KEY POINTS:
Over three decades after Bond's car hit the water in The Spy Who Loved Me, Swiss concept specialist Rinspeed says it has not only figured out how to make a car drive underwater, it's built one.
The sQuba, says the company known for its highly-modified, unusual-looking cars, is
the world's first "truly submersible" car - and it will be showing it off at the Geneva Motor Show next week.
Rinspeed boss Frank Rinderknecht is often credited for thinking outside the box, and often accused of thinking outside the planet - which may explain his 30-year submarine Bond fixation.
"For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly under water," he says, "now we have made this dream come true.
"It is undoubtedly not an easy task to make a car watertight and pressure resistant enough to be manoeuvrable under water. The real challenge however was to create a submersible car that moves like a fish in water."
Rinspeed's press release on the water-tight sports car claims a stable flight at a depth of ten metres - which is what sets it apart from military submersibles.
As combustion engines are as effective in water as a stirred Martini is for a secret agent, the petrol-burner was binned in favour of three electric motors. One is used to provide drive on land, while the other two turn the propellers for underwater motoring. These are in turn supported by two Seabob jet drives, which are fed 'breath' by rotating louvers that open and close the water intake. The rotating outlet jets are incredibly light and twist resistant, made from carbon nano tubes.
The sQuba's power comes from a bank of rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries.
"The 'sQuba' is a zero-emission car," says Rinderknecht.
"It produces no exhaust emissions. The Swiss are among the world's pioneers in the area of hydropower. The 'sQuba's' filling station is the water reservoir."
To avoid ending up sleeping with the fishes, occupants of the open-top sports car breathe from an integrated tank of compressed air similar to that used by scuba divers.
"For safety reasons we have built the vehicle as an open car so that the occupants can get out quickly in an emergency. With an enclosed cabin opening the door might be impossible."
Without occupants the sQuba surfaces automatically. It is also capable of driving itself on land courtesy of laser sensor system experts Ibeo.
Another reason for the open top approach was the enclosed volume of just two cubic metres of air, the car's weight needed to increase by 2000kg to counteract its buoyancy, killing off any performance potential on land.
It uses stainless KW Automotive coilovers with custom AEZ 17 and 18-inch wheels when on terra firma.
High-tech VDO instrument cluster and controls create a futuristic ambiance and allow controlling all vehicle functions even while submerged.
"The 'sQuba' lets me be one with the elements and lets me immerse myself in a new and fascinating world - with Q factor," says Rinderknecht.
