In the film 'The Spy Who Loved Me', James Bond (Roger Moore) took his white Lotus Esprit for a surprise dip to evade the enemy, swaps his wheels for fins and fires a missile that knocks a pursuing helicopter out of the sky. The famous scene, shot using a model, triggered the imagination of countless gadget-lovers, who wondered if such a car could be made.
Now a self-confessed Bond fanatic has made an up-to-date version of the wondercar using the Lotus Elise, as its base. The concept car developer Rinspeed calls its "sQuba" the first real submersible car.
The "sQuba" will be exhibited at the Geneva Motor Show next month. The €1 million (£750,000) prototype which can dive to a depth of 10m, is seen in action off the coast of Florida in the pictures below.
Concept car designer Frank Rinderknecht, 52, said: “For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly under water. Now we have made this dream come true.”
He added: “Everybody knows James Bond and the Esprit but it was always just fiction. We thought, 'Let’s do something everybody knows but nobody has tried.'”
The team at his firm Rinspeed replaced the petrol engine with three electric motors, one to power the rear wheels and two for the specially designed propellers. They are capable of taking it to 75mph on land, a more sedate 4mph while cruising in "boat" mode and 2mph while underwater.
The car is extremely “green” as well, as it is a zero-emission vehicle powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. It has an open top with the occupants exposed to the elements.
The Swiss car designer explained: “The passenger compartment is three square metres of air - you’d need to add about three metric tonnes of added weight to pull it down under the surface.
The second reason for having an open cabin is safety: “Even at one metre depth, the water pressure would keep the doors closed so you could not get out in an emergency.” Passengers will be able to keep breathing underwater through an integrated tank of compressed air similar to what is used in scuba diving. But they will get wet.
Although one would expect the car to sink like a stone, special compartments have been filled with foam to ensure it floats.
“The car will come to the surface by itself,” said Mr Rinderknecht. “It is basically unsinkable.”
Rather than achieving neutral buoyancy with weighting, the propellers drive it downwards so that if it were to stop it would rise up. Once under water, its occupants breath air coming from an integrated tank of compressed air similar to that used by scuba divers. The vehicle can stay under water “until you run out of air or battery power,” which is about two hours.
The designer said the sensation was just like scuba diving - in a car.
“We could have made it a lot quicker by using a bigger model with more batteries but that wasn’t the issue,” he said. “The focus was really on it going underwater.”
However, there are no plans to put it into production.
“It’s a tradition that we produce a concept car for the Geneva Motor Show,” said the designer.
“We don’t plan to build it, even in a limited capacity,” he admitted.
“But if someone wants to take up the project that would be great. I’m sure there will be people interested in buying one.”
Now a self-confessed Bond fanatic has made an up-to-date version of the wondercar using the Lotus Elise, as its base. The concept car developer Rinspeed calls its "sQuba" the first real submersible car.
The "sQuba" will be exhibited at the Geneva Motor Show next month. The €1 million (£750,000) prototype which can dive to a depth of 10m, is seen in action off the coast of Florida in the pictures below.
Concept car designer Frank Rinderknecht, 52, said: “For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly under water. Now we have made this dream come true.”
He added: “Everybody knows James Bond and the Esprit but it was always just fiction. We thought, 'Let’s do something everybody knows but nobody has tried.'”
The team at his firm Rinspeed replaced the petrol engine with three electric motors, one to power the rear wheels and two for the specially designed propellers. They are capable of taking it to 75mph on land, a more sedate 4mph while cruising in "boat" mode and 2mph while underwater.
The car is extremely “green” as well, as it is a zero-emission vehicle powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. It has an open top with the occupants exposed to the elements.
The Swiss car designer explained: “The passenger compartment is three square metres of air - you’d need to add about three metric tonnes of added weight to pull it down under the surface.
The second reason for having an open cabin is safety: “Even at one metre depth, the water pressure would keep the doors closed so you could not get out in an emergency.” Passengers will be able to keep breathing underwater through an integrated tank of compressed air similar to what is used in scuba diving. But they will get wet.
Although one would expect the car to sink like a stone, special compartments have been filled with foam to ensure it floats.
“The car will come to the surface by itself,” said Mr Rinderknecht. “It is basically unsinkable.”
Rather than achieving neutral buoyancy with weighting, the propellers drive it downwards so that if it were to stop it would rise up. Once under water, its occupants breath air coming from an integrated tank of compressed air similar to that used by scuba divers. The vehicle can stay under water “until you run out of air or battery power,” which is about two hours.
The designer said the sensation was just like scuba diving - in a car.
“We could have made it a lot quicker by using a bigger model with more batteries but that wasn’t the issue,” he said. “The focus was really on it going underwater.”
However, there are no plans to put it into production.
“It’s a tradition that we produce a concept car for the Geneva Motor Show,” said the designer.
“We don’t plan to build it, even in a limited capacity,” he admitted.
“But if someone wants to take up the project that would be great. I’m sure there will be people interested in buying one.”
