Aquaticar Opens at Aquarabia, Offers Guests a True Underwater Adventure with Bubble Cars

Guests at Aquarabia can now settle into a two-person vehicle and follow a track that drops them completely beneath the surface for several minutes. Aquaticar, the ride that opened this spring at the large water park outside Riyadh, uses ordinary air bubbles to push each car forward while a clear canopy keeps riders dry from the mid-chest up. Their legs sit in the water the whole time, so the lower half of the body feels the temperature and movement of the pool while the upper half stays in fresh air that is constantly refreshed from pipes under the track.

Seventeen of these weird three-wheeled cars zoom around a 450-foot track shaped roughly like a large oval. After getting a nice dousing at a pre-ride water zone, the cars coast down a tiny little hill, finish up about eight feet underwater, and basically chill there until an elevator belt pulls them back up at the end of their five to six-minute trip.

The most of the way around, you’re under a rock wall, which makes the entire experience feel more like a creepy dark ride, complete with some pretty fantastic lighting, massive underwater displays, and narration that tells the narrative of this lost city known as the Legend of the Glowing Guardian. You get to view a lot of amazing stuff along the way, like coral reefs, old shipwrecks, and even sculptures that seem like mythological creatures, all organized so that riders can spin their heads around at their leisure while the car glides along at a very slow and sluggish pace.


The power is supplied via a bizarre technology known as the Bubble Engine, according to Sub Sea Systems. As each car passes over special sensors on the track floor, a valve opens and a small burst of air emerges just beneath it. Some of the air just rises up into the canopy, allowing you to breathe normally through the small vents near your head, while the remainder is channeled into a pair of those large vertical rotors at the back of the car.


These rotors have a ring of little scoops on them, and when a bubble is captured, it tries to rise up, causing the rotor to spin. The spinning rotor then moves a chain, which rotates the back wheel, so the car continues to roll along without an electric motor or propeller. You can hear the continuous chug-chug as the air bubbles burst, and park officials can monitor the car from an onboard camera while you’re confined inside. In addition, users can utilize a small push-to-talk button to communicate with someone while in the automobile.


In terms of safety, there are several air supplies on board, including a small tank with enough breathing air to last about 25 minutes and several airbags that will raise the automobile back to the surface if necessary. Oh, and TUV SUD has verified the entire system, which sounds impressive.


Riders must be at least 48 inches tall to ride, however because you have your hands free the entire time, you can hold a phone and record a video of the underwater environment, or you can simply enjoy the trip without taking any pictures. Some of the more elaborate installations even include small Bubble Pulse Guns, which allow riders to fire air rings at underwater targets while skimming by.


One set of 17 vehicles can accommodate an amazing 300 passengers per hour, and the track configuration is easily adaptable to various parks. The same bubble-powered cars can be customized with different body styles or themes, allowing you to have an entirely new ride experience from one location to the next. At Aquarabia, however, the combination of that sluggish underwater pace, dry upper body, and a completely built-out picturesque route provides visitors with a trip that feels like driving through a real aquarium, even if it is still a car on rails.
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