Thirty years after the movie “The spy who loved me,” dream becomes reality. One recalls that in this 1977 James Bond, the British agent’s Lotus Esprit went under the sea. At the time, it was a special effect. Now, the first totally submersible car is for real. The sQuba, as it is called, was unveiled on the occasion of the Geneva motor-show. This curious craft, which can travel on land, navigate on the water and dive up to ten feet deep, is Swiss Rinspeed’s latest creation. The project’s total cost neared 1 million Euros.
The small company from Zurich, helped by numerous technical partners, is in the habit of proposing an extravagant prototype every year. After the sensorial car, which analysed its driver’s emotions, and the transparent car, the mission has again been accomplished this year: Fresh from the workshop last February, the sQuba immediately aroused the curiosity of the entire international press.
Electric motors A Lotus Elise served as the basis for the elaboration of this amphibious vehicle.
But there is almost nothing left from the original model, other than its overall look.
The petrol engine was replaced by three electric motors: one insures propulsion on the road, the two others drive the propellers necessary to navigate. Rotating jets, situated on the car’s front wings, insure underwater propulsion.
“It isn’t easy to design a waterproof car resistant to the pressure of water, but the real challenge was to make one that can move under water like a fish,” explains 52-year old Frank Rinderknecht, the boss of Rinspeed. Long escapades in the water aboard such a machine are, of course, not yet possible: top speed on the surface does not exceed 6 km/h and even drops to 3 km/h once the car is totally immersed.
Under water, the roadster’s passenger compartment is permanently open. Both passengers breathe through divingmasks, supplied by a tank of compressed air.
“For security reasons, we designed the sQuba as an open vehicle," explains Frank Rinderknecht. "In case of an emergency, the occupants can thus easily get out of the passenger compartment. With a closed passenger compartment, the water pressure could make it impossible to open the doors”.
The boss of Rinspeed does, however, admit that security wasn’t the only reason to choose an open car: “The passenger compartment’s two cubic meters of air would have forced us to weigh the car down by two tons in order to counter-balance its floating capacity.
On the ground, the car would have become a real turtle.” As for the inside of the vehicle, it resists salt water, enabling the driver to dive in the sea as well as in a lake.
Taking into account the fact it produces no pollution, the sQuba does quite well once it’s back on solid ground. Weighing only 920 kilos on the scales, it is capable of speeds up to 120 km/h thanks to its electric motor’s 54KW. Being no fool, Rinspeed doesn’t say anything about the 0 to 100 km/h acceleration, unlikely to be that flattering for a small, sporty roadster. The technical file simply mentions 0 to 80 km/h, covered in an honourable 7.1 sec.
At the Geneva motor-show, visitors were enthusiastic about the sQuba, and the wealthiest showed some interest in buying such a vehicle. Rinspeed, however, doesn’t intend to produce his amphibious car, even in a limited edition. “That doesn’t correspond to our philosophy," explains Frank Rinderknecht. "We prefer to create a surprise every year with a different prototype.”
