As automotive ideas go, this one's all wet -- and that's exactly how its inventors want it.
Two Los Angeles-based engineers are on a race to set the first world record for the fastest hot tub ever, according to Barcroft TV.
It's been a dream of Phil Weicker and Duncan Forster since 1996 when both were attending McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
The two were drinking when they somehow decided turning an old car into the world's first drivable, fully operational hot tub was a good addition to their bucket list, according to Yahoo! News Canada.
Eight years ago, they purchased a 1969 Cadillac Coupe DeVille for $800 and turned it into a "Carpool DeVille" by removing the seats, filling the interior with water and installing all the mechanics of a customized hot tub.
“We just had to do it,” Weicker told CBC News. “We just had to go 100 miles an hour in a hot tub because it’s never been done before, because we think we can.”
The "Carpool DeVille" seats five people and the V8 engine not only propels the car but it heats the water to over 102 degrees.
The trunk holds the pump, filter and overflow tank. The twosome has added a marine throttle to control the car's speed; pushing forward accelerates and pulling back slows down.
Forster doesn’t recommend slamming on the brakes in this vehicle since water would splash on to the windshield and back into the driver's face.
A low-tech solution for that may be in the works.
“We’re wondering if we should equip a helmet with a snorkel just to be sure,” Forster told CNN.
Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $11,000, Forster and Weicker are putting the finishing touches on the hot tub Cadillac.
Now the duo are hoping to race it next month at Speed Week, an event held every August at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah that is open to vehicles of all types.
“Nobody’s ever gone a hundred miles an hour in an open-air self propelled hot tub while sitting neck deep in soothing warm water,” they wrote on their Kickstarter page. “We aim to correct that mistake of history this August.”
To be fair: There is no existing speed record for hot tub Cadillacs so even if the car only makes it up to, say, 60 mph, it's safe to say they'll still own the record.
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