Italian formula race car builder Predator’s [sic] Ltd. is on a mission to create a street-legal, one-seat electric or hybrid formula car for public roads—hey, why not?—and the project apparently is not terribly well-funded. That’s where you can step in! Predator’s is asking the world for contributions small and large on its Indiegogo page to help it meet a $100,000 target by February 1, 2015, to certify its eensy one-seat kit car—which might be marketed as the Egoista Motors EM-01 Stradale, but it’s all a bit unclear—for international street use.
The final design is still under development, says the company, and if all goes as planned, the EV version will have a lithium-ion battery and be able to hit 60 mph in three seconds flat on its way to a top speed exceeding 180 mph, according to a press release posted on Autoblog Green. Range for the EV is said to be 186 miles, rising to 280 miles for the hybrid. Cost is estimated to be about $20K for the EV version and $25K for the hybrid.
Predator’s says it will use the first $100K to secure EU certification, although it is happy to take donations from U.S. buyers, however questionable it is that the car will ever be drivable on American roads. To its credit, the company will send you some form of swag for each level of contribution, ranging from Predator’s logo stickers for a donation of $25 USD to a bottle of Egoista Motors wine (remember, they’re Italians) for $60. There’s also a visual racing simulator for your home that includes a full-size formula car (!) sans engine, three big monitors, and a laptop should you pony up a cool $10,000.There have been no takers for the driving simulator as of this writing, as little more than $1700 has been raised. No surprise, as once you wade through the butchered English and painful hyperbole in the Predator’s press release and Indiegogo page, you can see that the “EM01” and its hybrid-powered counterpart are rather, um, ambitious projects. And that goes double in in today’s regulatory environment.
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For its part, Predator’s says that the vehicle will be “100% street legal internationally,” and that its American backers will get “all necessary safety and technical certifications to present to the DMV.” (Have they been to our DMVs?) Call us cynics, but we’re relatively sure that full street legality is little more than a pipe dream outside of perhaps Italy and certain countries with malleable motoring laws. Still, they can dream, right? And if you want to help turn the Predator’s dream into a reality, you know where to click. Reported by Car and Driver 12 hours ago.
The final design is still under development, says the company, and if all goes as planned, the EV version will have a lithium-ion battery and be able to hit 60 mph in three seconds flat on its way to a top speed exceeding 180 mph, according to a press release posted on Autoblog Green. Range for the EV is said to be 186 miles, rising to 280 miles for the hybrid. Cost is estimated to be about $20K for the EV version and $25K for the hybrid.
Predator’s says it will use the first $100K to secure EU certification, although it is happy to take donations from U.S. buyers, however questionable it is that the car will ever be drivable on American roads. To its credit, the company will send you some form of swag for each level of contribution, ranging from Predator’s logo stickers for a donation of $25 USD to a bottle of Egoista Motors wine (remember, they’re Italians) for $60. There’s also a visual racing simulator for your home that includes a full-size formula car (!) sans engine, three big monitors, and a laptop should you pony up a cool $10,000.There have been no takers for the driving simulator as of this writing, as little more than $1700 has been raised. No surprise, as once you wade through the butchered English and painful hyperbole in the Predator’s press release and Indiegogo page, you can see that the “EM01” and its hybrid-powered counterpart are rather, um, ambitious projects. And that goes double in in today’s regulatory environment.
--------------------
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· Plastics Make It Possible: Local Motors’ 3-D–Printed Strati EV Is Born, Runs
--------------------
For its part, Predator’s says that the vehicle will be “100% street legal internationally,” and that its American backers will get “all necessary safety and technical certifications to present to the DMV.” (Have they been to our DMVs?) Call us cynics, but we’re relatively sure that full street legality is little more than a pipe dream outside of perhaps Italy and certain countries with malleable motoring laws. Still, they can dream, right? And if you want to help turn the Predator’s dream into a reality, you know where to click. Reported by Car and Driver 12 hours ago.