Britain Launches Sports Car That Doubles As Boat

[gt5s_1985]

From Yahoo news, see [http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=Business&cat=Automobiles_and_Driving]

-snip-
In London, New Sportscar Doubles As Boat
(AP) - Britain's newest sports car took a test drive Wednesday, zooming back and forth across the waters of the Thames River in pure James Bond style. The Aquada can hit speeds of 100 miles an hour on land — and once it hits water, the wheels retract into the wheel arch, jets kick in, and the car is suddenly a boat. Once waterborne it can reach speeds of 30 miles per hour, according to Gibbs Technologies, the British firm that designed it.-snip-

Sounds a little pricey, but you'll be the only one on your block with one of these! Seven photos are provided on the webpage...

[ohidunno]

I've just seen this machine in action on the telly. Although the idea is not new it does seem to perform well on water and on the road. Most of these vehicles usually crawl along. Looks good too.

[dandarez]

i heard price around 150 grand... NO CHANCE. another one bites the dust.... and so it carries on.

[madant69]

No-one will spend that on a car. They need to market it as a boat that doubles as a sportscar!

[AllTorque]

I saw it on the news too - it was bloody amazing! If I was loaded I'd definitely get one. Would help if it was Esprit shaped though....

[samwilliams]

dandarez said:

i heard price around 150 grand... NO CHANCE. another one bites the dust.... and so it carries on.

I think I read somewhere that they weren't really planning on selling many, if any of the cars. It was more as a display for several seperate bits of technology that were incorporated into it, and I think that it said that several of these already had companies approaching them to use it.

So it's seems it's more to market all the individual bits of technology in one quite impressive, yet completely unsellable, package.

[Fatboy]

madant69 said:

No-one will spend that on a car. They need to market it as a boat that doubles as a sportscar!

If I had the cash, they'd already have my order - it's just so utterly bonkers. I love it.

[gnomesmith]

Revealing that the design team are Geoff Randle and his Brown's Lane buddies gives this project added credibility.

Rover KV6, an interesting choice of power unit.

Many years ago I was involved in the supply of ex Dowty Turbocraft (speedboat) radiators to Tornado Cars to fit in their Ford Cortina GT & Twin Cam powered Fiat 600s. The prototype, BOM 1 went very well at the 1966 Blackbushe Drag Fest and David Render made good use of a later version in speed events. Its interesting to see technological cross over in practice.

>> Edited by gnomesmith on Tuesday 9th September 20:48