Batman. This guy is Batman.
The person in the floating sports car you see above is Batman Marc Witt, the winner of this year’s Project Sea Lion, a competition for the world’s fastest amphibious vehicle. Witt’s prototype Sea Lion, which he began developing in 2006, has a top land speed of 125 mph and a water speed topping out at 60 mph. The engine is a Mazda Rotary 13B. He’s attempting to sell the vehicle for $259,500.
Sea Lion was designed using CAD software and spread sheet calculations, by M. Witt. The vehicle is primarily, TIG welded 5052 Aluminum constructed from CNC plasma burned shapes and other CNC milled components. It has an integrated monocoque welded uni-body center section. There are removable side pods, used for floatation and cargo, and removable fenders front and rear. With few exceptions, there are no structural parts borrowed from other vehicles. [FantasyJunction]
We have more pictures of the Sea Lion below along with a video awesomely set to “Lacrimosa” from Mozart’s Requiem. This thing is way cooler looking than the amphibious bus and the amphibious ice cream truck. Although we can spot a couple of design problems: the seat is so low it must be difficult to see where you’re going while in the water, and the hatch at the top is so close to the surface that choppy water or a small wave could probably get in. On the other hand, BATMAN.
Several more pictures available at FantasyJunction.
(H/T: BioTV)