Top Gear likes fast boats. Fast boats with big engines, preferably with swathes of carbon fibre and touches of unimaginable luxury (read blog).

Top Gear also likes fast boats with big engines that look like a cross between a killer whale, Godzilla and that Q Boat from The World is Not Enough.

That's our vague attempt to pigeonhole the Sea Phantom, but to be honest it's like nothing we've ever seen before.

It's a working concept from American boat designer David Borman, a man with more than a touch of mad scientist about him who might just revolutionise the world of aquatic transport.

This 34-foot prototype is powered by an 8.3-litre V10 from Ilmor Engineering - the British company that powered the championship-winning F1 McLarens in 1998 and 1999 - putting out 625bhp and a massive 600lb ft of torque.

The Sea Phantom has already hit speeds of 100mph on open water, and Borman reckons he can scale the technology up to larger versions that will run up to 150mph.

The key to the speed is the Sea Phantom's six-foot aerofoils, which sit submerged at speeds under 35mph but above that speed lift the vessel out of the water, reducing drag and flying over the surface of the sea.

The Sea Phantom also banks into high-speed turns like an aeroplane, the nearside foil retracting into the corners, which should make it as cool to pilot as it is to look at.

Borman says the key to the Sea Phantom's speed and efficiency is the weight distribution: whereas conventional performance boats are weighted to the rear to keep the bow light, the Phantom is front-loaded to produce 'stable subsonic flight'.

The US military is already looking with interest at the development of the Sea Phantom, but Borman also believes that it could be scaled up to provide high-speed ferry transport - or just a serious (and seriously expensive - the prototype is already valued at half a million dollars, and the customer versions won't be much cheaper) big boy's toy.

But just imagine: 625bhp at your disposal, an open sea and not a speed camera in sight. Top Gear likes boats like this.