What is awesome? Awesome is when you jump a rally fighter and there just so happens to be a McLaren 12C hanging out in front of you.

This is what it looks like to endo a Local Motors Rally Fighter, land on your wheels, and keep going.

At the Parker 425 desert race in Arizona over the weekend, this Local Motors Rally Fighter hit a jump and flipped end over end. Did it stop? Hell no. It shook the hood off and kept going.

No one knows what cars will look like in the future, but there's little doubt that the automotive world is on the cusp of momentous change. BMW decided that it wants a bit of outside help, and set up a design contest through the Local Motors online auto enthusiast community.

Phoenix-based Local Motors has been busy building off-road rally cars designed by crowdsourcing. Yesterday, it showed off the results of the same process applied to the idea of a military hauler.

The awesome open-source Local Motors Rally Fighter will tackle the Parker 425 cross-desert race. This is a full off-road desert race and a real test for the crowd-sourced Rally Fighter's durability. As for performance? It weighs 3,800 pounds and has a 400 hp turbodiesel engine, so it should do just fine if it holds…

Driven by Ezra Dyer for Popular Mechanics, the Local Motors Rally Fighter ate up a 40-mile trail outside Phoenix in just three hours. The usual time for 4x4s? Eight. Nice. Wanna know more? You'll need to buy the magazine. [PopMech]

The folks at Local Motors took the Rally Fighter out to Glamis and Plaster City for testin', tunin' and beatin' the ever-livin' snot outta it. This video's got some vehicular explanation and some pretty decent off-roading porn. Enjoy

Since the design and fabrication of the Local Motors Rally Fighter is nearing completion, it's time for the next community-designed vehicle. Now Local Motors wants an off-road truck perfect for hunting and fishing the Texas back country.