Jeff Norton s Amphicar Off the Beach and Path
Even the most casual of car fans are familiar with the Amphicar. Produced for a handful of years in the early 1960s, it was a rear-engined machine capable of operating either on land or in the water. Now that some COVID-related restrictions are being eased, an Amphicar owner in Manitoba hopes to raise money for charity by offering rides in his unique automobile.
In an interview with the CBC, Jeff Norton explained he purchased the amphibious vehicle about a decade ago and enjoyed taking friends and family alike for spins, describing the uneasy feeling many people would have during that initial transition from land to water. After his dad passed away from Parkinson’s disease a couple of years later, Norton decided to take passengers for rides in his Amphicar as a way to raise money to support Parkinson’s Canada. During that first year, he raised more than $40,000.
Last year, museum curator Maria Martins made the decision to sell off the fire trucks and put the word out to fire museums throughout the province. This caught the attention of the mainly retired firefighters at the West Vancouver Fire Museum.
Quebec-based Thibault built only 24 Thibault AWIT models like this pumper in 1954. Sixteen of these fire trucks went to the Canadian military. Records showed that a 1954 Thibault had been sold to the Port Hardy Fire Department, and that would have ended the interest until volunteers started comparing old photos of Number 31 to current photos.
“We noticed that the right front tire had raised lettering that were the same as in a photo taken before the truck was removed from service,” says museum society president Rick Titcomb. “That’s our truck!”
According to the company, A3 was driven exclusively by Martin, and used a 1.5L four-cylinder engine that made 11 horsepower. It was often fitted with a streamlined race body and set several speed records for light cars, hitting 84.5 miles per hour (136 km/h) at Brooklands in 1923.
The car was purchased at auction in 2002 and donated to the Aston Martin Heritage Trust (AMHT). It was then restored as closely to its original factory specifications as possible.
HWM Aston Martin, a private dealership in Surrey that’s the world’s oldest sales agent for the automaker, worked with the Heritage Trust and with Q by Aston Martin, the company’s bespoke division, to create the A3 Vantage Roadster. It will be officially unveiled at a centennial event in Britain that will also feature the original car.