The First 3D-Printed Supercar

As reported by George Anders for Forbes, “Kevin Czinger’s Ideal Sports Car Just Emerged From A 3-D Printer.”

Anders continues, what can you create with a 3-D printer, 61 pounds of aluminum powder and some carbon-fiber tubing?

If you’re California entrepreneur Kevin Czinger, you’ve got enough to start making Blade: a revolutionary new sports car with a 3-D printed chassis. (See video footage above.)

Only one such car exists right now. But Czinger is hoping that his new-age approach to manufacturing will catch on in a huge way, with the eventual goal of radically reducing the weight, costs and environmental toll of making cars around the world.

Czinger’s car makes its public debut at the O’Reilly Solid conference in San Francisco. This particular machine is better suited to the race track than the morning commute: it’s a bobsled-style two-seater (one front, one back), with huge gull-wing doors and a 700-horsepower engine. Thanks to a super-light chassis, the car weighs only about 1,400 pounds.

There’s no reason, though, Czinger said in an interview, that the lightweight design methods of Blade’s chassis can’t be applied to more traditional car designs. Even pickup trucks or sports-utility vehicles could be built with 3-D printed chassis, he contented.

More “Kevin Czinger’s Ideal Sports Car Just Emerged From A 3-D Printer” on Forbes

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