Vote On The Open Source Local Motors Sports Car

Last month, open source DIY automaker Local Motors launched its next big design contest, and this one has production ambitions. The goal? Create a high-performance, low-cost track racer for performance purists.

Local Motors has has existed for just a few years, but its open source philosophy has garnered it a lot of press. It’s first (and so far only) production vehicle, the Rally Fighter, was designed via the same kind of contest being held for the sports car platform. This has naturally drawn talented designers from across the world, and 200 submissions have been entered into this dream contest. The stakes are high too, as first prize gets not just $7,500 in prize money, but a royalty check for every car they sold build on the “SportsCar” platform.

That could add up to a lot of cheddar, as Local Motors is targeting a market segment ripe for the plucking. The design contest calls for a small, two-seat rear-wheel drive race car with a four-cylinder engine, no roof, no roll cage, and no doors; you just get in and drive that bad boy. It should also weigh less than 1,600 pounds, and cost about $30,000. Voting began on Monday, reports Jalopnik, and ends on the 12th of September.

Dedicated track racers like the Ariel Atom redefined how many people thought of sports cars, though the high cost made it impossible for most people to justify owning one. But at $30,000, Local Motors could build a car with a much wider potential audience. While it definitely still falls in the “toy” category, it’s the kind of toy the average man can actually aspire to own one day.

Meanwhile, Local Motors is trying to change how we think of designing and building cars, not just open sourcing their designs, but also embracing 3D printing as a means of automotive manufacturing. Local Motors is no Tesla, but it’s also changing the way we think about manufacturing automobiles.

Local Motors’ Electric Drift Trike is a Thing of Awesome

Built by crowdsourcing favorites Local Motors, the electric, adult-sized BigWheel you see here is called the Verrado- and it is every kind of awesome there is.

There are very few feelings in life like the thrill you got when you pulled your first 360 on your BigWheel. Like so many of the most amazing things that will ever happen to you, you were probably too young to remember it- and there’s no way to find that feel again. Or, is there?

That’s what the sport of drift triking is all about: re-capturing the thrills of your BigWheel-inspired youth in old age. To that end, Chris and I, both, have professed that we’d be willing to die on (or, rather, being thrown off of) a high-quality drift trike. “High quality”, of course, being a necessity- and that’s where Local Motors comes in.

After building the top-shelf Rally Fighter and introducing the board-track inspired Cruiser a short while ago, Local Motors should need no introduction. For their drift trike, Local stuffs a MagicPie 3-hub brushless motor and a lithium cobalt manganese battery into the bike’s “big” 20-inch front wheel. Out back, five-inch steel wheels are fitted with 10-inch kart tires for grip- and those are wrapped in PVC plastic sleeves almost an inch thick for drifting. Disc brakes with a KERS-like regenerative braking system help bring the trike to a stop in a hurry if things get too hairy.

I have a feeling, however, that hitting the brakes on one of these Local drift trike deals would be morally wrong.

I’ll need about $1600 to find out, however. That’s what Local Motors is asking for a new Verrado, which is scheduled to start shipping out to its well-heeled customers in June. (Get it? See what I did there? Well-heeled … Ha!)

Source | Photos: Gizmag.