Only 30 years after James Bond drove his car into water and it turned into a submarine in "The Spy Who Loved Me," a submersible open-air car has become a reality at the Geneva Motor Show. Dubbed the 'sQuba," it is the brainchild of Rinspeed's boss Frank M. Rinderknecht.
"For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly underwater. Now we have made this dream come true," Rinderknecht said.
Military vehicles are able to submerge but must drive on the ground underwater. The sQuba, on the the other hand, is capable of submerged stabile flight to a depth of 32 feet. "It is undoubtedly not an easy task to make a car watertight and pressure resistant enough to be maneuverable underwater. The real challenge, however, was to create a submersible car that moves like a fish in water," Rinderknecht said.
The first step was to remove the combustion engine and replace it with several electronic motors. Three motors are located in the rear with one providing propulsion on land and two for underwater propulsion.
Driving sQuba into the water makes it float. Cracking the door to let in water starts the process to your underwater journey. Breathing air comes from an integrated tank of compressed that similar to what scuba divers use. "For safety reasons we have built the vehicle as an open car so that the occupants can get out quickly in an emergency," Rinderknecht said. "With an enclosed cabin, opening the door might be impossible." The interior was designed to be resistant to both freshwater and salt water.
Another reason for the open air cabin was the the two cubic meters of air that a closed cabin would create, the vehicle would have to weigh two tons more to counteract the buoyancy that would be present, making the car sluggish with the mobility of a turtle. Top speed on land for sQuba is 77 mph, slowing to 3 mph on the water and 1.8 mph underwater.
The only current version of the car is a concept that cost $1.5 million to make but Rinspeed is in discussion with manufacturers about producing a limited run, priced somewhere below $400,000.
"I don't see mass transportation switching to cars that dive," Rinderknecht said.
Watch sQuba in action:
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