Yes, I think all of the blue cars here have black tops, remember European
cars are on average 4 years younger and fashions changed, the early cars
like Marc Schlemmer's with lots of white bits and blue painted dash must
have looked "old fashioned" by the mid 1960's - think what the average TR or
MG looked like by then, a more common car here would be like Hugh's, Red,
black bits and black crinkle painted dash.
Someone once told me that the color schemes - exterior/interior trim etc
that Amphicar used - were lifted direct from a brochure for a large Chrysler
that someone from Amphicar Germany picked up at a US motor show in 1959.
Also, very few Amphicars here had white wall tyres, a few early Amphis were
supplied with them but white walls were never popular and have always been
almost impossible to buy - especially wide white walls. Because of the type
of roads we have here and the way we drive the conversion to radial tyres
happened very quickly in the late 1960s.
Of course 40 years on things change - if I was restoring an Amphi now I
would have black tyres but it would be painted powder blue - including the
dash, and have a white hood and bumper trims - that combination is just
gorgeous !
David Chapman
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Echemann
To: amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2001 4:03 AM
Subject: [amphicar-lovers] Blue Cars and Black Tops
Has anyone out there seen a blue Amphicar with a black top? I think this
combo did exist with black rubber bumper mouldings also. Hugh tells me that
the blue cars did come with black tops but they were more common in Europe.
Maybe on later cars? David Chapman and others across the Atlantic may know.
How about it. Thanks
