Project 04

In preparing to start working on my active aero design ideas, I was looking for a suitable car model to download as a base to attach wings and servo motors to. Because my ideas were best suited to a high-aero car, my options were either a formula/open-wheel or prototype build. Prototypes were more promising for their more robust and filled-out shape, making 3D printing and subsequent mounting of components easier. I found a few good free models, but they were lacking style and were all single un-editable solid part files. Rather than try and force them to work how I wanted, I decided I'd try and model my own car instead using Inventor: a CAD program not designed for modelling cars in. That didn't matter though, as I was only after a simple shape; a slightly rounded rectangle with a hollowed out nose area that vents out the side. This didn't take long, and realising it had even less style than my original options, I put in a bit more effort over an extra day to make an improved version that actually looked like a car (except for the wing mounts which considered 3D-printed scale/strength).

This was fundamentally better, but in a way almost worse. Now instead of obviously being something that's only use was to be practical, it looked like a design that someone put a bit of effort into then gave up. There were some areas that alluded to some sort of "style" such as the front wheel housings and the sidepod/undercut design, but the rest was both brutal and boring. I could probably delay my project for 1 more day and make it look a little nicer, right?

I might have got carried away, because 1 week later I was finished. I considered designing to a specific ruleset such as LMH, but in the end it was a bit of a conglomerate of multiple eras and various styling cues that I liked. 

For the general proportions, shape, and formula, it is essentially an LMH car. I'm a big fan of this particular ruleset and its high (but limited to not be extreme) aero, while allowing for significant style incorporation to facilitate cars unique enough to be instantly recognisable even without their team livery. If I had one complaint, it would be that they look a little too heavy. To remedy this, I've lowered the bodywork slightly, kept the higher wheel housings, and avoided blending the two together too much. This aspect is more akin to the previous LMP1 cars. The thin sidepod and deep undercut are not practical for fitting in a decent radiator, but they already exist from the original basic design and I like how they look; rather similar to the 2022-2025 spec Formula 1 sidepod designs. 

There still weren't enough features to make the car appear unique though, so my next step was to take inspiration from McLaren's plans to enter the LMH category, and create a concept car for the occasion. By only deciding this after making most of the car already, I was limited in how much I could shape the car as a whole to really look like a McLaren (say, the Solus GT, the Senna GTR, or a combination of both), but it allowed me to mix and match some ideas to finish off the design. 

Most obvious is the rear wing, which is straight off the Senna GTR, then moulded to fit the LMH-style rear-end. Then there's the lights: Senna GTR all around. Also from the Senna are the front brake ducts and oval overhead intake. Meanwhile, the exhausts are based on the W1, the shark fin incorporates the McLaren logo, the lower-inboard section of the front wheel housing cuts in like the Solus GT, and the vane behind the front wheel housing takes inspiration from the front of the P1.

Aerodynamics were considered in the design, but I don't intend to test the car in CFD or otherwise, as that wasn't the point of this exercise. It was more so in regards to wing positioning, angles, and shapes, as well as diffuser shape/size, wheel wake management, tea tray shape (even though no one will ever see it), and front wing extraction. To take one example, the Gurney in front of the main under-nose extraction opening is higher at the outboard edges to create a slight rotational structure to promote outwash of the lower-energy air being expelled along the top surface of the side bodywork, leaving higher energy external air to make best use of the rear kick and larger rear Gurneys downstream. The only unrealistic design features in regards to aero are:

• The long thin unsupported shape of the rear of the shark-fin, which would be under some serious stress at large yaw angles. Worst case might see it needing to be fastened to the rear wing through a pivot point (most shark fins already are, but to support the rear wing instead of this opposite case).

• The lack of cockpit rear air extraction vents/openings, which was entirely down to me forgetting to model them at first and later deciding it wasn't worth the time going back and adding them.

At this point and with this much effort put in, I wanted to see my design in a better incarnation than Inventor's default lighting environment. So I decided with one week put aside that another week wouldn't matter either, so I set out to learn Blender (at least as far as textures, materials, simple modelling touch-ups, environments, and rendering). This also provided opportunity to create a livery to enhance the McLaren connection.

So here we are. 

Obligatory teaser-style shots first of course. 

Now onto business, and a livery that I think works pretty well: