As our subscribers will know War History Online have teamed up with the Wheatcroft Collection to enable us to bring you all the lastest news, updates,articles and behind the scenes look at the collection. Added to that will be open days to subscribers to the S130. For now here are just a head full of images of the very rare German Tripple SG-6. The Tripple was taken for a swimming test and thankfully it passed. We will report the full history of this particular vehicle in the Wheatcroft Collection but for now, here is just a brief background in the history of the Tripples.
The SG6 Amphibious Adler
In 1932, the imperious figure of Hans Trippel entered the field of amphibious cars. So successful was his prototype that production began in 1934 at Homburg, in the Saar, with the SG6, featuring four- wheel-drive and a four-cylinder Adler engine, plus a propeller for use in the water. This model was later powered by a six-cylinder 2. 5-litre Opel engine. Ostensibly, Trippel’s amphibians were for use on large estates and forestry work, plus the conveyance of well-heeled sportsmen on hunting, shooting and fishing trips, but Hans was a good German and had not ignored the military potential of his invention.
Trippel the Obersturmbannfuhrer Takes Over Bugatti
A new version appeared in 1937, with front wheel drive and a 2-Iitre Adler engine. Then came World War 2 and demand for the amphibians increased. Trippel, now an Obersturmbannfuhrer and a member of Hitler’s advisory staff, took over the Bugatti factory at Molsheim, Alsace, commandeered the machine tools that Ettore Bugatti had sent to Bordeaux in an attempt to escape the German invasion of France, and began production of twenty amphibians a month. The military Trippels had the 2.5-litre Opel engine and could reach 50 mph on land. Around 1000 were produced in all.
