Slashdot Mirror
A Camaro That Leaves A Wake
Artana Niveus Corvum writes "I came across this entirely at random, but it seems like someone with too much time on his hands has taken an old idea and improved on it... and come up with something truly unique and cool: a car based on a 2002 Camaro body with a Subaru WRX Turbo engine (300 horsepower) capable of going over 125MPH that doubles as a boat capable of going over 40MPH."
Slight nitpick, but is it using the engine from a WRX or an STi? They're essentially the same car, but the WRX puts out around 230 horsepower whereas the STi puts out either 276 or 300, depending on where in the world you are.
This is a really interesting project either way, neat hack.
well this says 34.74 knots
I've left to find myself. If you happen to see me, please, keep me there until I return.
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units knows all
ianw@mingus:~$ units
2084 units, 71 prefixes, 32 nonlinear units
You have: 40mph
You want: knot
* 34.75905
/ 0.028769486
So about 35 knots
You can use google and type in this:
40mph in knots
it will give you this:
40 mph = 34.7590497 knots
Dave March - Builder of the WaterCar
WaterCar, Inc. is the brainchild of Dave March and his two sons. For over thirty years March has been an avid high performance car and boat enthusiast. His passion and desire has been for building and piloting fast planes, boats and cars. To facilitate his obsession for cars and boats he also developed a knack for repairing wrecked cars and boats. For the past twenty years March started and developed his collision repair business into one of the largest, most state of the art facilities in the world. He then took many of the systems and repair techniques that he developed and co-founded the Caliber Collision Center Franchise which currently has annual revenue of over 155 million.
In 1998 March accepted an offer to sell his business and semi-retired. After putting the finishing touches on his large custom home he built on the golf course in Newport Coast above his 6,000 square foot basement garage/design center equipped with every conceivable tool and piece of equipment imaginable found himself with a lot of spare time and pent up creative juices. This is dangerous combination for Dave March. He was looking for a challenge when his youngest son began looking at amphibious cars. Together they found a 1964 Amphicar and restored it. After all the work, they were disappointed by its performance. It was fun to drive into the water, but once in the water, it was slow and not as much fun as expected.
March threw himself into researching every amphibious vehicle in the world and discovered that amphibious vehicles are much more popular in Europe. And, to his astonishment, he realized that of all the vehicles ever built, no one had successfully built a true high performance amphibious vehicle.
That's when it hit him- why not combine his love of high performance cars and boats into a single, high performance amphibious car? "Everything he needed was right here in Southern California". The best hydraulics are available from the low-rider crowd and the rear-engine drive technology from the high performance sand-rail market. Every drive train combination you could imagine is available for inspection at Glamis. The brakes, suspension and speed accessories come from the hot rod aftermarket industry which is booming in Southern California. The most important part, hull and jet configuration, from the performance- boat industry along with unlimited input from great boat people that are very willing to help. He started thinking he could build a high performance amphibious car from off the shelf parts.
March wanted to build a four-seater, yet still keep the car sporty looking. The 2002 Camaro was the ideal starting point. He purchased a Camaro fiberglass funny-car shell body, added hundreds of labor hours and he had a great looking Camaro car/boat plug. He built the molds from the plug and proceeded to build the first parts.
March built a lightweight stainless frame to mount the suspension and motor to and fit it to the body. The challenge was to make the wheels retractable. He attended a couple of low-rider shows to figure how to make the wheels retractable and settled on using parts from Homies Hydraulics. The motor and jet combo was another significant challenge, particularly getting it all to fit in the trunk area. March wanted the WaterCar to look as much like a stock Camaro as possible.
The first time on the water, the vehicle performed beautifully, with only one significant problem: "It wouldn't plane out!" He made multiple trial trips back and forth to the lake, adding more boost for additional power and tinkering on the jet setup. After some additional work on the bottom, he was finally getting on plane easily and reaching 45 mph. Success at last!
The newest version of March's handiwork drives just like a car on the road and actually handles very well with the Corvette suspension. "It has plenty of power from the Subaru 2.5 Turbo WRX motor. When you go in the water, you simply drive in, put the transmission in neutral, engage the jet, fl
1 knot = 1.1km/h
no, 1 knot = 1.15 mph = 1.852 km/h
Previously on slashdot, for only 150,000 pounds
Pictures of Watercar and Aquada. http://www.jetski.com/article.cfm?id=433
:)
Nice to see that the watercar is 150K while the other Aquada is 235K.
Now lets see something a slashdot reader can afford.
and come up with something truly unique and cool: a car ... that doubles as a boat
Maybe cool, but not unique! There was a story about a sportcar/speedboat that came up a while back. True, it can only go 100mph on land and 30mph in the water, but I'd say it's close enough to say it's not unique.
Oh yeah, and this site called Slash- something or other posted about the the same vehicle.
(note: not that I'm upset with the content of this news item, I think it's even cooler to have modded a car to do this than to create one from scratch -- I just have a problem with hype like saying something is new and unique when it's not)
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
Popular mechanics a few months back. Old news.
What the heck is a 'sig'?
Just in case the server crashes and burns (like they usually do),I have put up a mirror.o m/meetbuilder.html o m/ o m/photo.html
The mirror of http://www.watercar.com/meetbuilder.html is at http://mirrorit.demonmoo.com/r_215/www.watercar.c
The mirror of http://www.watercar.com/ is at http://mirrorit.demonmoo.com/r_215/www.watercar.c
The mirror of http://www.watercar.com/photo.html is at http://mirrorit.demonmoo.com/r_215/www.watercar.c
As such Google tells me that 45 mph = 39.1039309 knots.
