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I guess we're not the only ones with a sick sense of engine-building humor. Thomas Johansson, an engineering graduate student at Sweden's Lule university of technology, created the engine some of the Jalops proposed last week in conversation — a W9. Why, we asked, couldn't someone create an engine with three rows of three cylinders — like a triple helping of the Bl riot XI aircraft's Anzani W3. We're not sure what Johansson plans to do with his creation, or whether it was just a because-I-can exercise, but we'd like to see it in an old rally Saab, or powering some manner of Eastern European flatbed (either one). [Thanks to David for the tip.] – Mike Spinelli More »
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A few months back, McLaren commissioned students from Italy's Istituto Europeo di Design in Turin to imagine the next McLaren F1. That is, a mid-engined super sports car capable of 200 mph that offers "the technological excellence of Formula 1 for the road, with unparalleled dynamic and aerodynamic performance" (a designer's version of the Make a Wish Foundation). As we noted last month, the winner, as judged by experts including McLaren's Anthony Sheriff, was the MElevenB — an aggressively chisled sportster. Additionally, the top-three design teams created 1:4 models of their entries, shots of which McLaren released this week. Yes, please. More »
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Those who've been pining away for the erstwhile McLaren F1 may want to take note. McLaren Cars recently commissioned students from Turin, Italy's Institute of Design to undertake a design study exploring themes for the F1's successor. The young scribblers worked up a range of concept models, which were subsequently scrutinized by a panel that included McLaren boss Anthony Sheriff. The panel chose MElevenB (above) for first prize. Of course, that doesn't mean we're looking at the next F1, but it does mean something's coming. And it may even look something like that. More »
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Students at the University of British Columbia handily trounced competitors in this year's SAE Supermileage Competition, using their superior engineering kung-fu to achieve over 3,000 mpg in a car they designed and built. The competition pits smartypants against propellerhead to see who can best expand the efficiency of an internal combustion engine, and the UBC has won in four out of the six competitions it's entered. Employing principals of aerodynamics, weight reduction, and drawing on Canada's storied advancements in dildonics, the team thrusted to victory, despite a diminutive 54cc unit. More »
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Anyone wondering where the plastics economy is headed (c'mon, we know you're out there) need only check out what students from London's Royal College of Art's Vehicle Design program have been up to. The smarties across the pond recently completed a GE-sponsored project, PLASTicon, in which they created prototypes using various cutting-edge polymers and such. Their concepts, targeted to specific buyers and markets, suggest a future world where a driver will sit under a simulated starry sky, in a car he's designed himself, which can change color depending on its temperature. Yes, the future will be psychotropic. More »
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No, it's not some kind of futuristic Nissan bike / sled / Body by Jake appliance. It's a conceptual interior — one among nine winning entries from Germany's Pforzheim University, in a design challenge by Nissan Design Europe. The students, from the university s Transportation Design program, were bid to create vehicle concepts that would meet customer expectations in 2015, when — we suspect — great abs will just be a matter of commuting. More »
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Talk about managing expectations. Last week, the Espera Sbarro design school released a sketch of a concept it planned to unveil in Geneva today. We got a long look at the concept in three dimensions, and it's not even close. While the drawing looked less like a car than a cubist's sketch of a post-absinthe nightmare, in the flesh, the car is all hotness. Excuse the awkward-appearing fascia with overdone ground-effect skirting, holistically the Diva — created as an homage to Alfa Romeo — is a piece of art, whereas the sketch is just a piece of, well, you know. More »
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Students of the Institute of Applied Design in Turin showed off their scale-model prototype for a new Alfa Romeo B-segment car at the Bologna show earlier this month. The conceptualists-in-training drew inspiration from Alfa's 8C concept and late-sixties GT Junior for the project, which was contracted by Alfa Romeo as a design study. Despite a visual connection that's more Hyundai Tiburon GT than Alfa GT, we wouldn't mind seeing a new generation of hatchbacks that are more low slung. More »
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Ferrari president and CEO Luca di Montezemolo and Sergio Pininfarina picked four concepts to win Ferrari's New Concepts of the Myth design competition — dashing the hopes of our in-house design team and its "coffee cup riding on a chassis of pencils and Scotch tape rolls." The winning designers, students at three major design colleges, get internships at either Ferrari or Pininfarina. The chosen concepts are (clockwise from top left): Fiorano (Coventry University School of Art & Design, UK); Ascari (Istituto Europeo di Design, Turin); Millechili (Istituto Europeo di Design, Turin); Tre Diviso (Tokyo Communication Arts). [Thanks to CJ for the tip.] More »
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Students from four of the world's top auto design schools have been working since January to create new concepts for Ferrari as part of a contest sponsored by Ferrari and Pininfarina. The students from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Tokyo Communication Arts, Coventry University School of Art and Design, and the European Institute of Design in Turin, have turned in a ton of corsa-work (look that one up in your Dictionary of Sports Car Puns). They'll be judged by a dream congress of Ferrari / Pininfarina bigwigs: Luca di Montezemolo, Amedeo Felisa, Piero Ferrari and Senator Sergio Pininfarina. Not too much pressure. [Update: See also Leftlane News's gallery] More »
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Like many brands, Chrysler turned to design students to explore concepts for a 2015 model-year Jeep product. The apprentices were challenged to break Jeep's rusty cage and run (thanks, VH1 classic) with an eye toward expanding the Jeep brand to encompass new types of vehicles. The students, from the Cleveland Institute of Art, Art Center College of Design in California and the College for Creative Studies in Detroit each focused on a separate city of the world, some more sucessfully than others. More »
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