A team of car enthusiasts from Australia has converted a vintage Toyota Land Cruiser 40 to electric power and driven it for 7 kilometers (4.35 miles) under the oceanic waters of Darwin Bay, reportedly setting a new world record.
The car, which was originally produced in 1978, lost its top and standard drivetrain during the conversion, but received a single electric motor complete with thoroughly insulated, completely waterproof internals. For the ride along the sea bottom, the tires were also filled with water instead of air.
A team of 30 scuba divers then proceeded to drive the car in turns, replacing each other every 15 minutes or so. The original calculations showed that it would take around 7 hours to cross the entire bay at a crawling speed of 3 km/h (1.8 mph). In reality, however, the Land Cruiser often ended up getting stuck in the relief and had to be recovered with the help of air canisters.
In the end, the entire route was completed in 12 hours. The participants conceded that driving an off-roader along the coast from the submersion point to the finish would have taken around 15 minutes, but that was beside the point.