Iconic Films
2 for 1 tickets to Singin' In The Rain, this coming Monday. Book now
Navigation - link to other main sections from here
High speed aqua-car takes the plunge
The car is designed to reach speeds of 100mph on land and more than 30mph on water and can switch between the two surfaces at the switch of a button.
According to its designers the Gibbs Aquada is neither a boat with wheels nor just a waterproof car. Gibbs Technologies says that no other road-legal amphibian has managed to exceed 6mph on water.
The vehicle took seven years to reach fruition, with 70 engineers spending one million hours and tens of millions of pounds to create the vehicle.
The company believes that people will pay the £150,000 tag for the “freedom and experience” that the novelty vehicle will allow.
The Aquada is a two-wheel drive which uses unleaded petrol and has an engine of 175hp, not disimilar to a BMW 3-Series.
It has no doors, but the driver climbs over the side to get in. The car uses a tonne of thrust to get out of the water back on the road. The engine is in the middle of the car and it is rear wheel drive, like many larger cars.
It has a range of 50 miles in the water and has been designed to go in the sea or fresh water.
The car would avoid Central London’s congestion charge, as the river vehicles are not subject to the tax. Drivers could go from Chelsea Harbour to London City Airport without being subject to the £5 charge.
Ken Livingstone, the Major of London, is currently trying to encourage greater use of the Thames, and has given speeches encouraging commuters to consider going to work by boat.
Alan Gibbs, the company founder and chairman, said that he had filed 60 patents and compiled with every regulation for cars and boats in the rule book.
He said: “This is new in the way that helicopters were new or Harrier jump jets were new."
Since the invention of the car, there have been many attempts to develop amphibian vehicles, but they have failed because of the vehicle’s inability to climb out of the water and skim along the surface.
Neil Jenkins, managing director of Gibbs Technologies, claimed this engineering breakthrough was a world first.
He said that by licensing the technology a whole new spectrum of vehicles would be born. The company is currently producing a launch series of 100 vehicles due to be available later this year.
Although the makers hope their vehicle could be used for leisure, they say the technology could one day service the military, emergency and rescue services.
“It is in the first instance a recreational vehicle, a sports car and a sports boat,” said Mr Gibbs.
“But it could be a commuter city vehicle which avoids commuter congestion.
Mr Gibbs, an entrepreneur from New Zealand who now lives in London, has funded the project himself along with Mr Jenkins and their families.