Speedy on Land and Sea

Dave March takes a sip of his coffee and looks through the windshield of his car, which is idling in the water in Newport Harbor, next to his 65-foot yacht.

This has been a dream for 10, 15 years, he says, his gaze fixed toward Catalina. Every time I see that island, I think, Oh, its not that far.

March, 58, has spent more than a decade developing the high-speed amphibious car he is about to take to market for $135,000 apiece. He has taken deposits from the Prince of Dubai, tycoons in Silicon Valley and millionaires from around the world.

On this day, he hopes to prove the cars mettle by driving it from his WaterCar headquarters in Fountain Valley, Calif., to Catalina Island.

The only problem is he has never tested the car on open water, and 30 miles is a long way to swim.

March has been building and testing amphibious cars, or amphibians, for years. He filed patents for his first amphibian in 2003. Six years later, he set the Guinness World Record for fastest amphibious car with the Python, which has a 450-horsepower Corvette engine and can hit 60 mph on the water.

The car that March is test-driving to Catalina is the Panther, a smaller, off-road amphibian that is the entrepreneurial fruit of 12 years of trial and error and hundreds of thousands of dollars in research and development.

Ever since he posted a video online of the Panther driving on the freeway, scaling sand dunes and impressing scantily clad ladies at a lake, Marchs phone hasnt stopped ringing. The car already has been filmed in three reality shows, including an episode of the current season of The Bachelor.

He also has received a deluge of emails from buyers around the world.

The embassy of the United Arab Emirates has ordered one, and Sheik Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, the crown Prince of Dubai, has ordered six. Two of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley each have sent deposits with nondisclosure agreements to prevent their names from appearing in the media. NASCAR drivers are knocking at his door.

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Speedy on Land and Sea