The Panther is capable of doing 80mph on the road and 45mph once in the water. Image: WaterCar
The Panther is capable of doing 80mph on the road and 45mph once in the water. Image: WaterCar
Until now, if you wanted to spot a water car, you’d be best looking on the set of a James Bond movie.
California-based company WaterCar, however, have launched a real-life amphibious vehicle, which can miraculously transform from Jeep to boat in only 15 seconds.
The Panther, as it’s aptly called, is capable of doing 80mph on the road and 45mph once in the water - almost as fast as the average speedboat.
Fitted with a 3.7 litre V6 engine, the design of the Panther is based on a Jeep CJ8. A normal Jeep chassis would have been too heavy for an amphibious vehicle, so this chassis is made from chromoly steel.
Fred Selby from WaterCar, based in Newport Beach California, spent 11 years fine-tuning his creation before he felt ready to unleash it on the market.
Selby is confident that his invention will be well received - he has said that nothing compares to driving a Panther and that people will be “absolutely blown away by it.”
If you’ve been waiting your whole life for one of these, the Panther starts at £49,800 ($76,000) for a ‘Rolling Chassis’, £70,000 ($106,000) for a ‘Turn-key minus version’ (doesn’t come with an engine, bizarrely) and £89,000 ($135,000) for a complete Panther.
We’ll hand it to Fred, this definitely looks like it has the fun factor; however, if we’re going to fork out £89,000, we’d probably go for a Porsche 911 Carrera.
You’ve probably guessed that we don’t have any amphibious vehicles in stock, but we do have an excellent range of Jeeps for your off-roading adventures.
