{"id":1954,"date":"2012-07-10T16:33:07","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T06:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=1954"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:44:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:44:55","slug":"making-a-big-splash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/home\/making-a-big-splash\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a Big Splash"},"content":{"rendered":"

What about a car that can travel across water?\u00a0 An amphibious vehicle is the sort of machine that really captures my imagination and sends it spinning from one daydream to another.\u00a0 But will it really be a dream for so many, or will it become a vehicle that everyone will want and everyone will be able to afford?<\/p>\n

Across the ditch in September 2009, a few young entrepreneurs (whose daytime jobs were aeronautic engineers) managed to cross the Cook Strait in a van which they bought for $2500.\u00a0 After a few essential modifications, Adam Turnbull and Dan Melling took it across the sea from Picton to Wellington.\u00a0 On the open road, the van could easily travel at 100 km\/h. \u00a0But on the water, its top speed was around 9 km\/h.\u00a0 So it\u2019s possible.\u00a0 Now where\u2019s that arc welder?\u00a0 Maybe I could do that to my Nissan Navara ute.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now to something a little more upmarket; not a van this time, but a vehicle made in Australia and one that looks more 4×4 in its shape.\u00a0 With a top speed of 100 km\/h on the road, the Australian built Platypus has serious 4×4 ability and is capable of seven knots on the water.\u00a0 What this machine has going for it is that it can withstand heavy seas.\u00a0 The Platypus would have to be the amphibious vehicle I would prefer to be in if I was to head out to sea off the coast at Freemantle.\u00a0 Boyd Wyatt, the Australian designer\/builder of the Platypus amphibious 4×4, said, “I love what others have done with their amphibious concepts, but I decided to make a vehicle that was affordable to the people who would really use them. \u00a0I figure there’s a vast market of people who live in coastal regions who want a genuine, working amphibious 4×4, not a high speed US$200,000 sportscar. \u00a0So I set out to build such a vehicle under US$50,000, and I’ve done that with room to spare”.\u00a0 This is a real cool vehicle, so Boyd can be contacted at boyd@ecn.net.au<\/a> should this machine tickle your fancy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So what\u2019s left?\u00a0 The Aquada and Rinspeed.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a look at the Saleen Aquada amphibious vehicle first.\u00a0 The Saleen Aquada is a land and water vehicle that is capable of reaching 64 km\/h on the water. \u00a0The Saleen Aquada drives like a sports car on the road, and then once you hit the water, the vehicle will become like a speedboat on water.\u00a0 Only a very calm Sydney Harbour sea will do, however.\u00a0 A lake, calm sea, meandering river or estuary is more like the place you\u2019ll take the Saleen Aquada.\u00a0 Very cool is the simple press of a button and drive into the water fun factor. \u00a0The wheels automatically rise. \u00a0Entry to the water is via beach, boat ramp, slipway or directly from the water’s edge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rinspeed \u201cSplash\u201d is another very ingenious amphibious vehicle.\u00a0 Again at the push of a button, a cleverly thought-out hydraulic mechanism transforms the sports car into an amphibious vehicle. \u00a0Frank M. Rinderknecht designed the machine, and clever it is.\u00a0 A highly complex integrated hydrofoil system enables the \u201cSplash\u201d to \u2018fly\u2019 at an altitude of about 60 cm above the water.\u00a0 On smooth water, the \u201cSplash\u201d is capable of reaching a top speed of about 80 km\/h.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Surely we are going to see more of these types of vehicle on the road.\u00a0 Maybe the Chinese will catch on, and we\u2019ll see a mass production of cheap amphibious vehicles suddenly burst onto the market.\u00a0 People are going to love driving these vehicles to work if it is going to cut their commute by 30 mins or more by venturing, via the direct route, across the water to the office. http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/offers-zaim\/bistrodengi-zaymi-online-nalichnymi.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What about a car that can travel across water?\u00a0 An amphibious vehicle is the sort of machine that really captures my imagination and sends it spinning from one daydream to another.\u00a0 But will it really be a dream for so many, or will it become a vehicle that everyone will want and everyone will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1954"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12289,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions\/12289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}