SARASOTA, Fla. — Want to be the envy of the waters? Then a jet car might be the ride for you.

“It’s not something everyone has seen much of, if they’ve ever seen it all,” said Jason Ross, of Sunworld Watersports. 

What You Need To Know

  • Florida on a Tankful visits Jet Cars at Sunworld Watersports, which is located at Sarasota's Downtown Hyatt Regency, 1000 Boulevard of the Arts, Sarasota
  • The Jet Cars can be rented by people who are 21 and older

  • Jason Ross, with Sunworld Watersports, says the craft looks like a car and drives like a car, but its highway is the open water

Jet Cars have arrived in Sarasota Bay — they're part car, part jet ski and all speed.

"You get your picture taken a lot," Ross said. "It’s kind of like being famous for an hour."

A GPS system monitors for safety.

“So getting anywhere near a shoreline, a sandbar, anything like that, the car will automatically slow down to a no-wake speed — roughly 5-miles an hour," Ross explained.

Ross started in jet skis, but said the Corvette-inspired Jet Car was too unique to pass up.

“It drives like a car. It looks like a car. Technically, it’s a boat," he said. "It’s powered by the internals of what you would call a Wave Runner. The controls of it work similar to a car — you’ve got a steering wheel, gas petal, brake pedal. It’s an automatic.”

Ross said he is working on his next Jet Car acquisition — this time he's looking at a four-seater Rolls Royce.