WIRED Luxury Gear Editor Jeremy White visits Shadow Six Racing in Florida to learn about and test drive the Typhoon: a quarter-million-dollar supercar jet ski that blows all competition out of the water.
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00:00This is the Shadow 6 Typhoon.
00:07$250,000, 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, 800 horsepower.
00:14This thing is a hypercar for the waves.
00:18Cut to me screaming.
00:19Whoa!
00:20What speed!
00:22Oh my lord!
00:23It's like light bending around you!
00:31Blimey!
00:32Whoa!
00:35Shadow 6, the company that makes crazy vehicles,
00:38including a super special new watercraft.
00:41Unlike anything you've seen before,
00:43let's go inside and meet the people that make these monster machines.
00:48Hey!
00:49Nice to meet you.
00:50Nice to meet you.
00:51Tell us a little bit about what Shadow 6 actually is.
00:54Shadow 6 essentially started out where I was developing the original Typhoon for myself,
00:59and very quickly realized lots of other people were interested,
01:02and that led into quite a few other inventions and vehicles that we've developed
01:06for other individuals that have bad ideas like myself.
01:09Let's take a look at some of those.
01:10Show me a little bit of what you've got here.
01:12You got it.
01:13Start with this one.
01:14So this is an autonomous cooler that somebody can ride on,
01:18or you can actually use an app and it knows what beverages are inside.
01:21It's got full surround sound through wet sounds.
01:24It's a floating cooler.
01:25It is.
01:26With propellers.
01:27It is, yeah.
01:29Is it a nine-bot?
01:30It is, yeah.
01:31So we put tank treads on the back, and we put air-inflated tires on the front,
01:35and now it's able to climb over all kinds of things that it wasn't,
01:38and it's able to get in the sand and go,
01:40and it's able to travel through the yard and travel through grass without any problem.
01:44It all started with the Typhoon, didn't it?
01:46That's the idea.
01:47Can we get a shot of these?
01:49Are these the original drawings?
01:51They are.
01:52Are they your drawings?
01:53They are.
01:54What were you thinking when you came up with that?
01:56I was about two, three months out from my son's third birthday,
01:59and I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday,
02:01and he told me he wanted to go to Las Vegas for a guy's trip.
02:03And then he explained to me that the Monster Jam World Finals were there.
02:06He saw a billboard on the way home, and it said Polaris Adventure,
02:10where you basically drive a Razor.
02:11Out in the dunes.
02:12Yeah, out in the dunes.
02:13He absolutely loved it.
02:14And that kind of got me intrigued in the idea of side-by-sides and the suspension.
02:18Fast forward about two months later, I went to the Bahamas with my wife.
02:21We went out and rode a WaveRunner,
02:23and we kind of had this epiphany that combining the two together
02:25would really make for a fun toy.
02:27So right at that moment you thought, hang on a minute.
02:29If I put two WaveRiders underneath the body of a side-by-side,
02:34I could be on something.
02:35Exactly.
02:36Now we know the genesis of the idea, where it came from.
02:38I'm dying to see it. Come on.
02:39You got it.
02:40Let's see it. Come on.
02:41Yeah, absolutely. Let's go.
02:51Here it is.
02:52What do you think?
02:55It's big.
02:56It is.
02:58I've seen it on screen,
03:01but it doesn't quite prepare you for seeing it in the metal, as it were.
03:05It's crazy.
03:07Now the Typhoon may be big, but is it desirable?
03:10And that's what we're here to find out.
03:12What Shadow Six has built does not fit into the usual realm of luxury gear.
03:16There's no bling here, no collaboration with Hermes or Ferrari.
03:20What the Typhoon does have in spades, though, is exclusivity.
03:24Only Shadow Six makes it,
03:26and it's so far ahead of anything else you might try and compare it to,
03:30it simply blows all competition out of the water.
03:33Tell us a bit about these.
03:34What power have they got?
03:36Why are they so long?
03:37Yeah.
03:38I mean, what's going on here?
03:39The hulls ultimately are, size-wise, dictated by keeping the shape of a triangle.
03:44What that does is it gives you the strongest shape in the world,
03:48but ultimately takes all the force that would typically be exerted on the bottom of the hull
03:52and sends it up through the suspension and in through the cage on top of the chassis.
03:56So inside here, this isn't an electric vehicle, is it?
03:59This is not.
04:00What have we got inside?
04:01We've got two Yamaha 1.8-litre GP1800 RSVHL engines,
04:06and each one of these engines puts out a little under 400 horsepower.
04:10So a total of 800.
04:12And they're tuned, are they?
04:13And they're tuned.
04:14Yep, they are.
04:15OK.
04:16As we go around, obviously the thing that you cannot get away from
04:18is this significant cage that you've got all the way around this.
04:22Now, is this titanium?
04:24It's all titanium, yeah.
04:25OK.
04:26And that's for weight, of course.
04:27So strength, weight, and also because of the molecular bond structure.
04:31It's very similar to aluminum in that it's a four-way bond,
04:33and because of that, it's non-magnetic and it won't corrode in the ocean.
