--- title: "The Coolest Amphibious Supercar of 2012 Has Resurfaced As It’s for Sale" date: "2025-09-15" modified: "2025-09-15" authors: - name: "Andrew P. Collins" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/andrew-p-collins" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-coolest-amphibious-supercar-of-2012-has-resurfaced-as-its-for-sale" categories: - "Builds" - "Culture" - "For Sale" - "News" tags: - "Supercar" --- # The Coolest Amphibious Supercar of 2012 Has Resurfaced As It’s for Sale ![Amphibious Supercar]() *\Ken Wei/YouTube\* The 2012 Sea Lion is a one-of-one supercar with a rotary engine moving the wheels and a jet drive for skiing through the water. Built to chase a world record for being the fastest [amphibious]() vehicle on land or sea, it is now coming up for sale at an auction this weekend. The Sea Lion's creator, engineer Mark Witt, said the car "could reach 125 mph on land and approximately 60 mph on water" around the time the car was first revealed to the public. I'm not sure such speeds were ever independently verified, but there is some footage of the car swimming and driving, which, as far as I'm concerned, is a pretty impressive accomplishment on its own. The interior is genuinely cool looking; the gauge cluster and switch panel really help sell the James Bond dream here. ![Sea Lion joystick]() ![Sea Lion wiper.]() ![Sea Lion car cockpit.]() *[Wired]()* did a story on the thing when it was new, reporting that the car was powered by a '74 Mazda RX-3's 13B rotary engine on land and a Berkeley 12 JC jet drive pump in the water. It's rear-wheel drive with a five-speed manual. *CNN* also did a segment on the Sea Lion, which includes some comments from the car's creator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEmI4egl2dA I found some of those same clips, without the commentary but in much higher resolution, on YouTube as well if you want a better look at the Sea Lion driving and swimming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPtsvM_IeMY While it listed for about a quarter million bucks 13-odd years ago, I have a feeling it'll go a little more cheaply at this weekend's auction. That is, unless there are at least two wealthy *[SpyHunter]()* superfans reading this and bookmarking the listing [(Lot S266 at Mecum's Larry Klairmont auction on September 20th]()). The car looks a lot like the anonymous silver hero vehicle (which could be a car, boat, or motorcycle) in the [2001 PS2 game](). The real-life Sea Lion is built around an aluminum monocoque chassis with stainless steel flotation pods. The single-seat cockpit, which really does look like the cockpit of a retro-futurist sci-fi jet, has a lot of CNC-milled bits and a joystick for in-water operation. Scroll through here to see some more pics of it as it sits, getting ready to cross the auction block on the 20th with no reserve: - ![]() - ![]() - ![]() - ![]() - ![]() - ![]() - ![]() - ![]() - ![]() [][][] When it dives into water, it uses a hydraulic system to retract the front wheels while the front spoiler changes angle to become a bow. I guess when you come back up a boat ramp to return to land-mode, the same process happens in reverse. As a high-performance driving (or boating) experience, the Sea Lion is probably more trouble than it's worth. At least, that's my theory as to why only one was built. However, as a "make people drop their ice cream cones in shock," vehicle, this would be very hard to beat. Pull up anywhere in this thing and you are sure to make a lot of friends. It's just too bad you won't be able to give any of them rides! *Got a tip? Drop us a line at tips@thedrive.com.* ## Author As Executive Editor, Andrew touches everything on the site from daily news coverage to feature stories, sponsored content, product reviews, road testing vehicles, ecommerce, and more. He's held pretty much every role there is to have at an automotive news site and has been with The Drive's publisher Recurrent since 2020. Andrew's a lifetime gearhead and longtime writer with a particularly strong penchant for road trips, off-road adventures, and archaic vehicles. His passions outside of the automotive world include skiing, obsolete video games, and his dog Bramble who occationally helps review cars. ### Author social links [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()