but all had their merits and it made for cracking TV.

If you want to see the programme again then have a look at www.bbc.co.uk/topgear it's there at the moment although probably not for long. When it vanishes then Google is you friend - most of the Top Gear episodes are out there on the Internet and can be downloaded - and the Amphibious clip is already watchable on www.youtube.com

The Top Gear team did sum it up at the end when they said the reason why we don't all drive around in amphibious vehicles is because "it is just so difficult to make them" !

I believe what Amphicar Gmbh did at the beginning of the 1960s was on a par with what NASA did at the end of the 1960s - but then maybe I've spent too long with my wheels in the water !

David Chapman June 2006