04:37You know, you're looking at exerting somewhere near 20,000 pounds of static load
04:41on any one of these four corners at any given time.
04:43The roll cage up top, is that for protection of the passengers inside,
04:47the driver and the passenger?
04:48It's not.
04:49It's actually there for structural rigidity.
04:51So without that cage, because all of the energy from waves
04:54and jumping the vehicle gets sent up through the suspension,
04:57it would cause the chassis to crumple on itself
04:59without having the upper portion of the cage.
05:02Wow.
05:03How does the suspension actually work?
05:04The suspension itself is what's actually articulating.
05:07In the front, the suspension holds both of the hauls identically parallel
05:11through the full range of motion.
05:12And in the rear, you've got a series of joints and bearings
05:17that allow the rear suspension to actually travel out and up
05:20and then return to center once the vehicle's back in the water.
05:23Have you taken this suspension from anything else?
05:25No.
05:26Or have you come up with this?
05:27Nope, it's entirely proprietary.
05:28Is it patented?
05:29It is.
05:30I think we've got around 30 patents now, 30 plus,
05:32between all the different aspects of the vehicles.
05:34That's crazy.
05:35Impressive as it is, you clearly can't do all this on your own.
05:38Who have you been working with?
05:39You've got some guys here.
05:40Yeah, so I've got two of our head fabricators here.
05:43Wilson is in charge of all of our composites and carbon fiber and fiberglass.
05:48And then we've got Mike who handles an awful lot of fabrication.
05:51Well, I've got a million questions, really, but let's start with
05:55it doesn't need the roll cage in order to protect the passengers,
05:59but can I tip this over if I really tried?
06:04I don't think so because the weight is in the bottom.
06:07The weight is all in the bottom.
06:09Well, hang on a minute.
06:10It looks like most of the weight is up here.
06:12It looks like most of the weight is up there,
06:13but all the weight is below the waterline with their four-cylinder engine,
06:17so it's like the engine of a small car, so it's pretty heavy.
06:20The titanium chassis weighs 143 pounds.
06:23And what's below the waterline?
06:25Below the water, each jet ski is around like 900 pounds.
06:28Oh, I see.
06:29So like around 80% of the total vehicle's weight is here.
06:32It's below the water.
06:33It's below the water.
06:34And that's why it doesn't tip over.
06:35That's why it won't tip over, right.
06:37Here's a sample of titanium.
06:40Oh, my gosh.
06:42So the entire chassis is made of that.
06:44It weighs virtually nothing.
06:47So it's stronger than steel, lighter than steel.
06:49Won't corrode.
06:50And it won't corrode.
06:51That's the main thing is it won't corrode.
06:53With such a bespoke architecture,
06:55it's no surprise that each Typhoon takes nearly 1,000 hours to build,
06:59which is why you'll have to part with a quarter of a million dollars to own one.
07:03That's more than a Ferrari Roma or an Aston Martin DB12 Coupe.
07:07And Ryan, this isn't pocket change.
07:10This is a seriously high-end vehicle.
07:13So who are you selling them to?
07:15Probably the lowest net worth I can imagine of anybody who's really reached out
07:18and wanted to purchase a vehicle is in excess of $100 million in net worth.
07:23So the customer that has the least money that's bought one of these is worth $100 million.
07:27Exactly.
07:28And it goes up from there.
07:29And it goes up from there.
07:30So royalty?
07:32Some, yeah.
07:33As a matter of fact, yeah.
07:34OK, I've got two more questions.
07:36Did you even consider, though, making this electric rather than ICE?
07:40Yeah, it's definitely something we're extremely interested in as a company.
07:43The reality of it is that electrification is very heavy
07:47and doesn't really offer the performance that we're getting out of a traditional combustion engine.
07:51Not yet, anyway.
07:52Not yet, at least.
07:53And so I think as hydrogen fuel cells come online and become more available,
07:59we'll slowly progress into looking at electrification of these vehicles.
08:02What happened in making the Typhoon that you just thought, I never thought that was going to be the case?
08:07One of the most shocking things ultimately came from the adjustments in the suspension
08:12and finding that setting suspension up for saltwater was different than setting it up for the freshwater.
08:18And that's all based on the buoyancy of the water itself.
08:21You're going to get a little bit more of a stiff ride in the ocean because of the additional buoyancy.
08:24And so we want to set it a little softer in saltwater than we do in freshwater.
08:27And that gives you a little bit better response in terms of getting into turns and cornering at high speeds.
08:32How many of these are in the wild right now?
08:35So there were nine pre-production units.
08:37We kept one of the vehicles, which we're looking at now, which was the final pre-production unit.
08:41So there's eight out there in the world.
08:43There are.
08:44That's it. And we get to drive this one.
08:45Yeah, we get to drive this one.
08:46I've got to have a go.
08:48OK, if the Typhoon is good enough for actual royalty, it's good enough for Wired.
08:53But to be honest, I was nervous about getting in this crazy watercraft,
08:57something Ryan is calling the world's first aquatic utility vehicle.
09:01I've been in supercars that could do 0-60 in two and a half seconds,
09:05and that's petrifying enough on a runway.
