Last summer we were given a glimpse of Ford’s 3D printing technology. The Blue Oval uses this technology for prototype parts development and design exercises. Ford even showed us prototype parts they had built that went on actual test engines for design verification purposes. This type of manufacturing capability on a small scale allows the Blue Oval to save money by constructing, testing, and verifying parts before investing in the tooling to produce those parts.

That’s not to say that 3D printing can’t be used for some fun as well. Ford recently sent us a video of their use of 3D printing technology to put a 2015 Mustang Slot Car on the track. Built to race on an International Slot Car Racing chassis, the design data from the actual 2015 Mustang was transferred to the 3D printing software to produce the car body.

Piloted by one of Ford’s technologists the 2015 Mustang slot car racer made several laps resulting in a win for the team. While it all looks like a lot of fun, the end result is that Ford has the technological capabilities to take ideas and even small changes and test them with this type of small scale manufacturing before putting the parts into production. What this leads to are higher quality pats as well as an ability to more rapidly update and change models to meet consumer demands.