Nearly 30 Years Ago, Four Men Had an Idea to Float Cars Across the Atlantic
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We can’t guarantee every detail of this story is true, but there’s enough documentation, photos, and deeply questionable decision-making to suggest it mostly happened. And honestly, this is exactly the kind of absurd, hopeful nonsense that briefly restores your faith in humanity.
This isn’t a story about boats.
(Unless your definition of a boat is extremely flexible.)
In 1999, the Amoretti brothers and a friend followed an idea that should’ve died in the planning phase: float two cars across the Atlantic. A Volkswagen Passat and a Ford Taunus were packed with foam, sealed shut, andthrough a combination of improvisation and misplaced confidence turned into something that technically floated.
There were no sponsors, no safety net, and no real precedent that we can find or discern... Just a vague belief that this might work.They pushed off from the Canary Islands and aimed the cars toward the Caribbean.
What followed wasn’t a stunt so much as a slow-motion endurance test. Months of fatigue, sickness, breakdowns, and open-ocean mind games took their toll. Eventually, two of the men bowed out. The plan unraveled. The crew shrank. Personally we can't imagine the seasickness that ensued with keeless cars adrift in the ocean.
The remaining pair kept going anyway. Day after day, horizon after horizon, until land finally showed up. One hundred nineteen days later, the cars reached the other side - ugly, uncomfortable, and absolutely successful. One of those absurd stories where the worst idea imaginable somehow becomes the right one.