Amphibious car sets sail at Great British Car Journey

Published: 20/06/2023

Is it a duck? Is it a boat? Is it a car?  It’s all three. It’s a Dutton 4WD Surf - an amphibious vehicle which can be seen in Great British Car Journey and travelling on the river Derwent in Derbyshire.
 
Like all the cars in the UK’s award-winning interactive car museum’s collection, the custom-built amphibious car is in full working order – on land and water!

Great British Car Journey’s director Andrew Talbot took the Dutton 4WD Surf on its maiden voyage recently when it entered the Derwent at Ambergate from the museum’s car park and travelled upstream before returning to dry land. 

He said: “I have spent a lot of time on the Derwent in my kayak and I’m confident that this is the first amphibious car to have ever travelled on the river. Being in the Dutton was an altogether different experience from being in my kayak or even a normal car, but it was fantastic. I loved every minute of it.”

Now named the ‘Derwent Duck’ by the museum team, the craft was built by British inventor Tim Dutton at his factory in Littlehampton. Tim has been making the only successful amphibious car in the world since 1989 at a factory that used to make lifeboats.

Only a handful of the amphibious cars are made each year and a number of them have appeared in high profile TV programmes like Hunted and in the opening sequence of series 14 of Britain’s Got Talent where it was driven by Simon Cowell and David Walliams.

Travelling on water at a top speed of five knots and powered by jet propulsion, the Dutton Surf is designed for lazy days on the river rather than powerboating.

On land, the Dutton 4WD Surf operates like a normal car and is fully road legal with a top speed of 85mph.

The craft, when not on the Derwent, can be found in the interactive car museum’s 150-strong collection which celebrates the weird and wonderful, and best and worst, of British car design over the last 100 years.

Commenting on the Derwent Duck’s addition to the exhibition, Richard Usher founder and CEO of Great British Car Journey, said: “Tim Dutton is yet another example of a British engineering pioneer and we are delighted to have the Dutton 4WD Surf in our collection. Like many of the cars in the collection, it’s a real talking point.”

To find out more about Great British Car Journey and to book tickets to see the Dutton, visit www.greatbritishcarjourney.com 

About Great British Car Journey

Great British Car Journey is an interactive car museum which opened in May 2021. 

The attraction was named as one of the Best New Tourism Businesses in the prestigious VisitEngland Awards for Excellence 2023.

Great British Car Journey takes visitors through a nine-stage story of the rise and demise of the British motor industry using a unique interactive device which has been created by event technology specialists Imagineear.

Great British Car Journey (GBCJ) is located at Derwent Works, Ambergate, Derbyshire, DE56 2HE.

The exhibition boasts a collection of 150 iconic British cars manufactured and designed in the UK between 1903 – 2000, including the classic Mini, Austin Seven, Ford Escort and the DeLorean.

Drive Dad’s Car allows visitors to take a test drive with an instructor in a selection of over 40 iconic British cars, including the Austin Seven, Morris Minor, Rolls Royce Silver Spirit and Reliant Robin.

Motor industry personalities Paul Woodford and Sarah Crabtree are ambassadors of Great British Car Journey and feature in the museum’s YouTube series Great British Car Share