hi everyone, its been a couple of months now since i completed this project as part of my automotive design degree. i feel ive plucked up the courage to see what the Ducati community think of it! very quick background to the course and myself. During the final, 3rd year students are expected to come up with an original concept. it can be something completely new or, like mine, be a branding exercise taking a marque and maybe moving them into another segment etc. the final product is a 1/4 scale model produced in automotive clay and then a fibreglass mould created and finished to a high standard to describe the design. I myself do not ride, due to certain parental restrictions i have to get my fix from out 4 wheeled friends. i dont do bad, theres not many 2 seat RWD sports cars i havnt owned in the last 4 years, but my faith sticks with the FD RX7. why? good question. but my last single turbo example was the most potent car ive ever owned and i miss it dearly. The project came about as i knew it would a great chance to tap into classic italian design and also expose the mechanical aspects of a car as done on a motorcycle. a mix of original design blended with proven engineering is something that i feel quite strongly about. the process, as in industry, starts with mere sketching and ideation of concepts. i looked at all sorts from tilting cockpits to open wheeled examples before scrapping it for something more feasible and less kit car looking. After all Ducati is a premium brand. here are a mix of some of the most influential sketching from the process 90% would end up being completely disregarded as often happens with me when i hit the one 'eureka' sketch that spawns the final design here are those 'eureka' drawings the next step is to create sketch renderings, these are basically loose computer, or hand marker, rendered sketches to move the design forward closer to creating a cad wire model to see 3d proportions. after creating a cad wire model (its a mess to look at trust me) i went on to create a 1/10 scale orthographic drawing by hand on a drawing board in preparation for the clay model. something like this... ill pop this board in here even though it came a bit later but it shows where some of the inspiration came from Now cam the best bit.Once the orthographic drawing was signed off by my mentoring lecturer i was allowed to start setting up the work area that would become home for the next couple of months. the core of the model is a foam buck. the templates are made from board where we use the orthographic drawing blown up to 1/4 scale. very quickly we learn that these are quite useless. Things become very apparent as being horrifically ugly when in 3d and right there infront of you.
ill cut the story short a bit and show you the final day in the clay studio and some shots of the male mould starting to be body worked next up as you can see was the wheels, which i had machines from solid billet. costly but very worth it. this is the cad model i produced and the final outcome so once i had finished the bodywork it went off to be painted. the red is a ducati colour i picked from a swatch of the brands colours, and i my last words to the paint shop were 'have fun with it but make sure its red'......what i got was simply outstanding. a very slight gold flake on the top surface added so much depth to the paint and they did a few other tricks that i wont pretend to understand.
then the final assembly off all the sub components came together adding the details, wheels etc along side the final model i produced a final display board. you can see there behind the model at the degree show. massive file so i had to screenshot im afraid final side view and front 3/4
and some of you might have seen us at goodwood FOS this year well hopefully its been enjoyable to see what some students get up to when we arent being stereotypes. im currently about to start a master at the royal college of arts which i cant wait for. before i started this course 3 years ago id never drawn a car before. only biuld little track day toys to keep me out of college. credit to the university, Swansea metropolitan. And also to my mentoring lecturer Sergio Fontanarosa, a Ducati owner and i dare say lurking around on here somewhere. Taught me every skill i know have and wouldn't be where i am now without his guidance. please, please feel free to be as critical as you like, cant wait to hear what you think. cheers! Tom
That sir, is very impressive. Excellent work and I hope your work gets the recognition and grade it deserves.
When I started reading I was expecting something with an exposed trellis frame similar to a ariel atom. What you created is far better looking. now hurry up and sent it to audi and get them to make it!
Stunning - congratulations on creating a work of art and the process you've described has been extremely interesting
it wasnt something i had to delve into powertrain wise but i guess i would have proposed the 1199 motor with upgraded internals. the weight of the car would ideally be around if not sub 600kg what would you guys sujest out of interest?
Congratulations. People who can do things like this have my utmost respect. I hope you get a First for it. Probably time to apply for a job at Ducati.. For what it's worth, I think it looks a lot better than the Panigale. In answer to your last question, put 2 Panigale motors in it. That should do the trick.
^^^^ ditto. 2x 1199 lumps. Sequential box. I wonder if you could supercharge it or put a pair of turbos on?
Wow That is great. I noticed you already noticed That but in your model rims need to be gold Just like In drawings. Engine wise after seeing youtube video or 2200bhp supercar I would go to say minimum 2 panigale engines both supercharged. Maybe even 3 . There is no such thing as to much power hehe.
Absolutely stunning!. I wish I was half as creative as you rather than the shit project management job I do... Well done!. Hope you get on well with your next venture!
