Lyndon B. Johnson kept a small blue car at his Texas ranch, and he liked to use it on guests who had no idea what it was. That car was the LBJ Amphicar, a German-built car that could also float. With a passenger aboard, Johnson would head down a slope toward the lake, yell that the brakes had failed and drive straight into the water.

The story is not a rumor passed around in car circles. Instead, it comes from Joseph A. Califano Jr., then a special assistant to the president, who rode in the car himself. Today the National Park Service, which runs the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, tells it on its page about the president’s vehicles.

So here is what happened, what the Amphicar was and what else Johnson kept at the ranch. Every detail below traces to the Park Service, the presidential library’s photo record or a reputable automotive source.

How the LBJ Amphicar prank worked

The ranch sat near Stonewall, Texas, and Johnson spent his free days there when he could get away from Washington. Califano’s first ride came on a visit to the ranch. Johnson sat at the wheel with Vicky McCammon beside him. Califano climbed into the back.

Then the president drove toward the lake. Califano recalled reaching a steep incline at the water’s edge and feeling the car start to roll fast. At that point, Johnson began shouting that the brakes would not hold and that they were going under. The car hit the water with a splash.

Califano reached for the door to get out. However, the car leveled off and began to float, and only then did he realize it was an Amphicar. According to the National Park Service, Johnson laughed and teased his aide for the rest of the evening. The president’s joke was that Califano “didn’t give a damn about his President” and only wanted to save his own skin.

Jalopnik’s history of Johnson’s cars tells the same story from Califano’s account. It also notes that playing this prank was one of Johnson’s favorite pastimes at the ranch. In other words, Califano was not the only victim.

What the Amphicar was

The Amphicar came from West Germany. A German engineer named Hans Trippel designed it, and Hagerty notes he had championed amphibious cars since the 1930s. The Park Service says builders turned out 3,878 Amphicars between 1961 and 1968. It also calls the Amphicar the only civilian amphibious passenger car ever mass-produced.

The name spelled out the performance target. According to Hagerty, the model name 770 stood for 7 knots on water and 70 mph on land. Power came from a 1,147cc Triumph Herald four-cylinder engine. At launch, it cost around 10,000 Deutschmarks, or roughly twice the price of a Volkswagen Beetle.

Most of them came to America. Hagerty puts the US share at about 90 percent. Meanwhile, the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville counts 3,046 of the 3,878 cars as imports to the United States, with the rest sold in Europe. That works out to about 79 percent, a little below Hagerty’s estimate.

Why the trick fooled people

On land, an Amphicar looked much like any other small car. A guest who had never seen one had little reason to suspect a boat. That is why the brake-failure act worked so well.

In the water, though, it changed jobs. The Lane Motor Museum explains that the engine sits at the rear and drives the rear wheels on land. Once the car is afloat, two propellers take over. Meanwhile, the front wheels act as simple rudders, so the driver keeps steering with the regular wheel.

Johnson’s car was Lagoon Blue, according to the Park Service. The factory also offered Beach White, Regatta Red and Fjord Green. As a result, the “small blue car” in Califano’s story matches the Park Service’s record of the ranch Amphicar.

The rest of the ranch garage

The Amphicar was only one of the vehicles Johnson kept at the ranch. The Park Service says the cars most tied to him were Lincoln Continental convertibles. In another Califano memory, Johnson drove a white Lincoln around the ranch with the top down on a hot day. All the while, Secret Service agents kept refilling the president’s foam cup of scotch and soda.

There was also a fire truck. The people of Brady, Texas, gave Johnson a 1915-type American La France in 1964. According to the Park Service, it could pump 1,000 gallons of water a minute and carried 1,200 feet of hose. Its six-cylinder engine made 105 horsepower.

For hunting, Johnson used a 1934 Ford Phaeton with a Lincoln Zephyr V8. It even had a steel plate underneath for rough ground. Fiat also gave him a Jolly 500 Ghia. Later, staff members’ children learned to drive in it, the Park Service says.

Where the LBJ Amphicar story is on record

Johnson’s amphibious car also shows up in the presidential photo archive. A National Archives blog post features an LBJ Library photo of the president steering the Amphicar into a lake at his Stonewall ranch. The photo is dated April 11, 1965.

In 2013, Slate’s history blog The Vault published an April 1965 photo of the same car. It notes that Johnson took two visitors along for that ride. Even so, the Park Service does not say which model year the president’s car was, so that detail stays unconfirmed. What the record does show is a Lagoon Blue Amphicar, one of 3,878 built, rolling into a Texas lake with the president at the wheel.

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This article was created with the help of AI and was reviewed and edited by Fast Lane Only editors before publication.