Marine

Bizzare "Aquatic Utility Vehicle" puts a UTV cabin on two jet ski legs

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The Shadow Six Typhoon "aquatic utility vehicle" - an unholy union of a UTV body and a pair of jet skis
Shadow Six Racing
The Shadow Six Typhoon "aquatic utility vehicle" - an unholy union of a UTV body and a pair of jet skis
Shadow Six Racing
With 4-point suspension and top speeds "well over 80 mph," that seems like an appropriate face to be making
Shadow Six Racing
The Typhoon looks like a ton of fun on the water
Shadow Six Racing
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Whatever's in the water down in Florida, we want some. As ridiculously awesome as it is awesomely ridiculous, the Shadow Six Typhoon places a UTV body on top of a pair of high-performance jet skis, creating the world's first "aquatic utility vehicle."

The body, which seats one-to-three people, is Shadow Six's own design, although according to GearJunkie it wears aftermarket body panels from a Polaris RZR side-by-side. The twin jet ski hulls are in-house builds too, in carbon composite, and they're mounted to long-travel Fox shocks front and rear, that look like they'd be right at home on a UTV.

Inside these two hulls sit two 1.8-liter supercharged Yamaha GP1800R SVHO jet-ski engines, putting out 250 horsepower (186.5 kW) apiece. Should you deem these ponies insufficient, you can choose stage 1, 2 or 3 Riva Racing performance kits to be installed before delivery. Riva won't put exact numbers on the power boost involved, but says a pair of Stage 3 kits will take the Typhoon's standard 68 mph (109 km/h) top speed up to "well over" 80 mph (129 km/h).

With 4-point suspension and top speeds "well over 80 mph," that seems like an appropriate face to be making
Shadow Six Racing

For such an unholy union of parts, the 2,365 lb (1,073 kg) Typhoon looks like it absolutely rips on the water, reveling in hard changes of direction and catching bulk air off waves. On landings, the suspension appears to do an admirable job of keeping this beefy contraption well under control.

Of course, there are other water toys that go fast, turn hard and do sick jumps. Like, for example, normal jet skis that roll solo without UTV cabins on their backs. Rumor has it you can pick them up rather cheaply, too, nearly anywhere you'd want to look. That's in stark contrast to the Typhoon, which is available exclusively from Riva Racing in Florida, starting at US$250,399.

This is objectively a machine as wasteful and foolish as another Florida creation, the Apocalypse Juggernaut, we sank the boot into earlier today. Try as I might, though, I just can't bring myself to hate it. Shadow Six has taken a ludicrous idea through to its logical conclusion, and the result is a bizarre-looking contraption I feel strangely compelled to go and play with.

Just take a look at the video below and tell me you're not curious about what driving a Typhoon feels like.

Source: Shadow Six Racing

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8 comments
mark34
I hope they aren't expecting envious admiring crowds waving from the beaches as they weave through swimmers, kayakers, sailboaters, etc at high speed
ljaques
They'll sure sell a lot of those at the mere quarter mil asking price, won't they?
TomLeeM
while I think that is way cool, it is also way expensive. It looks they took a quad and put it on top of two personal water craft which could account for the price. It looks like something the military would or could use.

I wonder if someone would or could come out with something that is way more affordable.
Unsold
When you get to the point where you're doing things just for the annoyance value, you need to stop. FULL stop. That said, you'll prolly see Gomer Get'erdone and his chromosome deficient cousins on a waterway near you, real soon. I'm hoping these are as dangerous as they look.
ikegami
This is the stupidest thing I've seen in a long time.
BlueOak
Insane and cool, but $250,000? Who did the business case for the development of this toy? At that price the volume makes it basically a job shop custom built unit in extremely low volume, if any. Seems more like a promotional tool/“show car”.

Eyeballing doing a one off unit without all the custom hull and bodywork, rather using stock bodies… $20,000 for a new RZR, perhaps $25,000 + 2 x $12,000 new Yamaha WaveRunners = $50,000 (retail prices) for the underlying machines. Throw in another $25,000 for custom frame fabrication to connect it all together and the cost of production is $75,000. Mark it up 50% and it is an about $100,000 toy. Admittedly, to productionize it, you’d need to amortize a bunch of R&D $, but that’s where you’d live and die by volume.

Still crazy expensive when you consider that would also buy a beautiful twin jet Yamaha boat, but no where near $250,000. Still cool and makes me want to find the used machines and cobble one together!
minivini
How will the overcompensating owners right the craft when they capsize? And they will capsize.
PAV
I can't help but think that perhaps the base and be widened and the center of gravity lowered