Aquatic car going to America (not driving all the way)
A British car which can convert from being a car to a boat in 12 seconds is to be sold in America.
Costing $85,000 the Aquada car has top speeds of 110 mph (on land) and 30 mph (on water) and is powerful enough to pull a water skier.
Makers UK-based Gibbs Technologies say the car/boat will go on sale in North America in 2009 and that they expect sales of 100,000 per year by 2014.
The car cost over $100m to develop but has proved it can live up to the hype when in 2005, billionaire Richard Branson used one to cross the English Channel in under two hours.
"A commercially viable high-speed amphibious vehicle has eluded auto manufacturers, entrepreneurs and inventors for more than 100 years," a spokesman for Gibbs noted.
"Recent developments in light-weight materials, engine technology and vehicle architecture, however, have enabled us to accomplish what many believed to be impossible."
Employment at new Gibbs facilities in North America is expected to total more than 1,500 within three years.
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