The DUKW. Is it a boat? Is it a car?

No it is an amphibious vehicle. The wonderful combination that doesn't drive as well as a car and doesn't sail as well as a boat.

In the course of time, these types of vehicles were primarily conceived and used for military purposes. They were then used as a landing vehicle / supply vehicle from the sea or deployed in delta areas where more water was lost.

From DUKW to Duck

Things were popularly called 'Ducks'. That was not a reference to ducks, but a corruption of the "company name; of these vehicles that were in fact no different than amphibiously made GMC 2,5 tons trucks. And that they leaked structurally? This was taken into account.

The actual name comes from the letter marking system that was used in the Second World War to indicate military vehicles:

• De D means that the vehicle is designed in 1942
• de U for amphibious auxiliary vehicle
• de K that all wheels are driven and
• de W for two driven rear axles.

And his name is ...

The official type designation in the US Army is: DUKW 353, 2,5 tons, 6 × 6, Amphibious Troop / Cargo carrier. The DUKWs were very useful tools, and there are still quite a lot of them left. A number have even been converted to festively colored tourist transporters.

The German drivers

Of the German 'Schwimmwagen' from the same war, significantly fewer were made and remained. The remaining copies are therefore unlikely to be expensive.

After WWII, Great Amphibious Thinking actually led to only one reasonably successful citizen concept, and that came from Germany: The Amphicar. Those somewhat endearing swimmers had a German amphibious background (designer Hans Trippel had a thing for amphibious vehicles and Nazism) and they were equipped with Triumph four-cylinder engine blocks. The Amphicars were produced in Germany, but the intended market was America. They were intended purely as toys for the rich, but a number of Amphicars also ended up in government service. We even found one who had served with the Dutch police in a small museum in… central France.

About 4.000 Amphicars have been made and there are two specialists worldwide who are committed to preserving the sailing / driving heritage. And the biggest one? That is a Dutch company in Terborg.

Other post-war amphibious projects were more in the utility or hobby sphere. For example, Theus Derkx built an amphibious Range Rover and he dreams of learning to swim a Ferrari.

So if you still want to have your Ferrari converted from collector's item to unique?