Cars You Will Drive

A California company has combined a Corvette with a luxury speedboat and thrown in some jet ski to create a holy trinity of awesomeness it calls the WaterCar Python.

For around $170,000, you can pick up a Python rolling chassis and install a General Motors LS series engine of your choosing — from a used LS1 to the same mind-bendingly powerful LS9 found in the Corvette ZR1. Choose that level of insanity and WaterCar estimates the engine and transaxle installation should run an additional $30 to $50K.

Once installed, the Python will make short work of your trip to the boat launch with an average 0-60 time of 4.5 seconds. Once you get to the yacht club, stun your high society friends by driving the Python straight into the water, pressing one button to retract the wheels and another to start the jet. You’ll be gliding on a bright blue highway in seconds. Far from a glorified Amphicar, this baby can do 60 mph on the water.

In addition to being one of the absolute coolest toys we’ve ever seen, we can imagine high-speed police chases in L.A. might get a bit more interesting if suspects choose a Python as their getaway car.

On land, the Python is a custom-built hot rod that looks like a cross between a Chevy Avalanche and a Corvette. Out on Lake Havasu, where you just know one of these will show up, it’s a 20 foot luxury boat appointed with a polished wood dashboard and a leather wraparound bench seat — just like the Chris Craft you keep at your house in the Hamptons. Sadly, air conditioning, an automatic transmission and a hardtop are not currently available.

We’re especially amused by the dual set of safety and regulatory guidelines that apply to an amphibious motor vehicle. Headlamps and turn signals are to be used on land but green and red nautical lights are for use on the water. Not only do owners of the Python need to register their vehicle as both a car with license plates and a boat with marine stickers, but special amphibious vehicle insurance must be purchased unless owners want to buy both a car and boat policy.

On paper, the Python appears to be twice as fast on the water than its closest competitor, the Gibbs Aquada. We wonder how long it will be before someone smashes Sir Richard Branson’s record of crossing the English Channel in an amphibious automobile that he set in his Aquada back in 2004.

The start-up Terrafugia first popped up on our radar screens in early 2006 with a one-fifth scale model, $30,000 in prize money, and an urge to build a car that could fly. Or is that an airplane you can take on the highway?

Some signs point strongly to the latter. Terrafugia describes its Transition vehicle as a “roadable aircraft” and is pitching it in part as giving private pilots an easy travel alternative when bad weather makes flying a bad idea, or simply to avoid having to take a separate car to the airport. Also, in the eyes of the Federal Aviation Administration, the vehicle falls into the light sport aircraft category.

On March 5, Terrafugia got to show that–whatever the eventual business prospects–the Transition can indeed fly. The maiden voyage (the duration wasn’t specified) took place at the Plattsburgh International Airport in New York, with a retired U.S. Air Force Reserve colonel in the pilot’s seat. The flight followed six months of static, road, and taxi testing.

As a car, the two-seat Transition is designed to be easy on garages and oncoming traffic–its wings fold up quite snugly. In folded mode, the approximately 19-foot-long vehicle is 80 inches wide, and 6 feet, 9 inches high. As an airplane, it stands a few inches shorter and has a wingspan of 27 feet, 6 inches.

The vehicle runs off unleaded fuel from your run-of-the-mill gas station for both terrestrial and aerial travel, cruising at highway speeds on land and better than 115 miles per hour in the air.

But Woburn, Mass.-based Terrafugia (Latin for “escape from land”) still has a long road ahead of it. The vehicle that flew earlier this month is still just a proof of concept, and a production prototype has yet to be built, tested, and certified. The company says it expects to make the first customer delivery of a Transition in 2011.

Experts have designed the world’s first practical flying car aimed at frustrated commuters – and it looks like a Reliant Robin.

The bizarre three-wheeled vehicle promises relief to motorists stuck in traffic jams by turning into an aircraft capable of soaring up to 4,000ft above congested roads.

With a top speed of 125mph on land, the Personal Air and Land Vehicle, or PAL-V, corners like a motorbike by automatically tilting as it negotiates each bend.

But hidden in its roof and rear are a foldable rotor, propeller and tail section which allow it to take off and fly at speeds up to 120mph.

Its comical appearance betrays its rapid acceleration from 0 to 60 in just 5 seconds – a far cry from Del Boy Trotter’s yellow Robin Reliant in Only Fools and Horses.

Its inventors believe that when the the one-seater cars go on sale to the public, they would cost little more than an executive saloon car.

When airborne, the PAL-V is similar to the tiny autogyro aircraft Sean Connery flew in the 1967 James Bond movie ‘You Only Live Twice’.

