The Nautilus Submarine Art Car
Commissioned by and in collaboration with Christopher Bently
Lead Artist: Sean Orlando
Operations/ Electrical: David Shulman
Design Engineer: Greg Jones
Interior Design: Bree Hylkema
The Nautilus project is an artistic experiment and collaboration between Christopher Bently, Sean Orlando and Five Ton Crane. It is a land-based submarine weighing in at 11,000 pounds (dry) with a top speed of 13 mph. The base vehicle is a 2005 Eagle TT8 diesel AWD airport tow tractor, designed to tow 90,000 lbs airplanes. 25′ long, 100″ wide, 11′6″ tall
The Nautilus comes fully equipped with:
- Harpoon gun water cannon (13 gallons per minute)
- Hydraulic drive controls
- RFID security system
- GPS navigation
- Pro-audio
- ipad/ ipod/ iphone interface controls
- LED RGB programmable lighting system
- Library
- Specimen lab
- Navigation room
- Night vision periscope
- Poop deck with custom shade canopy
- Air conditioning


The Nautilus Aperture Door November 17, 2011
[...] “The Nautilus” by Five Ton Crane, a San Francisco Bay Area art collective, is a 25 foot long art car inspired by the submarine from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. It has a water cannon and a night vision periscope, but its most awesome detail is a 4 foot diameter door with a motorized brass aperture window shade and a squid-themed keyless entry system (video). The door was designed and built by artist Dr. Alan Rorie. [...]