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The real inconvenience of driving the sQuba in its particular element is the bind of having to bring your own oxygen, to say nothing of wearing a wet suit. Nevertheless for anyone with a bit of Roger Moore in them or indeed anyone with a fancy for things submarine, what could be more exciting than driving underwater?
Thirty years after the underwater Lotus featured in The Spy Who Loved Me, a Swiss engineer has actually modified a Lotus Elise that can really do this. The obvious difference between the car in the film and the sQuba is the open design of the latter. Safety is the concern behind this. Water pressure would prevent occupants being able to open doors from the inside in the event of an accident. Furthermore the added weight would render the car sluggish as a tortoise on land (a fish out of water?).
The sQuba is the brainchild of Swiss egghead Frank Rinderknecht. Heβs been wracking his brains for 30 years on the matter of transforming the onscreen fantasy into auto-reality. How to do it? Firstly strip the engine out and replace it with an electric motor for terrestrial propulsion. Underwater, the thing is held in suspension at a depth of around 30 foot through foam inserts injected beneath the bodywork. Two jet propulsion units housed discretely in the doors bring some motion to the ocean.
Rinderknecht is proud of the environmental credentials of his creation. As he puts it: the petrol station for sQuba is the hydro-dam. Even the lubricants are bio-degradable. Normally, car insurance providers look upon all this very favourably. However, the sQuba will never go into commercial production since its specifications fall outside the normal parameters of car insurance. Pity.
26.3.2008
By: Mark Lauterwein
Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com
Mark Lauterwein is a UK based writer. He is currently writing articles on a variety of subjects.
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