09:07Doing those speeds on water, in something that looks like it's drizzling,
09:12I've been in fancy cars with worse seats than these.
09:14This is great.
09:15So this is the wearable.
09:17So it's a dead man's switch, isn't it?
09:19So if you go out, then if it's not in the proximity of the vehicle, the vehicle stops.
09:24But it's also a GPS tracker.
09:26You got it. Exactly.
09:27And same thing with the driver's seat.
09:29So if you're in a car that's not in the proximity of the vehicle,
09:32the driver's seat is not in the proximity of the vehicle.
09:34So if you're in a car that's not in the proximity of the vehicle,
09:36the driver's seat is not in the proximity of the vehicle.
09:38So it's also a GPS tracker.
09:39You got it. Exactly.
09:40And same thing with the brain inside of the actual vessel.
09:44So it'll tell the Coast Guard both where you are and where you've drifted
09:47and what the currents are like, as well as where the machine is.
10:00I think we should play this.
10:05Whoa!
10:08Whoa!
10:12Oh!
10:16Oh!
10:17Oh!
10:19Blimey!
10:22Oh!
10:24Oh!
10:27How can you see?
10:31How can you see with this?
10:34This is the impressive bit.
10:36You're turning. It's crazy.
10:39It stays perfectly level.
10:40As far as everything actually works on it.
10:44Whoa!
10:45Jesus!
10:47Blimey!
10:50And how is it stopping?
10:52So all you've got to do is let off the throttle.
10:54And then, you know, essentially what's happening is it's coming out of the water.
10:57So what you feel is the thing going back down and laying back into the water again.
11:00So is it just the friction of the water stopping you?
11:03Because it feels like you're putting brakes on.
11:05That's no brake.
11:06No!
11:07Brakes will stop it way faster, which you probably don't want.
11:10No.
11:12Oh!
11:13Whoa! Speed!
11:15Holy hell!
11:17Jesus Christ!
11:21Oh!
11:22Oh!
11:26Oh!
11:28Oh!
11:29Oh!
11:30Oh!
11:31Oh!
11:32Jesus!
11:34Oh!
11:35Oh, my God!
11:38That guy's still fishing.
11:39Yeah.
11:42Oh, Jesus!
11:44Oh, my Lord!
11:47It's like light bending around you!
11:50Oh!
11:53Oh!
11:55Oh!
11:58Oh!
12:00All right, OK.
12:01I'm just, yeah.
12:02I'm just going to have a bit of dry land.
12:05Just for a sec.
12:11It really is a feat of engineering.
12:13And as I said, you know, you guys have done it all.
12:16No one's done this before.
12:17All these patterns, you've sorted it all out yourself.
12:19And it genuinely delivers on what you actually say.
12:22And I know you're prepared for the speed, but you're not really.
12:25Yeah, no, nothing can really prepare you for it.
12:27Just nothing else is like it, in my opinion.
12:29So you ready to give it a try?
12:31I am actually ready to give it a try.
12:33But what I'd like to do is that that's electric jet ski in your shop.
12:38Could we actually race the two?
12:39I want to see how electric does against this.
12:41You got it.
12:42I've always been Team Electric when it comes to wired vehicles.
12:46And I revel in telling petrolheads how EV acceleration
12:49leaves combustion cars in the dust.
12:51So when I saw the Stealth Evo in Ryan's workshop,
12:55I just had to see how it would hold up against the Typhoon's fearsome powertrain.
13:01It didn't go well.
13:06A hypercar for the water, so they say.
13:10What the hell am I doing?
13:12Right.
13:14Get ready.
13:16I don't know that I'm going to win even with a rolling start, so.
13:19Three, two, go!
13:25Go, go, go!
13:49And again, and again!
13:55Oh!
13:56Oh!
14:01Loads of water.
14:04Loads of water.
14:12Well, electric didn't win that one.
14:15I can hear you, yeah.
14:18I think you won that one.
14:21So we've come to the end of our day with the astonishing Typhoon.
14:26I've really never experienced anything like it.
14:29It's one of a kind.
14:30Well, actually, it's eight or nine of a kind.
14:33And that's the only ones that exist.
14:35And it's all come from one guy's head.
14:38And he was told so many times that he couldn't make it.
14:41And his team couldn't make it.
14:43And every time they fixed one problem, everyone else told them,
14:46no, you can't do it, you can't do it.
14:47They end up with the machine that the super wealthy are clamouring to get their hands on.
14:53They're buying it before they can even try it.
14:56And he's selling them at $250,000 a pop.
15:00It's a hell of an achievement.
15:02But above all, it's realising this vision that he had for this sort of Baja truck on the water,
15:08patented up to the eyeballs.
15:10It's a real amazing thing.
15:12Now, we need to start introducing some sort of desirability index into the wide desired.
15:17And this is incredibly desirable.
15:20You know, it's right up there.
15:22Eight, maybe, you know, like, you probably don't want it if you haven't got loads of money.
15:27It's expensive.
15:28And also, if you don't live on the water like they do here down in Florida.
15:32But if you do have the circumstances, my God.
15:37In fact, I'm going to have to have one last go.
15:41I'm going to have one last go.