Amphibious car aims for motoring history

It seems like one of those daft stunts you’d see from the BBC’s Top Gear team, but Peter Martin is very serious about his attempts to make maritime history.The Bangor man has spent the summer creating an amphibious car from a Renault Laguna that he purchased for £100. Named Sir Tristam, it has already completed sea tests at Donaghadee Harbour and travelled from Bangor to the Copeland Islands.Today, Peter, along with three friends, Carl McConkey, Rick Miles and Mark Farrell, will aim to enter the record books by becoming the first people to steer such a car across the Irish Sea.The vehicle sets sail at 9:30am on Saturday morning from Donaghadee Harbour to Portpatrick in Scotland. If it is able to complete the journey it will make history as no-one has ever completed the feat before.The journey is 23 miles long and will take about six hours to complete. Peter has added an outbound motor and a bilge pump to the Laguna to make it seaworthy and told the BBC that he would not leave without buckets as there is always water intake. The group even plans to bring a fishing rod and do a spot of fishing along the way.It is hoped that the crew will raise £3,500 for their efforts to support armed services charity Help for Heroes. Indeed the original Sir Tristam was a ship introduced to the British fleet in the 1960s and that played a key role in the Falklands War.

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