Gibbs Aquada: First ride (reposted from July, 2007)

By BRYAN LAVIOLETTE

ORCHARD LAKE — We are sitting at a traffic light waiting to turn when another driver sees the car and asks what it is. “It’s a Gibbs Aquada,” answers Neil Jenkins, president of Gibbs Technologies Ltd. “And in a moment, we’re going to be going out into the lake.”

At that point, the other driver’s eyes sort of glazed over and he took off.

Moments later, we did just as Jenkins promised. We drove the car right into Orchard Lake. A few seconds later, Jenkins announced that the car was now a boat and we were ready for a highspeed cruise around the lake.

It may sound like the stuff of James Bond, but it could be a reality for buyers within a couple of years. Gibbs hopes to put the Aquada into production for sale as a 2009 model car, or boat, or amphibian as Jenkins likes to call it. Gibbs has opened a technical center in Troy and is considering Southeast Michigan for the plant where the vehicle would be built.

This is no Amphicar, the 1960s car/boat that met with limited success. On land, the Aquada felt similar to a small regular production sports car. On water, it felt remarkably like a Sea Doo jet boat.

During our brief water excursion, Jenkins pushed the Aquada to nearly 30 mph as we rounded Apple Island. He also showed off the vehicle’s sharp water handling that is similar to Sea Doo’s small jet boats. The hull looks like a tri-hull design, but Jenkins said extensive development work on the vehicle’s hydrodynamics make it act like a V-shaped hull on the water. The bottom line is that the V allows the vehicle to tilt into turns instead of to the outside as in many tri-hulls.

After the water demonstration, we drove the vehicle out of the water while stunned onlookers watched as if they had just seen a boat drive up on dry land. Oh, wait, that’s exactly what they saw.

Jenkins described a couple of key features that allow the vehicle to make these transitions. The jet is operated by a power takeoff from the powertrain that operates anytime the transmission is engaged, in water or not.

The vehicle is prepared for water entry by pushing a button that activates sensors telling the vehicle that it is immersed in water of sufficient depth to float. Once it determines that it is floating, the system decouples the wheels and flips them up into the wheel wells, the trim tabs deploy for the proper weight distribution and the vehicle is now a boat.

Jenkins said the whole process from water entry to boat can take as little as a five seconds.

The vehicle is essentially idiot proof. I asked what would happen if I pushed the button while on Pontiac Trail, and he said that the vehicle would simply ready itself for water entry, but nothing else would happen until water immersion was detected. A splash from a puddle wouldn’t do it.

Coming out of water, Jenkins pushes a button to deploy the wheels and drives up the ramp in a matter of seconds.

Jenkins said the prototype I rode in was set up for stiffer European-style handling feel. He said the vehicles that will be sold here will have a softer suspension more in keeping with American tastes.

The vehicle, which has its engine mounted transversely behind the seats driving the rear wheels, did feel rather stiff in our all-too-brief drive. There was also a high level of engine noise and I felt some heat from the mid-mounted engine. Jenkins said the company’s engineers are already working on fixes for those problems.

The prototype is powered by a 175-horsepower V-6 from the Rover Freelander. He said the company is in negotiations with four automakers to use their drivetrains, including V-6 engines making about 250 horsepower connected to five- or six-speed automatic transmissions or a continuously variable transmission design. No manual transmission is planned.

Jenkins called the Aquada’s basic body structure a hybrid, using an aluminum space frame with a composite body. Separate, the two elements are flexible, but together, he said they offer “racecar levels of stiffness.” He said the company has gone to great lengths to eliminate weight. He predicted a production curb weight of 2,900 pounds for the three-seat Aquada, about the same as a Pontiac Solstice.

Jenkins said the vehicle has been crash and emission tested in Europe, but the company looked at requirements from around the world and engineered the vehicle to meet the highest standards it found.

Currently, the vehicle has no air bags because Gibbs cannot find a supplier that is willing to provide the bags for a marine environment. He said the company has a concession from the U.S. government to produce 10,000 vehicles without air bags.

The Aquada has a soft top that snaps on, but no windows and no doors – occupants get in by stepping over the side of the car from a small side step – so it’s not quite ready to be a daily driver.

Jenkins said that the company realizes the importance of offering air conditioning, but it probably won’t be available initially.

One of the appeals of the Aquada is the ease of use. Instead of hooking up a trailer to the family vehicle, then unloading the boat at the boat launch, the Aquada just drives right into the water.

Gibbs has not set prices yet. Jenkins mentioned a broad range of $50,000 to $85,000 depending on whether the company’s marketing experts determine it will start with a small production run of 1,000 to 5,000 units or try to go for higher numbers of about 20,000.

But Gibbs is confident that buyers will find the Aquada to be a good bargain when one considers that a comparable setup would require a vehicle capable of pulling a trailer, a boat and a trailer, not to mention a place to keep the boat when it’s not in the water.

This article and photos originally appeared in The Oakland Press, July 7, 2007.