Project 04

In preparing to start working on my active aero design ideas (see Air bender), 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 best options were either a formula/open-wheel or prototype build. Prototypes were more promising for their 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 more critically they 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. 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:

This was fundamentally better, but in a way almost worse. Instead of obviously being something that's only use was to be practical, it now 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 basic 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 still essentially an LMH car. I'm a big fan of this particular category and its high (but still limited) 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 few generations of 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 in my first prototype design 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, Senna GTR, or a combination of both), but it allowed me to mix and match some ideas to finish off the design. McLaren then revealed their LMH car at Le Mans 2025, less than a month after I finished my concept. 

Regarding McLaren styling, most obvious is the rear wing which is straight off the Senna GTR, then adjusted to fit the LMH style rear end. Then there's the lights: Senna GTR again, both front and rear. Also from the Senna are the shape and position of 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 is angles outward like the Solus GT, and the shape of 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. Consideration was more-so in regards to wing positioning 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. 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, it just looks better free-floating).

• 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 shots first of course. 

Now onto business, and a livery that I think works pretty well. I played around with some different greys, and while I think a darker grey or even black was a more pleasing match for the papaya, this lighter shade brought out the shape and style of the bodywork more.