Shelby Cobra gets a commemorative version made with a 3D printer

For car fans, the Shelby Cobra It's always at the top of the classics lists. It was once considered the fastest production car in the world at the time, with a top speed of 165 miles per hour, something around 266 km/h.

Not only for the performance, but also for the design, which used the chassis AC Ace, and by its rarity, with less than a thousand units produced between 1962 and 1968. Cobra it is a unique car, marked by its time. Since the end of the line, countless clones, kits and special versions have emerged. Now the Cobra won a functional replica made with a 3D printer.

Celebrating the “50 years” of the production of Shelby, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with support from the US Department of Energy, created the model that will be on display at the Detroit Auto Show until the 25th of January. On the outside, the replica is identical to the original. Printed with technology AAMB – Big Area Additive Manufacturing (large area additive manufacturing, in free translation), it came out of the oven unfinished and was finished by the company True Design.

A additive manufacturing It is used in the manufacture of parts by deposition of several layers of material, as in a 3D printing. Thus, it is possible to quickly manufacture prototypes with complex geometry. It is the opposite of traditional machining, which removes material.

The surprising thing is not just seeing a car in print (there are a few other models), but the fact that the whole project took just six weeks. Using this technology, automakers can develop new, cheaper and more efficient techniques to test and produce their cars, from prototype to final version. See more in the video below:

Source: Mashable.