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Professor Gordon Murray is a clever guy. With a CV that includes the McLaren F1 as well as several successful racing cars, what does he turn to next? Revolutionising transport in the developing world, of course.
Some of you may have heard of the OX, a flat-pack truck that has a payload capacity of two tonnes, and can carry up to 13 people, eight 44-gallon (166.5-litre) drums or three Euro-pallets. It's the result of a project embarked upon six years ago by the Global Vehicle Trust and Gordon Murray Design, and is intended to replace unreliable, complicated and expensive transport solutions with a simple, cost-effective design that can work anywhere.
To date, trials on three OX prototypes have been carried out in the UK and Spain, with promising results. The next step is to carry out field trials in Africa, which is where Crowdfunder comes in. The team has targeted to raise £450,000 (€503,535) to enable critical updates to the vehicles for these tests including cooling and frame modifications, with a stretch target of £900,000 (€1,007,071) to cover further engineering changes.
If successful, the OX development team will be able to present strong data to prospective vehicle manufacturing partners 'that the upgraded prototype is a credible product, underpinned by a robust commercial strategy.'
Founder of the Global Vehicle Trust, Sir Torquil Norman, said: "We've had a remarkable response to the OX from everyone who has seen it, and even more so from those who have driven it. For the next phase, we need to convert that response into significant financial support, and crowdfunding is the perfect fit for the OX's humanitarian goal. It enables anyone to donate to the mission, and to help move this amazing vehicle a step closer to production."
Gordon Murray added, "I'm immensely proud of the OX. We worked to an uncompromising brief, and the result genuinely tops everything else that I've worked on over my career. It has the potential to help so many people, and I hope that the crowdfunding campaign harnesses support for the project from an even wider community of people around the world."
If interested, donations for the 'OX to Africa' mission can be submitted on the Crowdfunder platform by visiting the OX to Africa Crowdfunder page.