Local Motors at SEMA 2009
Local Motors is a new car company started in Massachusetts. Basically they have a forum full of wanna-be designers who submit designs and the forum votes on what they like. Then the winner is what gets built. They eventually want to have micro production facilities in every region building a design for that region. Currently they have the one in Mass. and they are opening one in Phoenix some time next year.
The first design to make it to production is what they call Rally Fighter. The designer supposedly got inspiration from the P-51 Mustang airplanes of WWII. I love the plane, and I love the Rally Fighter. But I really see no resemblance between the two.
Rally fighter weighs in around 3100 lbs. It has a BMW diesel engine (same one as the BMW 25 of Thunderhill cars I worked on) with 265 HP, and 425 lb-ft of torque. It has 18″ of travel all around and the engine sits very far back in the tube frame chassis. It looks like it could be an amazing car that would be a ton of fun off road. And it gets 30-36 mpg.
Local Motors Rally Fighter
Local Motors Rally Fighter front suspension
Local Motors Rally Fighter Watts link rear suspension
Local Motors Rally Fighter interior
Front side
