This may be the craziest vehicle I've ever seen. A South-Carolina-based company called Cool Amphibious Manufacturers International produces the Terra Wind, a luxury RV that is freaking amphibious. It's not driving through deep water in that photo above, it is floating and powering through a lake via a separate marine transmission driving a pair of 19-inch bronze propellors. You have to see this thing in action to believe it:
Even crazier is the Terra Wind's origin story, as reported by Car and Driver. It was designed and built by CAMI founder John Giljam, who grew up on a farm in upstate New York, never attended college and never took a single engineering class!Giljam learned to fix tractors as a kid; as a man, he found himself renting jet skis at the Hilton Head Island resort in South Carolina. He needed a way to launch the jet skis from the water (as opposed to from shore) and rigged up an old military amphibious vehicle for the task. After Giljam realized "it was more fun to take people for rides on the amphibious vehicle than rent Jet Skis," he ditched the jet ski business and started building an amphibious 46-person tour bus called the Hydra-Terra.
Sales of the Hydra-Terra were tremendous, and following its success, Giljam set about creating a luxury RV version. The Terra Wind was subsequently born in the early 2000s.
Highly recommend you read the full tale here.
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