[glitch]

Found something interesting, figured I'd share it with the rest of
you since we're all into cars and new technology and such.

---

http://www.canada.com/technology/story. ... 5C71-4A94-
8B55-5D5EFEE30A10

Highlights:

(CP) - A New Zealand company is behind what it calls the world's
first high speed sports amphibian vehicle. Gibbs Technologies
launched the so-called Aquada Wednesday on the River Thames in
central London.

---

Also, this article offered more technical details but not a picture
like the canada.com article:

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... 6683101.ht
m

Highlights:

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...

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... (It also has 3 seats in the front)

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

 

[james]

Hardly a new idea - I remember seeing something of the sort from the '50s or early '60s. Not as fast, I think. Looked sort of like a little Rambler with a prop sticking out the back.

 

[Jim]

amphibious automobiles

Yeah - they weren't fast, but they were totally cool. We had a local Amphicar dealership. They didn't cost quite as much, either...

http://www.amphicar.com/

 

[glitch]

Amphicar, intriguing. Yeah, they're top speed is only 12mph in the water so this new one they made beats it, but it's expensive. I guess they stopped working on "those" kind of cars and now it's making a come back w/ this new one. This new one's key benefit is it's much faster on water and land. But for $250,000... heh, I'll wait til it drops to a more reasonable rate. Still would be a fun thing to have, even an older amphicar would be fun, combine 2 of my hobbies, driving and boating. Would make up for my Insight's inability to tow a boat, hehe, just use the "other" car.

 

[gomarlins3]

$235,000- um, let's see. I can get a really nice boat/ trailer combo with an excellent truck to pull it with as well as a Z06, S2000, and a M3 SMG for the same price. Geez, decisions, decisions.

 

[glitch]

lol. true.

 

[Guest]

Waste of time

What I ask is the point of that, it's got over 170bhp & will only 100mph !!!!!

For that sort of cash you could buy a bloody nice car & a boat.

The car would do the car thing properly & the boat would do the boat thing properly.

 

[james]

Hummm... Do you suppose they'll also bring back the Aerocar?

It has crossed my mind that the Insight's lightweight engine might do quite well in a homebuilt airplane...

 

[The Citrus Smoothie]

Vandenbrink Carver - Half Motorbike / Half Car

Sorry but the Aquada is just a James Bond throwback and an expensive one at that.

If we are discussing 'new' forms of transport, which are slightly more practical, then check out the website below. Hopefully you guys haven't seen it yet.

http://www.carver.nl/home.htm

 

[glitch]

That's kind of kewl, the Carver. I want one in the U.S... They always get all the cool things in other countries. Even the '04 Prius won't have the self-parking feature nor the Electric-only feature that the Japanese version will have. And the Japanese Insight has the GPS computer and such that we don't get offered. I'd move to Japan if I didn't have a completely and utter non-skill of learning new languages.