BRITAIN: The ultimate "boys' toy" - a high-speed land and water vehicle - was launched on the River Thames yesterday.
The amphibious vehicle is designed to reach speeds of 100m.p.h. on land and over 30m.p.h. on water and can switch between the two surfaces at the flick of a button.
According to its designers it is neither a boat with wheels nor just a waterproof car.
Gibbs Technologies says that no other road-legal amphibian has managed to exceed 6m.p.h. on water. The Gibbs Aquada took seven years to reach fruition, with 70 engineers spending one million hours and tens of millions of pounds to create the vehicle.
Company founder and chairman Mr Alan Gibbs said he had filed 60 patents and complied with every regulation for cars and boats in the rule book.
"This is new in the way that helicopters were new or Harrier jump jets were new," he said. "It's a genuine amphibian which has been an international project but it's British engineering which has made it possible."
Mr 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 producing a launch series of 100 vehicles.
The Gibbs Aquada Bond Series will cost £150,000 (€217,660). The company believes that people will pay for the "freedom and experience" the novelty vehicle will allow.
The Aquada is a two-wheel drive which uses unleaded petrol and has an engine of 175hp.
It has no doors, but the driver climbs over the side to get in. It has a range of 50 miles and has been designed to go in the sea or fresh water. Mr Gibbs claims it performs as well as or better than jet boats of a similar size.
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. The Thames is a perfect location to make use of this vehicle as it has no speed limit and is greatly under-utilised."
Mr Gibbs, an entrepreneur from New Zealand, funded the project with Mr Jenkins and their families. - (PA)