The Gibbs Aquada is a high speed

amphibious vehicle An amphibious vehicle (or simply amphibian) is a vehicle that works both on land and on or under water. Amphibious vehicles include amphibious Amphibious cycle, bicycles, Amphibious ATV, ATVs, Amphibious automobile, cars, Duckboats, buses, truc ...

developed by Gibbs Sports Amphibians. It is capable of speeds over on land and on water. Rather than adding wheels to a

boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size or capacity, its shape, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically used on inland waterways s ...

design, or creating a

car A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

that floats, the Aquada was designed from the ground up to perform very well in both fields, with over 60 patents covering technical innovations. The Gibbs Aquada was a limited production concept car produced in 2003 and 2004. The Gibbs Aquada is powered by a 2.5 L Rover V6 engine. In 2004

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

, owner of the

Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding compa ...

, used a Gibbs Aquada to set a new record for crossing the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

in an amphibious vehicle. Branson cut 4 hours 20 minutes off the previous record of 6 hours, which had stood since the late 1960s. The officially recorded time was 1 hour 40 minutes, 6 seconds. For the August 2004 edition of ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the ori ...

'' magazine, journalist

Paul Walton Paul Walton is a British motoring journalist and photographer. He started his career in 1999, working for ''Classic Cars'' magazine before moving to BBC '' Top Gear'' magazine in 2002. Highlights during his time at the two magazines included dr ...

drove an Aquada into and around the

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

harbour during the

Grand Prix of Monaco The Monaco Grand Prix () is a Formula One motor racing event held annually on the Circuit de Monaco, in late May or early June. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigious automobile races in the wo ...

to watch the event for free. He found the Aquada fast and responsive both in and out of the water but was too slow to see any of the race. The Aquada was developed in

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. The successors to the Aquada are the Gibbs Humdinga and the Gibbs Quadski.

References

External links

Gibbs Technologies official website

{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826084856/http://www.paulwalton.co.uk/aquada.htm , date=2018-08-26 Wheeled amphibious vehicles

See also

References

External links