Hey All,
There is a plate riveted to the side of the engine that says made
under license from Standard Motor Company, the engines are German built
versions of the Herald engine. As far as engine upgrades go the guy out in
California that has all of the parts leftover from the factory has upgraded
some cars to Spitfire engines. The www.amphicar.com website has a list of
engine upgrades too I believe, or maybe its Mark Chapman's website, you can
link to it from there though.
The cars are a mishmash of mechanical parts for alot of things,
Triumph, Mercedes, and Porsche. This is the only thing that makes getting
parts for them any less difficult. The transmission is a Porsche piece that
drives the rear wheels through a drive shaft on either side. The water
transmission is bolted to the back (front?) of the drive transmission and
drives the props through shafts that run back along side the transmission
and engine. Eight u-joints to grease and eight seals to keep sealed. The
water transmission is under the back seat.
As far as rust goes, they all are. I've seen three cars that have
never been used and all were rusted out in the rear quarters. The one in my
garage is a little worse than that.
If anyone wants more info you can email me direct as I am on the
digest.
Scott.
Scott Augustine, Colorado Springs, CO, USA
richard.augustine@shepards.com
'65 & '70 Chevelles, '61 Corvette, '66 Amphicar
'59 TR3, '53 Morris Minor, '74 VW Thing, etc.,
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