David and/or Betty Anne Field

   

Question: I believe they drove on the right side of the road in Berlin in
the sixties (and still do). So, why would they have a RHD amphicar? Could
car have come from Sweden or UK?
Dave.

John Friese

   

I couldn't understand that comment either. I believe Mike bought the
car from Ireland, where they use right hand drive cars, so why did he
say he thought the car was from Berlin? I think it was a simply mis-
statement. My understanding is that Amphicar made these dark green
cars for police uses and I would think they would have sold them to
various municipalities in various countries.

John Friese

67 White
67 Red




--- In amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com, "David and/or Betty Anne
Field" wrote:
> Question: I believe they drove on the right side of the road in
Berlin in
> the sixties (and still do). So, why would they have a RHD
amphicar? Could
> car have come from Sweden or UK?
> Dave.

David Chapman

   

Amphicar made the dark green cars for a Berlin Police contract but not all were
delivered, some were then converted to RHD and sold in UK (the Irish car
registration shows it comes from the London area). That is unless Berlin police
orded Right Hand Drive which is possible - I guess it makes it easier to jump
out and chase the bad guys ! (unless on water !!)

Some European countries did once drive on the Left but changed over before 1960.
If the original prototype Amphicar (Alligator) had been produced this wouldn't
be an issue - that had centre steering like the new Aquada.

David C

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Ken Chambers

   

The March 2004 issue of National Geographic magazine has an article on
the Right and Left of driving around the world. Seems to be around a
two thirds, one third split. Or, about 4 billion people drive on the
right while the other 2 billion drive on the left (if and when they all
drive, that is).

A couple of good web sites that go into great detail on the subject:

http://www.brianlucas.ca/roadside/

http://www.i18nguy.com/driver-side.html This one has reference to
our very own David C and his Amphicars.com site.

Best regards,
Ken Chambers
'64 Red


> Some European countries did once drive on the Left but changed over
> before 1960. If the original prototype Amphicar (Alligator) had been
> produced this wouldn't be an issue - that had centre steering like the
> new Aquada.
>
> David C