The WaterCar Panther Lets You Go From the Beach to the Lake Without Skipping a Beat

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

The WaterCar Panther Lets You Go From the Beach to the Lake Without Skipping a Beat

This article was published by Joe Donaldson (@Joey D) on January 30th, 2019 in the Car Culture category.

 

[bloodyboyblue]

Or you could do the same thing a bit slower but with a lot more class for less than half the price...

https://www.hemmings.com/classified...=&adtypeFacet=carsforsale&year_min=&year_max=

 

[UltimateYosh]

It looks...odd. I kinda dig it actually. If I had more money than sense and tons of garage space, I could see this being an interesting conversation piece, if nothing else.

 

[eran0004]

I want to know why it’s so slow given that it comes with 300 bhp.

Is the drivetrain extremely inefficient?
Is it limited because the handling is so poor at high speeds?
Does it produce gigantic amounts of aerodynamic drag?
Did they forget to add the last 2 or 3 gears?

 

[kikie]

This or a flying car?

 

[05XR8]

Comes with complimentary fragrance in the glovebox:

 

[Scuderia Paul]

Would you really want to be seen in that abomination? I'd rather take a normal car and plunge to the bottom of the lake.

 

[TenEightyOne]

I want to know why it’s so slow given that it comes with 300 bhp.

44mph is pretty fast for an amphibious vehicle.

Would you really want to be seen in that abomination? I'd rather take a normal car and plunge to the bottom of the lake.

This

 

[eran0004]

44mph is pretty fast for an amphibious vehicle.

It’s pretty slow for a 300 bhp vehicle. I don’t believe it’s due to aero drag, so what is it? Extreme power losses in the drivetrain?

 

[Joey D]

It’s pretty slow for a 300 bhp vehicle. I don’t believe it’s due to aero drag, so what is it? Extreme power losses in the drivetrain?

On the water, it's the fastest amphibious vehicle you can buy.

It's slow on land, presumably, due to the transmission and gear ratios. It uses a modified VW Bus transaxle similar to the ones found in dune buggies.

 

[Tornado]

Does it produce gigantic amounts of aerodynamic drag?

One would think the photos would make that pretty obvious.

 

[eran0004]

On the water, it's the fastest amphibious vehicle you can buy.

It's slow on land, presumably, due to the transmission and gear ratios. It uses a modified VW Bus transaxle similar to the ones found in dune buggies.

Sounds like it would be better to tow it to the sea than to drive it there. Which kind of negates the point of an amphibious car

 

[Joey D]

Sounds like it would be better to tow it to the sea than to drive it there. Which kind of negates the point of an amphibious car

Ya but then you couldn't look like a cheesy 80's movie while picking up bikini babes on the only lake in Arizona while also ignoring simple safety procedure on sand dunes by not having some sort of flag:

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Sounds like it would be better to tow it to the sea than to drive it there. Which kind of negates the point of an amphibious car

It does 80mph on land, per the article. Would you really want to drive this thing any faster than that?

 

[eran0004]

It does 80mph on land, per the article. Would you really want to drive this thing any faster than that?

Probably not. But I also don’t want to do 5000 rpm on the highway, so a taller gear would have been nice to have

(Assuming that the top speed is due to running out of gears that is, but hopefully it’s just electronically limited...)

 

[TexRex]

modified VW Bus transaxle

Heh, "modified"...yep:

That transfer case doesn't appear to utilize a reduction gear, but the shortest stock final gear used in those 091s, if memory serves, was a 4.57 and I have to imagine it'd get pretty buzzy at highway speeds even with those 30" tires.