Sunday Driver - Page 14

This is a circa 1959 CarAqua ''F-44. " Wow! What can one say? This is one of the strangest, most outrageous, weird looking boats, ever made! There has been some research done, of which I am not yet fully informed, tying this manufacturer to both Chicago and Florida.

This was another very low production boat, without a conventionally styled model in the line to pull the company through. Only eight are known to survive at present. Mine rides atop a trailer that features Gators so called; "$100,000 Styling" fenders. They are a perfect match for the CarAqua as they have grills on the front and long, low fins on the back. CarAqua's were available in a variety of odd looking models including an outboard with a deluxe interior (such as my blue one), an open interior fishing boat called the "Station Wagon", and an inboard called the VIP for "Vertical Inboard Power"

The VI P had a Crosley automotive engine reworked to function standing on end, and attached to an OMC lower unit. The whole 4 cyl., 4 cycle engine and lower unit rotated through the floor to steer the boat. At about 45 HP, or less, it had to be a real disappointing performer on the water.

The same engine was converted into an outboard and affixed to some of the boats which were then dubbed the CarAqua F-44 which stood for Fageol 44 (Fageol was the engine conversion company). Interestingly an experimental supercharged version of the Fageol VIP may have made it briefly to market. I have located such a motor in good condition. The supercharger option was good for only a slight increase in power it but looked terrific with a GMC 6-71 style blower! I am not too farniliar with the blower nomenclature, but it may have been a 4-71? I have pictures of it and it was a fairly small unit, about half the size of what you would see on a street machine.

Among the 8 boats I am aware of, there is only one VIP model CarAqua.