WaterCar Panther looks like far too much fun! Amphibious vehicles are nothing that new but nothing has ever quite hit the spot. They’re either some sort of boat that crawls out of the water or a car that takes to the seas in a sloppy fashion. WaterCar‘s new Panther looks to finally merge the two together in an exhilarating all-terrain vehicle. Take a Jeep CJ-8, put a Honda Acura 3.7-liter V6 in the back to provide 305 hp, add a fiberglass hull, retracting wheels, and a jet boat drive and you’ve got the new Panther from WaterCar. Capable of doing over 80 mph (127 km/h) on the road and 44 mph (70 km/h) on the water, it is claimed to be the fastest amphibious car. The carbon steel frame of the jeep was too heavy for amphibious applications and so WaterCar had to design a new lightweight chassis made of chromoly steel. This has many properties better than carbon steel such as weldability, formability, strength, ductility and toughness, and although it is expensive it did solve the weight problem. The engine for the Panther is the latest-generation Acura 3.7-liter VTEC V-6 engine. An all-aluminum powerplant, the V-6 is equipped with single overhead camshaft cylinder heads and 24 valves. Entering the water can be done at speeds up to 15 mph (24 km/h) if there is no step higher than about six inches (15 cm) and the beach is sufficiently firm. Once in the water, the pilot places the four-speed in neutral, pulls a knob to switch the transfer case over to jet drive, pushes a knob to hydraulically lift the wheels and tires out of the water, and start boating. The entire procedure takes less than 15 seconds. The Panther is pricey, starting at US$76,000 for a “Rolling chassis”, $106,000 for a “Turn-key minus” version, and $135,000 for a complete Panther. The reason for the uncompleted models is that WaterCar’s legal and regulatory requirements are far less if they sell kits instead of completed vehicles.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 07:45:02 +0000