Rick Dobbertin, the man behind some of the wildest automotive creations of the last 30 years is selling his swan song, the Hydrocar on eBay for $595,000. This amphibious hot rod weighs in a 8500lbs, packs an aluminum big block, and kind of works, almost. Even the crafty Dobbertin seems to think he may have reached a little too far with this one.
The car does drive on land and it works in the water. That bing said, Rick indicates in his ad that the visibility, steering effort, and ergonomics of the cockpit don’t add up to cruising fun. On the watery side of things, the prop drive setup an Arenson Surface Drive, needs to be sorted out. Dobbertin reports that when set down into the water the prop actually wants to force the bow into the water and when the prop is set level, close to the surface it throws a lot of water but doesn’t really move out that well.
So those are the negative points, and frankly, the work that has gone into the project to get it functional and working is pretty mind-blowing. Yes there are things that need to be sorted out, but consider what it takes to create something like this bad boy from complete scratch. Nuts.
Because of it’s massive weight, we’re guessing it’s not exactly going to be a drag race champion, but with an all-aluminum 572ci Merlin big block on board that dyno’d out to 762hp, you’ll certainly be able to keep up with traffic. The exhaust is a couple of Supertrapp mufflers so the neighbors will be aware when you are about to leave the house as well.
Rick has placed a very comprehensive and brutally honest eBay ad for this car/boat-a-majig. Apparently the recources that went into the construction of the craft have put him in bind and this will be the last of his big projects. It seems his original intention was to build these for commercial sale, but more than one amphibious car company has sprung up since he started and their products kind of make this a square peg in a round hole with respect to marketability.
If you lay out the cash, you’ll never run into another one, that we can guarantee you!
Source — eBayMotors.com — Rick Dobbertin’s Hydrocar Amphibious Hot Rod