Pretty decent speed, that....
Important info:
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http://dieoff.org/synopsis.htm
http://www.peakoil.net
Buncha morons posting trashtalk here... Lets see how many idiotic comments don't make any sense.
1. Camaro has 4 seats, not 2, and this boatcar also has 4 seats.
2. The subaru engine has plenty of power to push a car like this to over 125 mph. The basic camaro RS has less power than that subaru engine and can take a camaro RS to around 135 mph.
3. It uses a jetdrive, not a prop
4. It isn't a converted camaro, rather it's a custom design that looks like a camaro and actually uses many suspension parts from a corvette.
5. If you read the material, you see that the smooth underbody for water use is achieved through moving panels. In land mode, the panels are retracted. This likely disrupts airflow under the body and reduces lift.
6. Unless you're an aerodynamic engineer, STFU about what the boat hull shape will do to the aerodynamics of the vehicle. The original pre-1998 camaro was shaped like a wing and would flip over at speeds over around 180. This thing is sculpted in a rather different fashion and speculation on it's aerodynamic behavior without knowing the cross sectional shape or doing wind tunnel testing is just that - uninformed speculation.
Pitiful negative morons bagging on the article without even looking at the website... How about a big cupful of STFU.
Not to be a googlewhore, but who knew that Back to the Future had any real math in it before they saw this?
-=20
me doesn't live for do [DEPRECATED]
I've got almost a complete mirror here:
http://slushdot.org/mirror/watercar/.
I'm still working on the videos and full images.
The car's engine has been moved to the rear, effectively making it a mid engine. Using a Subaru engine, which is relatively short, allows them to fit it in the trunk, and use the transaxle that comes bolted to it (just wield together the spidergears providing the power to the rear wheels to make it provide power to what would have been the front wheels in the Subaru and are now the rear wheels in the Camaro). By putting the engine in the rear, it allows for proper weight ratios of a powerboat and allows it to hydroplane properly. It also makes for a nice, neat package, and in all honesty, you don't need more than 300 hp for a powerboat, good torque curve or not.
:)
Also the pictures of it show an air intake in the trunk. It makes more sense to delete the engine from the front, as you need a place to put the front wheels (which are shown as retracted in the boat-pics) while it's in the water. Just relocate the gas tank to the front. Problem solved.
P.S. I have the mopar chip installed in my car (1994 1/2 beat to hell Dodge Neon) and have been to 135 and still have room to spare (drivetrain tops out at 152mph)
moox. for a new generation.
Ok, a nautical mile is defined to be 6000 feet.
No, it was defined as a minute of arc of latitude. It's been standardised to 1,852 metres or 6,076.1 feet.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
WaterCar Specifications
The WaterCar is a fiberglass amphibious vehicle styled after the 2002 Convertible Camaro body style. It is powered by a Turbo charged 2.5 Liter 300 HP Subaru engine. The transmission is a Rancho Type I-4 speed manual transmission. The four wheel independent suspension and brakes are late model C-4 Corvette with stainless steel rotors.
The WaterCar can reach speeds in excess of 125 MPH on land and the drivability with the Corvette suspension is outstanding. Once the WaterCars is driven into the water all four wheels are hydraulically retracted with the flip of a switch. The bottom covers that enclose the wheel well are also hydraulically extended to create a smooth high speed bottom which allows the WaterCar to easily hit speeds of 40 MPH on the water. The Marine Drive is a Berkeley 12JE Jet Drive with a place diverter to control the ride depending on water conditions. The WaterCar has four usable seats and the doors are fully functional. The aircraft style lock assembly assures the doors are completely water tight for water operation. The WaterCar has a removable center mount ski pole which makes it ideal for wake boarding or skiing.
This sporty four-seater makes it possible to drive to the lake, experience an exhilarating boat ride and drive back home again without ever leaving your car!
Most twin turbos are able to add less power than a large single turbo. Most twin turbos are in place to reduce turbo lag (smaller impeller means less mass and a lower spool-up time). This is especially true for sequential turbos, but also tends to apply (although not always) to a "per bank" twin turbo system (such as on other boxer cars, like the Porsche 911 twin turbos). For example, many Supra Turbo tuners will rip out the twin turbo system, and drop in a large single turbo, rebuild their motors, and will end up with 700-1000 HP at the crank. I've also heard of Porsche 993TT owners doing the same thing. That extra 70-150 HP figure is just wrong -- that same figure can be accomplished by other means. Clearly, you're a STi affectionado -- I'm sure that you know more about this car than I do. However, unless there's something special about this motor that breaks all the rules of the conventional internal combustion engine, I seriously disagree with your assessment.
There is no reason why a twin turbo system will provide more power to this car. If you want more power, change the fuel mapping, drop in some new injectors and increase the boost pressure. I'm guessing that a primary reason to drop that American iron was to lighten up the front end. Turbos tend to add weight. Think of how much weight an additional turbo and associated plumbing will add. Soon, you'll get to a point of diminishing returns (in engine weight) where your STi motor weighs close to the Camaro motor. Given equal weight, I'd take the American iron -- it's torquier and doesn't lag like a turbo...and are generally far, far cheaper.
*Sigh* Is he drag racing this thing? Why would he ever want to do that? These are both things that are only really useful in (lame) street races and in drag races. I'm not sure, but I don't think that's what he built this car for.
-Turkey