You’re unlikely to find a new Ford GT in your garage this holiday, but the automaker is giving you a chance to build one yourself. All you’ll need is a 3D printer and some plans provided by Ford.
With 3D printers predicted to become household appliances in the near future, Ford is celebrating its own use of the technology (at least, a very refined version thereof) with detailed printable versions of its cars. Tech-savvy makers can simply download and manufacture more than 1,000 models in miniature, and the rest of us can have a 6-inch-long pre-printed version delivered. The GT (rather, the “Ford GT E3 2015 Forza Motorsport 6”) is offered as a $230, limited-edition full-color rendition shipped in a wooden gift box, while the others — $39 printed or $4.99 for the 3D-printer-ready .STL file — are a solid colour.
Ford has used 3D printing to produce half a million parts since 1988, because the technology can get designs — for steering wheels, air intakes, structural components, you name it — from imagination to testable product in just hours. Depending on how detailed and resilient the prototype needs to be, Ford may print with plastic, sand or metal. But there’s no reason for you to be so limited.
