Amphibious car challenge

OK, so at this point I'm going to assume you've all seen the Top Gear episode where they build amphibious cars and sink to the bottom of a dark scottish lake (reference intended). I just watched it again and was thinking of what idiots they all are.

What would you have done differently? What would your cheap amphibious car have looked like?

My thoughts:

Buy a damn bilge pump and put it to use.

Clarkson's outboard idea was uncharacteristically intelligent.

A fiberglass car would be very easy to seal up.

Perhaps a Europa with an outboard tacked on the back?

The Europa looks the part, too. I think I might go with a big electric jet drive in a serial hybrid mode with the engine charging a small bank of batteries to save weight.

I think this might be the perfect project for a basket case Berkeley that I may be able to purchase.

Honestly, I'd just do Clarkson's exact car but with a bilge pump and a 15 horse engine.

Or an old Buick Riviera, cause it has a boat tail. And its a boat.

What? No one else would do a VW Beetle but me? Isn't there a fake ad about it's buoyancy somewhere?

Edit: found it.

Corvair?

I was trying to think of something that doesn't have such a steep slope downwards from teh windshield to prevent submarining the vehicle. Plus the car sort of looks the part with no front grill, you could modify it for amphibious use and it would look just like a regular corvair when sitting in the water.

Look at the pointed nose! it was made for the water.

haha google images never disappoints. I was totally only thinking of the car, the truck didnt even cross my mind.

http://www.corvair.org/chapters/corvanatics/loadside.php

I think the best way to accomplish that would be to get the car as far out of the water as you can. I would buy an old pontoon boat, and attach the aluminum floats to the axles of a Jeep. Then run the rear axle dow to a prop. Presto.

Google images is failing me, but back in the 80's there was a series on BBC in the UK called 'The great egg race'. IT was sort of the great great grandfather of Junkyard wars (lor Scrap heap challenge as the UK version is called). The first series had teams make an egg powered machine, later they just gave them stuff and told them to build a machine/vehicle etc. In one of them they had to build a boat based on everyones favorite 3 wheeler the Reliant Robin. I'd love to find pics of that.

Not from the great egg race, but here's one someone prepared earlier

I have no idea what, where or why, but that's cool

This is too much fun

pinchvalve wrote: I think the best way to accomplish that would be to get the car as far out of the water as you can. I would buy an old pontoon boat, and attach the aluminum floats to the axles of a Jeep. Then run the rear axle dow to a prop. Presto.

Something like this. I'm thinking pontoons on arms on the side of the vehicle, when you're driving they fold onto the roof, and when you want to float you just swing them down. I'd start with a 4x4 with a good wade depth to make launching easier but I think the swing mechanism would need some serious power behind it (maybe just a winch setup could be used to pull them into place and the vehicle out of the water, then lock it with bolts or something?).

Two pontoons per side that can be extended apart fore and aft on telescoping beams for stability.

http://www.sealegs.com/

Back to the water:

Take some hints from the Cubans, too:

Dont forget that Top Gear did make improvements and got at least one of them across the English Channel eventually.

Love the Corvair and Robin ideas. I thought Beetle at first too because of that silly ad, but decided it's not got the right tail for mounting an outboard.

As far as their Channel crossing... It's as if they barely learned from their mistakes on the lake. It's funnier, certainly, but I think they could have used their whole ass (rather than just half) and still been amusing.

Who the heck is Lady Woodhouse and why does she need a Land Tender?

How about light car built into a small hovercraft? Turn off lift fan and it rests on it's wheels. Would be handy if you get stuck on land too.

peter wrote: Love the Corvair and Robin ideas. I thought Beetle at first too because of that silly ad, but decided it's not got the right tail for mounting an outboard. As far as their Channel crossing... It's as if they barely learned from their mistakes on the lake. It's funnier, certainly, but I think they could have used their whole ass (rather than just half) and still been amusing.

use a type 4 variant