Bachelor in Transportation Design – a.y. 2005/06

The sportcar faster than 320KM/H

The Istituto Europeo di Design di Torino travels at speed with the celebrated British car manufacturers

The Istituto Italiano di Design of Turin have accepted a new, more ambitious, more motivating challenge in car design thanks to a collaboration with a true car production myth.

The third year students of the three year post-graduate course in Transportation Design – car design, thanks to a commission offered by the prestigious car manufacturers’ McLaren, have presented as their final project a series of innovative ideas for a new McLaren, the first step in the development of a standard road sports car.

The idea was to come up with a sports car capable of speeds over 320 km/h (200 mph), that might provide its’ owner with the highest of Formula 1 technology on the road, with unparalleled dynamic and aerodynamic performance.

The project “A 320 km/h plus sports car, led by Fulvio Fantolino, Coordinator of the third year Transportation Design course, began in February 2006 with the delivery of a brief to the class.

It was followed, at the end of February, by a student visit of McLaren’s Technology Centre in Woking (U.K) in order that they may acquire a greater understanding of the British brand’s philosophy, a brand that has always been a leader in Formula 1, where it made it’s debut in 1966 for the Montecarlo Grand Prix.

In the month of March, 39 students, divided up into 14 groups, presented three concepts per group: of these, a jury made up of Jonathan Carrier, Product Planning Manager and Barry Lett, Head of Vehicle Design, selected one per group.

The 14 selected projects, after a further review in the month of May, were produced in 1:4 scale models and presented officially during the thesis illustration sessions on the 17^th of June last at the IED premises in front of top McLaren management: Anthony Sheriff, Managing Director, Mark Vinnels, Director of Future Programmes, Jonathan Carrier, Product Planning Manager, and Barry Lett, Head of Vehicle Design.

Among the projects presented by the students three were considered to be more closely correspondent to the requirements indicated in the original brief: FIRST PRIZE to the project “M eleven B” by Alessandro Belosio, Vito Possidente and Massimo Terranova; SECOND PRIZE to the project “Manta” by Davide Amantea, Igor Fedorov, Ori Yemini; THIRD PRIZE to the project “MP 11” by Giuseppe Mariniello, Carlo Olivieri, Davide Valpreda. Three more prizes were awarded to projects that stood out in these specific categories: PRIZE for the best aerodynamic solutions for the project “Vortex” by Giuliano Dosio, Darena Iliev, Enrico Mellino; PRIZE for the best representation of the values of the McLaren brand to the project “Can-Am” by Cosimo Amadei, Jean Paul Fondeur Gill, Stefano Laruffa; PRIZE for the best project coherence compared to the imputs provided by McLaren during the entire design process to the project “M1 – 06 BlackTiger” by Silvia Maletti, Christian Taddei, Fabrizio Vacca.