WaterCar Panther - the best amphibian for hunters and fishermen

Surely, when you hear the phrase "amphibian car", images of some very futuristic vehicle pop up in your head, unlike anything that can be seen on roads and water bodies. However, WaterCar Panther completely breaks such stereotypes, because it looks just like an ordinary old Jeep, with the exception of a few, barely noticeable, details.


Today we will talk about a convertible boat with four wheels that allow you to ride this strange vehicle on ordinary public roads. Yes, completely legal. This is not surprising, since the people who developed the car were far from the last people in motorsport, and they tried to make sure that the Panther, as a car, was not bad. Did it work?

Briefly about the history

WaterCar is an American company that was founded in 1999 and to this day is engaged in the development and production of luxury amphibious vehicles. All the years of its existence, the business has been focused on its main mission, namely the construction of the fastest amphibious transport. Well, it seems they really succeeded, but first things first.



After 20 years of hard work, the WaterCar team has built a unique machine called the Python. For “only” $170, anyone could order a floating hot rod with one of the available V8 engines to choose from, such as the mind-blowingly powerful LS9. However, Python was an extremely limited offering, and its release to the masses was not even in the plans.

More recently, one of the people at WaterCar came up with the idea that it would be nice to make a logical continuation of the Python model, only instead of V8, put a more modest and compact V6 engine, and sell them in larger series. It is precisely due to the fact that the management liked this idea, now we can observe its embodiment in the form of the Panther amphibian.

Why is it floating?

At first glance, the body of the vehicle looks quite normal, like any other car. However, it is worth taking a closer look, and you can immediately see that from below the front of the car has a shape characteristic of the bottom of a boat. Due to this, immediately after the amphibian enters the water, its buoyancy becomes high enough to cut through the water and waves at a decent speed.



An interesting solution - retractable wheels. In boat mode, they literally “drive” inside the body, but not completely, but partially. They are still visible from the outside, but at the same time they are located so as not to create excessive resistance to the flow of water. This is an important point, due to which an amphibious car can reach high speed and does not consume very much fuel.

Of course, there is also a propeller on board, everything as it should be for boats. In life, everything happens differently than in the James Bond films, so simply rotating the drive wheels will not achieve anything - they simply will not create the traction necessary for movement due to their smooth profile. A massive boat propeller completely solves this problem and briskly pushes the “autoboat”.



Whether on the water or on the road, the amphibious vehicle is powered by a 3,7-liter SOHC V6 VTEC engine. It develops a power of 305 hp. With. Interestingly, a similar engine has been installed on the second-generation Acura MDX premium SUV, which has been produced since 2001. In general, the amphibian does not have problems with traction, even if it does not set speed records on land. As for the transmission, so far only models with a manual transmission have been produced.

What is he capable of?

The WaterCar Panther amphibious vehicle performs well both on the road and in open water. In asphalt mode on its four wheels, the car accelerates up to 80 miles per hour, which in more familiar terms is about 129 km / h. Not a high-speed car, but quite a worthy option for calm, and, most importantly, safe walks around the area.

On open water, the Panther has a top speed of 38 knots, or 70 km/h. You will say that this is slow, but according to the maritime classification, the car is considered the most speedboat. Moreover, at this speed, the car can also tow one skier, so you can use it not only for water trips, but also for entertainment.



Everyone who has ever ridden a so-called “banana” or an inflatable “donut” on the sea understands that 70 km/h on water feels completely different than on land, namely much faster.

Design and equipment

Visually, the WaterCar Panther looks very old-fashioned and sends us somewhere to the 00s of the XIX century. This is a two-seater car, the body of which is made of fiberglass, so the car has the lowest possible weight for its not the most modest dimensions. Its body is completely waterproof, so you can safely drive into the water from land, and at high speed.

The chassis is made from chromium-molybdenum steel, which, while being very strong, is much lighter than the alloys used to make modern cars. There are 36 styrofoam cells on board. They are responsible for ensuring high buoyancy of transport in boat mode. Due to such solutions, the total mass of the amphibian is only 1338 kg with a length of more than 4,5 meters.



The equipment of the car includes more than three hundred systems and solutions patented by the manufacturer, most of which are not found in ordinary production cars. For example, WaterCar's own development is used as a transfer case. Here it switches the mode of operation between wheel drive and water engine on the pond.

Is it very expensive?

Actually yes. For most, this is a completely unbearable amount, especially for acquiring an amphibious car more for entertainment than as a main car. We are talking about a price tag of 198 thousand US dollars. On the other hand, for this money, the buyer receives not a car, but a multi-purpose vehicle that drives, swims perfectly and, when necessary, becomes a convertible.

Another reason why the Panther is worth so much money is that the Prodrive professional racing team, which includes not only racers, but also talented engineers, worked on its development for almost 3 years. By the way, it was they who won the World Rally Championship with Subaru, and they were the ones who tuned the Aston Martin racing cars for the Le Mans race.

Instead of a conclusion

WaterCar Panther should be considered as a boat with the ability to ride on land, but not as a car that can sometimes be used as a water transport for fun. As a car, it is terrible - bulky, not very comfortable, looks old-fashioned, steers and brakes far from ideal. Expect owners and difficulties with parking, especially in a big city.



On the other hand, Panther has already become a favorite of fairly wealthy people who buy it more for the sake of keeping it in the collection and showing off to their own kind than for regular use. Will an ordinary, even wealthy hunter or fisherman buy such an amphibian? Doubtful. However, it cannot be denied that this is an interesting invention.