Meet Natalia

March 9 - Progress is being made in the development of the world's first hand-built, $2 million, sixteen-cylinder production automobile - The Natalia.

Alfred DiMora, the founder of DiMora Motorcar, based in Palm Springs, California, is known for his expertise in designing high-end luxury cars such as the Clenet and Sceptre. He was also the founder of Starbridge Systems, Inc. where he developed the world's fastest FPGA supercomputer.

Recently announced, ProMetal RCT will provide an integrated product and process team will use the their digital 3D printing technology to produce castings for the 1200-horsepower Volcano V16 engine without the need for patterns or tooling. The ProMetal RCT equipment automatically builds sand molds and cores for casting metal directly from CAD data.

Dan Maas, Director of Business Development for ProMetal, says "This revolutionary process allows design freedoms, heretofore never available to the casting designer or the foundry. Removing the requirements for parting lines, draft angles and providing undercuts is just the tip of the iceberg."

Previously announced, the 2000-hp engine will utilise a proprietary coating for the cylinder walls to eliminate the need for seperate steel liners. The NiCom coating from U.S. Chrome is a nickel metal matrix with dispersed silicon carbide particles.