Forget airbags, try lifejackets
Queenstown mechanic Leigh Carppe has fulfilled a dream, taking his home-built amphibious car for a spin on Lake Wakatipu.
Known to friends as ‘‘the mad scientist’’, Carppe built the vehicle to give himself and friends the best seats in the lake for watching the upcoming Queenstown Winter Festival Birdman Competition.
However, he would not be entering the competition itself. ‘‘I’m not sure about its structural integrity for going off the wharf.’’
The vehicle is a deregistered Subaru Vivio and he has used lots of expandable foam to fill up the doors, welded up holes in the floor and around the vehicle, constructed a bow to keep the heavy motor afloat and created an area at the back for an outboard motor.
‘‘[Sunday] was the first proper drive in it. Before . . . I actually went and spent money on the outboard motor I took it down to the lake to make sure it would float. I didn’t want to spend too much in case it sank.’’
He was surprised by the attention he received during the ‘‘sea trial’’ with two friends.
They first put it in the water at Sunshine Bay and motored around for a couple of hours.
As they exited the lake a couple of policeman arrived to investigate an abandoned car. ‘‘When they noticed my odd-looking car they came and had a chat but they were totally happy. Everyone was wearing life jackets and we had all the emergency stuff on board.
‘‘They did decline to go for a test drive with us,’’ Carppe said.
Carppe was struggling to work yesterday as news of his exploits spread via Facebook and he received calls and texts from friends.
He considers this first model under-powered – better for trawling than water skiing.
‘‘This has been a good learning car.’’