Is This Really A Red Jeep Boating Under Duluth’s Lift Bridge?
I stumbled on a photo online that show a strange sight. It appears a red Jeep was in the water, boating along into Duluth, Minnesota. What's the story with that?
It was captured in a screenshot of the Duluth Harbor Cam 2 weeks ago. The photo is a touch grainy zoomed in, but it's clear enough to see this is some type of amphibious vehicle.
I was in the Duluth Reddit when I saw someone post this photo. In the comments, someone offered a plausible explanation of what this could be.
There was a manufacturer that built a car that was street-legal, off-road, and off-land. The car was designed to go anywhere, and judging by the looks of it, this is what was in Duluth's Harbor.
Top Gear actually wrote an article about it and took it for a test drive. The WaterCar Panther debuted in 2013. It can go 70-80 miles per hour on land, and a pretty swift 44 miles per hour on the water. That's faster than a lot of boats on the water, and this actually qualifies it as a speedboat.
It does kind of look like a Jeep, but you can tell the similarities by the roll bars on the back. It's definitely a watercar. Also, as far as I'm aware, Jeep doesn't make an amphibious vehicle.
Does anyone know who owns this watercar? I'd love to see it in action in first person. Top Gear's article says they don't handle the best on land, but they handle wonderfully as a speedboat.
Maybe if you hate backing up a trailer when you launch the boat out, you just go in head first. It's not a bad idea! Too bad they are expensive! They also just launched an EV version that can travel over 70 miles on water.
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The company also appears to have pivoted and now rebuilds Humvees into watercars. They start at $465,000.