How a 3D-Printed Car Beat A McLaren On The Race Track, And Why That’s Important to American Manufacturing

The word ‘manufacturing’ may conjure up specific imagery of 20th century industrial facilities to many. However, advanced manufacturing, or rather 3D printing, may be changing that narrative.

Ron Stefanski, host of the Disrupted podcast explains how this has already taken place in the form of a 3D-printed sports car, which recently bested a state-of-the-art McLaren in a race.

What’s more important than a race though, is the scalability of 3D printing on American soil. For decades, large swaths of Americans have pleaded for manufacturing jobs to come home. 3D printing may represent the largest development in the return of American manufacturing in years.

Ron’s Thoughts:

“I’ve been working with the US Center for Advanced Manufacturing and their collaboration with the World Economic Forum, and I’ve been host to numerous conversations with people who are literally changing the landscape of advanced manufacturing. Most recently, I had a series of conversations with an amazing engineering and technology entrepreneur, Kevin Singer, who started his Divergent 3D and Czinger vehicles to build the first completely 3D-printed hyper sports car.

Not only is this a feat in and of itself, but it also beat out the McLaren P5 in the recent Laguna Seca Raceway by six seconds, making it the fastest production vehicle in the world. All 3D printed! Now that’s an amazing feat, but let’s think about what the technology does on a global scale, what additive manufacturing does, and in the world that Kevin is creating for us and others like him.

It’s creating an opportunity for us to bring the supply chain back to the United States, to return to our strength at making and building things.

Because additive manufacturing allows for agility, it allows for us to move quickly, and it allows for us to mass produce at a very fast and cost-efficient clip.

That’s going to change manufacturing as we know it, and it’s going to happen right here in the United States.”