By Car
On 16 September 1965, two Amphicars crossed from Dover to Calais. One was crewed by two Army Officers, Captain Mike Bailey REME and Captain Peter Tappenden RAOC, the other by Tim Dill-Russell and Sgt Joe Minto RASC. The crossing took 7 hours 20 minutes, with mid-channel wind conditions reaching force 5 on the Beaufort scale. The cars went on to the Frankfurt Motor Show of that year where they were put on display.
In 2007, the presenters of the BBC programme Top Gear (Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May) "drove" across the Channel from England to France. They did it by designing 'Amphibious Cars' which could be driven on land and also operate in water. After four attempts - twice failing to leave Dover Harbour - they reached the coast of France in a Nissan pick-up (The Nissank) with an outboard motor and oil drums attached to the back to aid stability in the open water. The other two vehicles that attempted the crossing (a Triumph Herald with a sail and a Volkswagen Campervan with a propeller attached to the flywheel) both sank.
Clarkson believed it might be possible to break the world record for crossing the channel in this manner, but the team was unsuccessful.
The Daily Mail claimed that the BBC received criticism from the coastguard who claimed that they had not been told that the stunt was going to take place, and allegedly branded it "completely irresponsible", despite the aired episode showing the co-operation of the coastguard.
Read more about this topic: English Channel, Notable Channel Crossings
Famous quotes containing the word car:
“Fifty years from now, it will not matter what kind of car you drove, what kind of house you lived in, how much you had in your bank account, or what your clothes looked like, But the world may be a little better because you were important in the life of a child.”
—Anonymous. Quoted in The Winning Family, by Louise Hart, ch. 1 (1987)
“The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)