Amphicar owner enjoys the attention

Greg Zinkosky drives his Amphicar toward the boat launch.

Click here to find out what Amphicar enthusiasts think about the new wave of amphibious cars

By Bryan Laviolette

MILFORD — About a decade ago, Greg Zinkosky heard a news story on the radio about the annual get-together of owners of Amphicar, the most successful amphibious car ever built.

Zinkosky had never heard of such a thing, so he was curious. He looked up the club on the Internet, called the club president and asked about the cars. Zinkosky packed up his family and visited the Amphicar reunion — or swim-in, as the group calls its get-togethers — for the weekend, held each year in Celina, Ohio.

“I thought ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve never heard about these,’ ” Zinkosky said. “Once I saw it, I was kinda hooked.”

Zinkosky says he enjoys using his Amphicar throughout the warmer months.

So he started looking for one that was in his price range and found it in Alabama. Nine years later, he loves the attention the car gets, everywhere he goes, but particularly on water.

Click here for more pictures of Greg Zinkosky’s Amphicar

We met at a local boat launch where Zinkosky was already tooling around in the lake. He drove up the ramp, I hopped in and we headed back into the water. As if on cue, we looked to our right to see a couple of fishermen snapping cellphone pictures of us. Yes, Aunt Martha, a car did just drive into the water.

“There’s so many people who have no clue what they are,” said Zinkosky, who works at General Motors’ Milford Proving Grounds.

The Amphicar — the only mass-produced civilian amphibious car ever built — was sold between 1962 and 1967, mostly in the United States. There were 3,878 of them built but some say that fewer than 20 percent of them survive today.

According to the International Amphicar Owners Club, the car is powered by a 43-horsepower 1.1-liter Triumph four cylinder engine mounted in back.

An original specification sheet on the club’s Web site says the Amphicar weighs 2,293 pounds and has a weight distribution of 62 percent rear. While the engine and cooling system are in back, the gas tank, heating system and spare tire reside in front. There’s also room for a couple of bags.

Zinkosky said the car uses a two-part transmission that is unique to the Amphicar combining a manual four-speed with another unit that routes power to the Amphicar’s twin propellers. The transmission setup allows it to route power to just the rear wheels, just the propellers or both. The Amphicar is steered in the water by the steering wheel and front wheels, just like on the road.

The Amphicar was unofficially referred to as the 770 model, indicating that it could travel at 7 mph on water and 70 on land.

Zinkosky briefly showed off the car’s maximum water performance, but he said most people cruise in them at about 5 mph. He doesn’t like to push it on land because of unusual handling characteristics caused by the rear-end weight bias.

Zinkosky uses the car a lot during the summer. It’s mostly original and has a few scratches and spots of rust to prove it.

“It’s not a creampuff,” Zinkosky said.

As we saw with the fishermen at the lake, he said that he quickly learned that anywhere he goes with the car, curious onlookers will be there to ask questions.

“If you don’t want the attention, you shouldn’t get it,” Zinkosky said.

That attention can be frustrating to owners of regular boats, Zinkosky said.

You could have a fast, expensive boat, but an Amphicar cruising by steals all of the attention. Many regular boat owners don’t understand the appeal, he said.

“My brother is a true boater and he doesn’t get it,” Zinkosky said.

The problem is that the Amphicar’s usefulness as a boat is limited. The hull is not designed to plane, so high-speed cruising is out and you can’t pull a water skier. On land, contemporaries such as Triumphs and MGs would run circles around it. Many a critic has said that the Amphicar isn’t much of a car and isn’t much of a boat either.

Zinkosky said he thinks the Amphicar failed because it cost too much compared to other cars. According to the club, Amphicars sold for $2,800 to $3,300 depending on the year. The price actually decreased because the company had so much trouble selling them.

As he left the boat ramp and headed for home, Zinkosky ran the Amphicar’s bilge pump, splashing a small stream of water onto the road. Only in an Amphicar.