Local Motors: Racing the Rally Fighter this Weekend...

The ground breaking, crowd sourced, startup American car company known as Local Motors will be racing the Rally Fighter at this weekend's Best in the Desert Parker 425.

Not a Stage Rally race but a full on, off-road desert race.  While I know Local Motors has done some testing in the dunes and sand of the Southwest, I'm not sure they've seen the likes of what they are about to contest this weekend.  That being said, the team on board to race the vehicle is an experienced one in Wildcard Racing and it sounds like they have been doing a fair amount of prep work on it.

To get the Rally Fighter compliant for desert racing a number of changes had to be made including the substitution of a fuel cell for the standard gas tank and additional bracing for the cage of the vehicle.  The vehicle will run in the Sportsman class as it certainly doesn't fit in any other standard class, though evidently, if there is enough interest, Casey Folks (head of BITD racing) may look to create one in the future.  With five Rally Fighters reportedly built to date, I'm not sure if Local Motors' original intention was to create a new class in desert racing but it appears they are getting the use/abuse that they so richly deserve.

At around 3,800 pounds and carrying an engine capable of over 400 hp, my hope for the vehicle will be for it to be able to skip across the rougher sections and not meet up with any Trophy Trucks or Class 1s as the Rally Fighter still looks a bit fragile to me.  You can follow the race on Saturday if you wish via satellite tracking and see how it performs.

Changes to the Rally Fighter for desert racing...
RDC thread on the Rally Fighter racing this weekend...
Best in the Desert racing series...
IRC tracking for the event...