Return of the Aquatic Car

[superintelligentone]

Return of the Aquatic Car

I saw on MSN, a newsstory about a fast aquatic sports car!

I remember watching 'Get Smart' during the mid 1960s and saw that Max had an amphibious car. It was a real car that could drive in water, but at slow speeds. It was called the Amphibicar and was made by a German company.
Amphicar - Wikipedia

There's a photo and a more detailed story on the website, but I'm going to post the car's performance.

Performance
The powerplant was the 1147 cc (69 in³) engine from the British Triumph Herald. Many engines were tried in prototypes but the Triumph engine was "state of the art" in 1961 and had the necessary combination of perfomance, weight, cool running and reliability. This engine remained in production in the Triumph Spitfire until 1979.

The Amphicar engine had a power output of 43 hp (32 kW) at 4750 rpm. Called the "Model 770", the Amphicar could achieve speeds of 7 knots in the water and 70 mph (113 km/h) on land. Later versions of the engine displaced 1300cc and 1500cc and produced up to 75bhp. Some Amphicar owners have fitted these engines to improve performance.

It was said that the Amphicar wasn't a very good car and wasn't a very good boat because of modest performance in and out of water, :lol:
but in many parts of the world it is capable of breaking the speed limits on both.

In water as well as on land, the Amphicar steered with the front wheels, which made it very easy to "drive" in the water, although it was not as maneuverable as a conventional boat.

History

Production started in 1961. After 1963 cars were assembled from parts inventory built up in anticipation of sales of 20,000 per year. Production ended in 1968. Most Amphicars were sold in the United States. Cars were sold in the UK from 1964. Total production was 3,878 vehicles before the company folded.

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Here is the story about the new amphibious car. There is a picture of the car pulling a water skier.
MSN | Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Breaking News, and Latest Videos

Pricey convertible works as a speedboat, too
Amphibious vehicle coming to U.S. in 2009 (with an $85,000 price tag)

Gibbs Technologies Ltd. is about to begin marketing the Aquada, a vehicle with what it calls "amphibian" technology. With just the press of a button, this sporty convertible becomes a speedboat.

The Aquada is expected to be available in the U.S. in 2009 with a price tag of $85,000, according to Holly Clark of AutoCom Associates, Gibbs' public relations firm. The company arrived at that price by considering the cost of a motor boat and the truck and trailer typically needed to pull it, Clark said. A small fleet of pre-production models were sold in Europe in 2003, where the price exceeded $200,000.

Gibbs, which is based in the U.K., plans to move its production to the U.S. and open three companies here. One of them, Gibbs Amphibians, would manufacture the Aquada. Currently, 10 of its Aquadas are being tested in Michigan by Gibbs engineers.

The company says the vehicle can simply be driven right into the water. It takes about five seconds for the wheels to retract and for the power to switch from a four-cylinder, 175-hp V6 engine to water-jet propulsion.

"There is a second of panic when you drive the car into the water," Clark said, "and then it is so much fun!"

The vehicle, which has a five-speed automatic transmission, can go up to 100 mph on land, and up to 30 mph on water (enough oomph to tow a water skier). It supposedly transitions from water to land just as easily as it does from land to water.

The Aquada has three seats and the steering wheel is in the middle of the dashboard. The driver sits in the center, slightly forward from the other two seats. There is no grille, for obvious reasons. All venting to the engine is from the top. There are no doors either (all the better to perfect your cool hop-in-the-car move).

Cool! Can you imagine the looks that you'd get driving a car in the water?
:lol: