AzMotorNews.Com
The Aquada Amphicar (100mph on land & 30mph
on water)
by Ian Norris in TheCarConnection.Com's 9-5-03 Edition
WORLD REPORT: Aquada Goes Amphicar
A new British
car, the Aquada, promises to rewrite the book on amphibious vehicles by
achieving maximum speeds of 100 mph on land and 30 mph on water. Previous
amphibians, whether they be military vehicles or private 'cars', have been
notable for their slow and clumsy progress on both land and water. The Aquada,
however, was designed from the start with performance in mind, and in a recent
demonstration to the press on the River Thames close to London's historic Tower
Bridge it showed on-water abilities that would not disgrace a speedboat.
The car/boat is the result of the efforts of Alan Gibbs, a New Zealand-born
entrepreneur who built a fortune in his native country in finance, media and the
motor business. In 1995, he built an amphibian to use at a seaside property, and
this set him on the road to creating a true amphibian that would perform well on
land and water, rather than being an inadequate compromise on both, as earlier
efforts had proved to be.
The overall proof of the concept was realised by a team working for Gibbs in
Detroit, where the work they were doing attracted the attention of British
engineer Neil Jenkins, who counted the names of Jaguar, Rolls-Royce and British
Aerospace among those on his resumé. Jenkins became involved in the project and
designed a unique design for the body that provided the necessary strength
requirements for both road and water use. Further work overcame the problems of
retracting the wheels and transferring the drive from the road wheels to a
water-jet system, and by 1998 the project was ready to be prepared for
production.
Small-scale specialist production requires particular skills and
infrastructure, and it was decided that the best base for the production unit
would be in Britain. In early 1999, a factory was set up at Nuneaton, in the
English midlands, and Jenkins, now Managing Director of the new company, began
to build a team to develop and produce Gibbs' dream car. While at Jaguar,
Jenkins had worked on XJ220, the company's supercar of the early 1980's, and he
involved members of the XJ220 team in the new venture. Among them was chassis
and suspension guru Jim Randle, formerly Jaguar's Director of Engineering and
now a professor of engineering at Birmingham University. The team of around
seventy engineers started work on making the amphibian a production reality, and
now they - and Alan Gibbs - feel it is ready for market.
Styled in-house by Steve Bailey, the Aquada combines elements of both
speedboats and sports cars in a shape that manages to capture the best of both
worlds. There are compromises, but they do not harm the finished product. There
are no doors, for instance, but entry and exit is easy on land thanks to
'running boards' set low on the body sides. The driving position is at the
center of a three-seat layout, but ever since McLaren built its F1 supercar,
which also put the driver in the middle of three seats, this layout has a
certain appeal for car enthusiasts.
Powered by a 175-horsepower 2.5-liter V6 engine, the Aquada drives normally
on the road and via a jet system that draws water in and ejects it under a
pressure of almost a ton in water. The Nuneaton factory is now ready to receive
orders, at a price of around £150,000 ($230,000 approx.) -Written by Ian
Norris and reported in TCC'S Daily Edition: 9-5-03 www.thecarconnection.com
by Ian Norris in TheCarConnection.Com's 9-5-03 Edition