Local Motors Crowdsources Cars

Rally Fighter image from Local Motors

Local car company Local Motors is crowdsourcing cars, letting people work together to design and build the ultimate vehicle. Rules tailor car designs to specific locales and allow potential drivers to vote on the vehicle that revs their engine. Parts are recruited from car kit companies and no vehicle is built until there's an order on hand, perhaps teaching big car companies an important lesson: wait until they come to build it.

The Wareham-based company's first car, the Rally Fighter (pictured), debuts to consumers in June for a cool $50k (though the procurement process is complex: you've got to buy a raffle number, put down a $5000 down payment, and wait in hopes of being able to get one of these babies). Buying the car also buys you a "build experience" in which you assist in building your own car at a local "microfactory"—something we've always kind of wanted to do. All kinds of specifications are available in the brochure, but our main car criteria is certainly met: it looks damn cool.

The Rally Fighter is the first car actually being built, but a Boston Bullet has been prototyped for city driving. Small and highly maneuverable, with a built in bike rack, this baby might be exactly what's needed to make motoring through this city less of a headache.

Gizmodo rips on Wired for pretending that Local Motors is manufacturing. Maybe it's not, in a traditional sense. But it is an interesting, and local, way to get a car that sets you apart from all the Civics on the road.

You can track the Rally Fighter as it travels the country, hoping it comes near you soon. So what's next for Local Motors: crowdsourcing a new truck for homestate hero Scott Brown? (Yes, in fact, we can relate anything to Scott Brown.) [Wired]