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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."
2 below-threshold comments and it's down ... come on people, you're like the hand of a vengeful god of websites!
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
This will sure resolve all those commuter issues in Venice.
Engine 2.5 Subaru Turbo
Transmission Rancho 4-Speed Manual
Jet Berkeley 12 JE
Length 207"
Width 75"
Height 49"
Weight 2775 Lbs.
Wheelbase 100"
Road Speed 125 MPH
Water Speed 45 MPH
Fuel Capacity 22 Gallons
BUT WHAT IS THE PRICE?
Webmaster of Infoweb
Wow, who would of thought THIS would ever be ON TOPIC?!?! Maybe he wasn't kidding?
"Uh, how you gonna get down to the shore?
Funny you should ask, I've got a car now.
Oh wow, how'd you get a car?
Oh, my parents drove it up here from the Bahamas.
You're kidding!
I must be, the Bahamas are islands, okay, the important thing now, is
that you ask me what kind of car I have.
Uh, what kinda car do ya got?
I've got a
BITCHIN CAMARO!....."
(go find the MP3... legaly of course)
~Z
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.
Google Cache Here
Find out about the Lexus Rx400h Hybrid!
It's like a case mod made to look like a can of Hamm's.
I'm a friend of a friend of the working class.
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
Looks like we sunk his battleship.. err, server
Slashdot sucks
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
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.
Is a scanning red light on the front, and they'd have Knight Boat!
As long as there's always a canal, that is.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
...geez, did it really *have* to be a Camaro?
I mean come on, that's like spending tens of thousands on a high end stereo and on room acoustics, then playing the Beastie Boys.
As opposed to those people who build Lego models of the Deathstar, or memorize Pi to 15,000 digits.
Say what you want about the guy, I bet he has no problem picking up chicks.
I am NOT a man!
I am a free number!
Popular mechanics a few months back. Old news.
What the heck is a 'sig'?
Do we not yet realize that all slashdotters do is look at pictures and google doesn't tend to cache those?
W/o seeing the article, I can understand why they are using the subaru engine. They have been used in kit planes for years.
As such Google tells me that 45 mph = 39.1039309 knots.
Pretty decent speed, that....
Important info:
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net
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.
I've got almost a complete mirror here:
http://slushdot.org/mirror/watercar/.
I'm still working on the videos and full images.
Check out the floatation devices on the owner's girlfriend :p
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