Amatoya concept vehicle ready to fight bush fires
Amatoya concept vehicle ready to fight bush fires
6 December 2009
published by www.performancecar.co.nz
New Zealand — Summer is finally here, for real, and although that brings good times it’s also bush fire season. To combat the dreaded bush fire a new concept vehicle has been conceived by Designer Liam Ferguson and who knows, one day we may see one here in NZ.
The Amatoya is a site recon and light tanker vehicle designed with a focus on military-style rather than civilian. The seating position is like that of a AH-1 Cobra gunship, with the co-pilot seated up and behind the driver. The Amatoya is built on a monococque steel body and insulated with NASA’s special ‘aerogel’, it’s also painted with “military grade sacrificial thermo ceramic intumescent paints.”
The Remotely Operated Suppression Cannon Outfit (ROSCO) tank has a 2,200-litre total water capacity, and the two-man crew won’t need to leave the vehicle to employ it. Getting to the fire shouldn’t be a problem either with high ground clearance all around, directional spotlights, and a thermal imaging camera to play with. The weakest point of the vehicle would appear to be the rubber tyres, with no explanation to how they wouldn’t melt in the intense heat of a bush fire.
