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Submarine car to be unveiled at Geneva show
GENEVA: A car that can be driven underwater will
be unveiled in March 4 at the opening of the International Geneva
Motor Show, the Swiss manufacturer of the prototype announced last
week. Called “Squba,” the vehicle is like something out of a
James Bond film and, according to the manufacturer Rinspeed, is the
world’s first real submersible car.
Rinspeed head Frank Rinderknecht is a James Bond
enthusiast who has dreamed of making the amphibious vehicle come
true.
“For three decades I have tried to imagine how
it might be possible to build a car that can fly under water,”
said Rinderknecht in a statement. “Now we have made this dream
come true.”
The convertible sports car transforms into an
underwater vehicle in which passengers breathe with the help of
compressed air masks.
“It is undoubtedly not an easy task to make a
car watertight and pressure resistant enough to be maneuverable
under water,” said Rinderknecht. “The real challenge however was
to create a submersible car that moves like a fish in water.”
Propelled by electric motors, the car can
descend up to 10 meters underwater.
Rinspeed did not specify the sale price of the
Squba.
-- AFP
UAE’s rich splurge millions on rare license
plates
ABU DHABI: The super rich in the United Arab
Emirates are bidding massive sums of money for extraordinary car
license plates as the Gulf state basks in an oil-driven economic
boom. One particularly wealthy businessman forked out a record $14
million for a license plate at a charity auction in the UAE capital
of Abu Dhabi.
“It is not huge compared to my family’s
fortune,” Saeed Abdel Ghaffar Khouri told AFP after he bid $14.2
million for an Abu Dhabi license plate bearing the single number
“1.”
“The price is fair. After all, who among us
does not want to be number one?” asked Khouri, whose fortune was
made in real estate and stocks.
Asked what he planned to do with the license
plate, the 20-something said he would frame it and mount it on a
wall rather than attach it to a car.
“I don’t want to sell it at the moment. But
I don’t know what will happen in the future, because I’m sure
its price will increase after a year or two,” he added.
Emirates Auction, which organized the sale, said
on its web site that it had expected that a new world record would
be set for the most expensive license plate in the world. In May
another UAE citizen spent more than $5 million on a licence plate
bearing the number “5.” Funds from the auction will go to
charities, including one to build a hospital for casualties from
road accidents.
-- AFP
Singapore sees silver lining to F1 ticketing
chaos
SINGAPORE: Politicians attempted to put a
positive spin on the bungled sale of tickets for this year’s
Formula One Grand Prix, saying it proved there was huge interest in
the inaugural night race. Potential race-goers, both locally and
internationally, have endured days of frustration as the system for
selling the first 70,000 tickets repeatedly failed.
The foul-up forced organizers to issue a
humbling apology in full-page advertisements in Singapore
newspapers.
“We know the frustrating time that many F1
fans have experienced over the past few days,” the ads read.
“The ticketing system has improved considerably, but there may
still be some delays at peak periods. We apologize sincerely for the
frustration and inconvenience that the system problems have
caused.”
Race officials refused to confirm how many
patrons have successfully bought tickets so far.
Minister for Trade and Industry S.Iswaran said
the foul-up was regrettable but had a silver lining.
“There was such overwhelming and unprecedented
interest that the system could not cope,” he was quoted as saying
in the Straits Times newspaper.
“The silver lining is that there’s
tremendous interest and that’s something we should be happy
about.”
Singapore will host the sport’s first night
race around the city-state’s streets on September 28.
-- AFP
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