For Immediate Release
Startup Contactscale Unwraps Advanced Car Designs

Summary: Contactscale unveils prototype bodywork for alternative-fuel racecars; startup to kick-start Silicon Valley's automotive industry

Sunnyvale, CA - January 29, 2009: Silicon Valley startup Contactscale unveiled its first public project: advanced composite bodywork for the dp4, dp1 and dp1/e. The cars are ultra-lightweight sports racing prototypes being designed and built by Palatov Motorsport of Portland, OR.

The dp1/e is an electric variation of Palatov Motorsport's first racecar prototype and weighs around 1,000 lbs. Contactscale is fabricating the tooling and body, an all-composite affair that will reduce weight and improve track performance, where Palatov plans to use the dp1/e as a testbed for bleeding-edge automotive technology. And Palatov is only one of many automotive startups that are roving the valley, looking to innovate on more than software.

"You don't have to be GM anymore," said Contactscale founder Dan Bolfing. "Design that used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years can be done for tens of thousands in months or weeks." And that lower cost opens the door to new companies looking to bring new ideas to the road.

According to Dennis Palatov, the founder of Palatov Motorsport, “Designing a full-function electric car within the limitations of currently available energy storage solutions is akin to building a modern PC with only 10MB of memory – to make it useful off-the-shelf solutions simply won’t work and every possible avenue for improving efficiency must be explored, quickly and cost effectively. The Rapid Prototyping technologies and services from Contactscale allow us to do this much better, faster and cheaper than previously possible. This truly brings automotive design and development within the realm of the entrepreneur.”

Contactscale brings decades of experience in composites to the fledgling automotive industry in Northern California. The company is rooted in Bolfing's experience fabbing windsurfers, first out of fiberglass and then more advanced composites. Contactscale takes that technology and applies it to vehicles, where reduced weight means greater efficiency -- electric or otherwise -- and better performance.

That technology is eco-friendly, too. The carbon-fiber and polymer materials used by Contactscale can improve the efficiency and range of a car without sacrificing performance, according to Bolfing. "Making efficient cars isn't just about batteries and electric motors. Composites can lower the weight of a vehicle," he adds, "and you don't have to rely on unproven technology to make more efficient cars."

For additional information on Palatov Motorsport contact Dennis Palatov at dp@palatov.com.
For information about ContactScale in Sunnyvale, you can reach Dan Bolfing at DanB@contactscale.com.