In London, New Sportscar Doubles As Boat
 

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...phibious_car_3


LONDON - 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.


With a sticker price of about $235,000, the convertible has no doors in order to avoid leaks. Drivers and passengers must jump over the side to get into the car ? just like a boat.


"With this you can have a really good car on the road, and an exciting toy that can tow a water skier, that you can commute to work with, that you can go to St. Tropez with and take two girlfriends," the firm's chairman Alan Gibbs told reporters at the car's test drive on London's Thames on Wednesday.


The car is part of the Aquada Bond series, but the company couldn't say whether that is a veiled reference to James Bond and the sports-car-cum-submarine that the superspy operated in the movie "The Spy Who Loved Me."


The vehicle can switch to cruising on water within seconds, and the drive mechanism switches to power a jet that propels the vehicle, according to the company.


"The design requirements for the Aquada were daunting, but the technology has delivered and demonstrates the quality of British engineering," said Gibbs, a New Zealand entrepreneur who built his first fast amphibian vehicle in 1995, before moving his company to Britain in 1999. He said the Aquada was the product of a seven-year development program and 60 newly patented technologies.


One hundred of the cars are being built and will sell at the end of this year.

Damn nice!...but the car looks kinda weird when it's not in the water...

:repuke

thats pretty cool

James Bond where are you.... would be perfect if you lived on an island

so will you have to buy tabs for a car and a boat?

There was a demo this morning on Good Morning America and it seemed to handle quite well in the water. If you have the cash to burn for a toy like that, then enjoy it!:Graucho

Yeah i saw it on the news this morning, Its looks pretty awesome. I bet its gonna be exspensive :thumbsup

Looks like a gay Miata...

car/boats been around for a long time.. they arent very popular but they still exist i see... it think in the 60's they were called "ducks"..but not sure. I seen one on a car lot in Austin about 15 years ago and wanted to buy it...thought it would make a great get away car:thumbsup

This was done back in the 60's with another aqua car. Died a death then, it'll die a death now at that price. For those of us who live in the UK there's nowhere to really use it. Too small to be used on the sea. Too fast for rivers and inland waterways. And anyway, let's be honest, who wants to look like a dickhead when you're driving around?? ;)

Crazy !!

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com...car_lon806.jpg

Nice, but does it have a missile launcher?

The water elements would take their toll on this car, but if you can afford a$235,000 toy like this, I would imagine if it got wrecked you get another one in a year....

Cool idea but a toy that will not start no frenzy but we will see crop up in a alot of movies no doubt :-)

I have three floating around somewhere in my personal lake due south east from my current position in Rancho Saracuse.

It looked cool as fuck on the news. It was driving along the road and just pulled into the water and started heading out to see.

It would be cool to have a ferrarri model in a nice country but this one is £150,000 so I think I'll leave it :)

Nothing new, you guys are lame. This is the real deal. http://www.amphicar.com/

"sports-car-cum-submarine "



:question

sweet!:thumbsup

It means a sportscar that is also a submarine. "Cum" is latin for "with".

ah ok

thanks