Hot sketches? Check. Giant wheels? Check. Aggressive styling? Check. Production vehicle? Check..? Yes, CHECK.
Local Motors has released information on their first build, the “Rally Fighter” by recent winner Sangho Kim. The concept was born of true open-source thinking via LM’s Design Process community section of their website: Designer creates concept, community critiques concept, designer refines concept, community critiques again, and so on. To designers, the process is reminiscient of every college design course (and every succesful design studio) we had, with weekly critiques of our designs in efforts to make it better. (We’ll have more on the Design process in a future article). Kim’s concept was one of the first to utilize the Design Process, and did so effectively, evolving over the summer into the vehicle that you see in the images below.
The vehicle, although it will have to slightly morph to fit today’s safety and manufacturing standards, is a take on the stylish not-so-off-road genre that BMW, Audi, and even Hyundai are starting to take a look into seriously. Dubbed a “larger lighter-weight” car that is fuel-efficient, the Rally Fighter had it’s roots as a BMW-inspired concept, picking up the look of the X6 and eventually evolving the proportion and form language to become more unique. While not as outlandhish as many concepts we see come out of other design competitions (and other start-ups) the Rally Fighter has a clean, modern aesthetic that will aim to help define the Local Motors brand language.
If the final vehicle retains much of the “sketch on wheels” appeal of Kim’s concept, then the Rally Fighter will be a winner. With the help of LM team members such as Ben Messmer (Lead Designer at Local Motors) and their engineering staff and community, the project looks promising, and will be a nice way for the design communityto showcase itself in the increasingly open-source world that we live in. Congratulations to Sangho Kim, who’s having one heck of a summer!
Official press release (and a few more images) after the break.
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