Called a gyrocopter, the design includes a rotor on the roof to lift it through the air, and a propeller at the rear to provide forward thrust.

To fly the PAL-V you need a recreational pilot’s licence, which takes between 10 and 20 hours training to obtain, while a normal driver’s licence covers you for use on the road.

Experts have spent six years developing concept versions and are now building the first commercial prototype with a view to begin manufacturing the vehicles soon.

Their target audience are motorists who are fed up with traffic jams. John Bakker, who invented the PAL-V, said: “Since Henry Ford built the Model T Ford, people have been dreaming of a vehicle that could drive and fly.

“It took almost 90 years before this dream could be realized. Now it will.

“It’s fun, it drives like the most sporty solution on the road and it also flies. This will be a revolution in door to door mobility in the near future.

“In countries with underdeveloped infrastructure it means safe and faster transportation but also in developed countries it will save people lots of time.

“The PAL-V is a solution to the increasing levels of congestion in our cities, highways and skyways.

“Soon private flying will no longer be the exclusive domain of executives and celebrities.

“Driving and flying will be combined in one vehicle that could cost little more than an executive saloon car.”

The vehicle needs 165ft to take off in and just 16ft to land, and it can fly for 340 miles under its fuel-efficient and environmentally certified car engine.

The same engine works for both road and air travel and runs on normal unleaded petrol, which means you can refuel at any roadside service station.

It can be driven and flown using the same controls by switching between two different modes.

On the ground, the slim-line vehicle is as comfortable as a luxury car but has the agility of a motorbike, thanks to its patented “tilting” system.

The single rotor and propeller are folded away until the PAL-V is ready to fly.

In the air, the PAL-V flies under the 4,000 feet floor of commercial air space and can therefore take to the sky without having to file a flight plan.

The autogyro technology means that it can be steered and landed safely even if the engine fails as it descends upright rather than nose-diving.

Unlike a helicopter, the rotor of an autogyro is driven by aerodynamic forces alone once it is in flight.

The PAL-V’s Dutch makers anticipate a time when such vehicles are so widely used that people will fly along sky highways, directed by GPS and using radar to prevent collisions.

They also claim there are already plans to build up to 60 heli-sites across their home country to cope with a new era of air traffic.

They believe it could also be used commercially for surveillance purpose and by emergency services.

The project gathered momentum after new European rules made it cheaper and easier to obtain licenses and certification for aircraft under 600kg built using standard components.

It’s the Aptera — a futuristic car that has generated a lot of buzz lately — and with good reason — the Aperta is a very, very efficient vehicle (just check out the video: you’ll see what I’m talking about).

The car’s head-turning design has a purpose: the shape is highly aerodynamic (much like a jet).

It ready available for pre-order, and priced at about $27,000. There will be two models of the Aptera: an all-electric version that goes 120 miles on a charge (for 2008), and a gasoline version that will get 300 mpg (for 2009). The car is also said to be very safe.

Want to impress your friends and possibly score a girlfriend? How about purchasing this sweet-ass “Fastlane” car of the future? You can “Buy It Now” on eBay for a cool $15,000. But before you push the button: It’s not really a car. It’s a shell designed to fit on top of a Pontiac Fiero. Which is not included in the auction. So, yeah. It was designed for Universal Pictures by concept car maker Trans FX for use in a movie or something. I know it can’t actually go anywhere, but I still think I want it. I’ll just use a flatbed trailer to tote it to the bar and then slide it off into a parking spot. Then I’ll proceed to get some lucky lady extremely drunk and ask if she wants to see my fancy sports car from the future. Hopefully she won’t notice there’s not a goddamn thing inside and will still make out with me while we’re sitting on the pavement inside. What, where’s my sense? I’ll throw a tarp down. I may even add a boombox for some makeout tunage.

Five more pictures after the jump, including one of what you’d see during a makeout session.

The Aptera hybrid is actually being produced. You can put down your $500 deposit now, and see your car in about a year. It hits 60 mph in ten seconds, and is governed at 95 mph. It comes in two versions. The all electric version ($26,900) has 120 mile range, and is plugged in at night. The Hybird version ($29,900) has an efficient gasoline powered generator that achieves over 300 mpg. Not bad. I want one. Mostly because I’m growing fond of the planet and want something that makes me feel like I’m in the Jetsons. Not because I wanted a flying car or to live in the future — I just wanted to hump the nuts and bolts loose on Rosie the Robot Maid.

More pictures after the jump.