Local Motors’ Forge Community at the SEMA Show

Local Motors had a big week at the SEMA show this year.  I really loved that they brought in some of their community members to work the booths.  If you stopped by, you probably picked up on the enthusiasm. The folks from the Forge also brought some great skills with them.  I was especially tickled when a group of Japanese business men stopped by to look the work done by Tony Ashwell on the brown Suzuki truck shown here. Forge member Richard Mansell, stepped in to explain the whole thing… in Japanese! Turned how he had lived there as a child.Now that is some real community power.



Here is a picture of some of the guys working on the Open Tandem vehicle.  While everyone loves the Rally Fighter, it is outside the price range of many Forge members.  So, a bunch of them started banging out a new concept of an inexpensive tandem vehicle. The idea is that you can buy yourself a Honda Civic engine (or find a donor car) and build up this vehicle at a low price. I’m already thinking about how I can get my son to give me his old Honda Del Sol 🙂

While the Open Tandem is “Open”, the real meaning of the word is from “Open Source” Eventually all the design data will be available to everyone much like the source code from many of computer programs is available today.

I’m hoping to check in on their progress in the coming months.  The group is making extensive use of the sheet metal and frames functionality of Solid Edge and it might be interesting to dive more deeply into that. If you want joint the Forge and try Solid Edge for yourself, Here is your ride.