Wednesday 17th October 2012

Gibbs Quadski resurfaces

One for all you Riviera playboys out there, now you can be unpopular on land and water!

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Remember the Gibbs Aquada? The amphibious car made a big splash (strike one Nick - Ed.) at the 2004 Birmingham motor show and then sunk without trace, so to speak (strike two - Ed.).

Saddled with the looks of an MX-5 suffering water retention and a £150,000 proposed price tag, it was never going very far, but then Rover, who supplied its 2.5-litre V6, went under and the project was shelved.

Happier in the waves...

The technology lived on however and Gibbs (no relation to your author) has just announced an amphibious quad bike for sale in the States for a (slightly) more palatable $40,000 (£24,800). This one's actually going to happen - the New Zealand-based company has bought a factory, in Detroit no less, and production is slated to start this month.

We asked via email whether it was coming here and the tumbleweed blew. Okay, there's probably not huge demand in the UK, but it does look quite impressive.

As with the Aquada, the Quadski can be driven straight into water, at which point you press a button to retract the wheels and five seconds later you're off again, pushed forward by a jetski-style water jet propulsion. According to the company the top speed of 45mph is the same on water as it is on land. Power comes from a 1,300cc four-cylinder BMW motorbike engine making 175hp, and the gearshift is from a BMW bike as well.

...but handy if you fancy a beachside cocktail

Despite the German powertrain, there's a good bit of British know-how in the tech. Founder Alan Gibbs might be a Kiwi entrepreneur, but CEO Neil Jenkins is a talented Brit engineer who played a key part in the development of the Jaguar XJ220 supercar.

In fact the Aquada team had quite a few ex-Jaguar staff working on it, so with the technology finally coming to market, we can look proudly on the Quadski as a brilliantly bonkers example of ingenious British engineering.

Looks wise, that that wide body and those puny wheels don't do it many favours on land, but visually it works much better in water. Looks great fun actually: we'd be willing to shell out big money to hire it somewhere warm such as the 4x4 paradise of Fraser Island in Queensland, Australia. Less so in the Cirencester gravel pits near Swindon.

 

[Ex Boy Racer]

That looks like loads of fun! Are they legal on -road?

[MentalRental]

A good idea until you put a hole in the hull whilst off roading to your watery destination

[Jalexp]

Is that Bono in the main article picture?

[Ex Boy Racer]

Jalexp said:

Is that Bono in the main article picture?

i think it's mork from ork

[LuS1fer]

Love it but not at that price. Surely cheaper to buy a quad and a trailer and jetski separately? Then again, maybe not but 45mph will get you nowhere fast.

[205alive]

175hp from a 1300? Sounds quite high, anyone got any info on how that's achieved - not saying I think it's a bold claim, just wondering if it's got something to do with marine engine / emissions legislation differences as opposed to a pure on/off road engine - ie, less 'strangulation/untuning'.

Or does this particular 1.3 have a few tricks up its wet liners?

[kambites]

205alive said:

175hp from a 1300?

It's about par for the course for a bike engine. I'd guess it's the engine out of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_K1300R

[E-B]

As the tide was up my driveway ths morning, one of these might be useful.

[sugerbear]

Say you want to get to central london from (say) Southend and the A13 is blocked.

Simply drive to the beach, convert to a jetski and drive off. At the other end drive up one of the embankments and carry on your journey to work.

No sweaty bus/train journey, no hold ups on the motorway !!

[P-Jay]

Ahhh Fraser Island, once of the best places on Earth.

Not so sure about the Quadski though... I'm no expert but I'm sure for the same money you could get a quad that goes faster than 40 and handles, a Jetski smaller than the moon and a good trailer to merge the two.

[Robmarriott]

Their HQ is half a mile from my old house, it's more like an office block than a manufacturing facility, very odd.

[crofty1984]

LuS1fer said:

Love it but not at that price. Surely cheaper to buy a quad and a trailer and jetski separately? Then again, maybe not but 45mph will get you nowhere fast.

On water? that's got to be about 30 knots.
Guess it's not too bad for off roading and on the beach. How fast are normal quads?

[[AJ]]

LuS1fer said:

Love it but not at that price. Surely cheaper to buy a quad and a trailer and jetski separately? Then again, maybe not but 45mph will get you nowhere fast.

£25k will indeed buy you a far better ski (70+mph Yamaha VXS - £12k), a trailer (<£1k) and a much better quad ( Yamaha YZF 450R - £8,699).

[rivercar1981]

It's ideal for island hopping around the Caribbean or such like.

Prob best for hire companies in these areas. Id hire one.

[b14]

Not sure I'd go jetski-ing from Fraser Island - high chance of being eaten by tiger sharks.

[LuS1fer]

[AJ] said:

LuS1fer said:

Love it but not at that price. Surely cheaper to buy a quad and a trailer and jetski separately? Then again, maybe not but 45mph will get you nowhere fast.

£25k will indeed buy you a far better ski (70+mph Yamaha VXS - £12k), a trailer (<£1k) and a much better quad ( Yamaha YZF 450R - £8,699).

Ah. However, thinking about it, you'd have to tow a trailer and then run the risk that one or other would be nicked by a mysterious blue Transit while using one or the other.

[Glade]

If only Baywatch was still on TV!

[richardxjr]

sugerbear said:

Say you want to get to central london from (say) Southend and the A13 is blocked.

Simply drive to the beach, convert to a jetski and drive off. At the other end drive up one of the embankments and carry on your journey to work.

No sweaty bus/train journey, no hold ups on the motorway !!

PWCs not allowed up the Thames, past Dartford anyway iirc. Not sure about quads though

This toy solves a launching problem (dire lack of slipways around the SE coast's shingle beaches). Although it appears underpowered, slow and heavy, I would like to try one.

[leon9191]

[AJ] said:

LuS1fer said:

Love it but not at that price. Surely cheaper to buy a quad and a trailer and jetski separately? Then again, maybe not but 45mph will get you nowhere fast.

£25k will indeed buy you a far better ski (70+mph Yamaha VXS - £12k), a trailer (<£1k) and a much better quad ( Yamaha YZF 450R - £8,699).

Yes but if you had say... a yacht then a Quadski would make a huge amount of sense wouldn't it.

Also how many people actually own personally either a quad or a jet ski? I would imagine most of these will be sold to the adventure hire type companies again where they make a lot of sense.

[P-Jay]

b14 said:

Not sure I'd go jetski-ing from Fraser Island - high chance of being eaten by tiger sharks.

That's true, plus I imagine if you rolled up to any of the fresh water lakes and tried launching someone, in fact anyone would have something to say about it.