IED Thesis: 2020 McLaren Off-Roader
The final projects created by the 3rd year students at Turin-based IED in partnership with McLaren. The brief was to imagine a futuristic two-seater hybrid off-roader for the year 2020.
The thesis projects at the 2009-2010 post-diploma course in Transportation Design – Car Design were developed by the final year students in partnership with McLaren.
Their goal was to imagine how the british carmaker’s design identity could develop in the year 2020 by creating a two-seater performance-driven off-roader with a hybrid powertrain, central engine and 4WD system.
Eleven concept cars were selected among a total of 33 entries.
These were further developed and presented using computer-generated 3D videos, which required the definition of additional details such as the transparent surfaces and openings.
A second selection led to the short listing of three projects (Holon, Torok and Bio Renovatio) which were then produced in 1:4 scale models and are now on show at the IED Turin headquarters in via San Quintino, 39.
Torok by Michel Di Marco, Andrea Invernizzi e Shariq Virani
Bio Renovatio Concept by Salvatore Cutaia, Vasily Kurkov e Jesus Adrian Solis Garcia
Pangolin Concept
White Stalker Concept
From the official Press Release:
Understanding the world of McLaren was the first step, with the car designers exposed to McLaren at the company’s world famous McLaren Technology Centre, in Woking, UK. The entire class visited the brand’s headquarters in the company of Frank Stephenson, McLaren Automotive – Design Director.
They watched a brand philosophy presentation prepared by the car manufacturer along with a tour of the factory and the McLaren boulevard that displays world championship-winning racing cars adorned with legendary names such as Senna, Prost, and Hamilton. The opportunity to see McLaren’s working environment helped to develop each student’s understanding of the true values behind the brand; a brand that has always been known for its dynamic and sporting focus.
This introduced a brand research stage which kicked off the project, involving a conceptual investigation of the history of McLaren and its leading role in the high-performance sports car segment. Through the subsequent design research stage, the car designers honed their ideas for presentation in the year 2020, which suggested an evolution in the internal cockpit and exterior bodywork design of the vehicle concept in line with the brand language.
Of thirty-three individual proposals presented, eleven were selected for further development. The car designers then worked in groups to develop the concepts further, both for interiors and exteriors, right up to the final stage which involved the creation of 3D videos of these concept cars. The decision to make a virtual presentation of each project was taken in order to ensure that every aspect of the vehicle could be assessed, including all transparent surfaces and openings.
César Mendoza, Director of IED Turin said: “The Istituto Europeo di Design was very keen to collaborate again with McLaren Automotive. As with our previous design study a few years ago, it has certainly contributed to raising the students’ professional outlook, as it required that each team clearly defined the position of each specific feature within the project as a whole.
“McLaren is known for its attention to design detail: everything is for a reason and that is what we wanted our teams to understand. Then, in order to heighten the quality of the final works presented, we chose virtual presentation, including animation, that enables us even to test the movements of the parts.”
Frank Stephenson, McLaren Automotive’s Design Director, said: “It was a great pleasure to work once again with IED Turin. McLaren Automotive’s plans are wholly based on two-seat, mid-engined performance cars, but I was fascinated to hear and see the students’ solutions to this project. There was great freedom in the design concept, but it still had to represent our company’s brand values, and prove to be founded in good business behaviour.”
A second selection finally led to the short listing of the three projects which best satisfied the requirements of the initial brief: Holon by Emanuele Mattia Nava, Federico Pischedda and Roberto Testolin; Torok by Michel Di Marco, Andrea Invernizzi and Shariq Virani and Bio Renovatio by Salvatore Cutaia, Vasily Kurkov and Jesus Adrian Solis Garcia.
The three projects were then produced in 1:4 scale models thanks to the Institute’s collaboration with Cecomp and are now on show at the IED Turin premises in via San Quintino, 39.
The thirty-three students who took part in the project worked under the supervision of Fulvio Fantolino, Coordinator of the Three year post-diploma Course in Transportation Design – car design.
(Source: IED)
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