CAD

The Lego Ferrari F40 project went further and better than I had imagined it could. The model looks fantastic, and my Lego skills much improved, but what it needed to be complete was a proper wheelset to match the early-mid-1990's racecar spec.

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After building a new front wing mount I was inspired to make the rXA design a bit more radical. Perhaps a driverless, drone-bot race vehicle. Bodywork is purely about moving through the air...

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Working on an idea for long 'tusks' on the nose of the rXA, I realized I might be able do away with the entire standard Traxxas front bumper and mounting assembly and replace it with a bracket and beam setup (similar to the latest LMP wing mount).

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The ultra-minimal car concept is something I've been working on for a while. Functionally, this body design deals mostly with reducing the drag of exposed chassis components, directing cooling for the ESC and motor, and ensuring good airflow through the front and rear wings. I also want it to be easy and quick to fabricate, so the shell needs a minimum of panels and parts; no enclosed volumes, no roof, fenders, etc.

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A round of refinements tightens the GTR coupe bodywork to a more aggressive and more coherent form language. Nearly every surface of the original concept model has been changed; curved shapes are pulled more taught and angular, simple angular intersections are now radiused to help them flow. The interplay of these forms also creates a stronger connection between the GTR and its cousins, the LMP prototype and ARX off-roader.

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The 1/16 Traxxas VXL is one of very few rocker-arm-suspension R/C chassis available, but even this compact layout still brings a major challenge to creating low-drag, low-frontal-area body designs. The lowest and narrowest possible roofline is defined by three critical components: set high and wide across the middle of the chassis are the receiver box on the left, the Velineon 380 motor, and the speed controller and its chunky motor wires on the right.

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The 2003 Bentley Speed 8 was created specifically to win Le Mans. It was the culmination of a several-year effort by the team and designer Peter Elleray. Not until many years later would some of the aero trickery emerge from its shroud of mystery under the menacing bodywork.

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Cad model worked up from source drawings. Rendered in Rhino for Mac.

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Long-time friend of Prototyp and aerodynamicist Michael Fuller was recently sketching an evolved, custom-bodied 962 variation. This 962 would leverage late-era IMSA GTP aero approaches seen on the Nissan GTP ZX T, Dyson's DR2, and Joest's 'red baron' 962.

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I needed a shell for the Traxxas to keep dirt/rocks/sticks out of the central chassis during off-road adventures. I figured I should make it cool, too...

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This was a quick study for a sedan body design on the Traxxas 1/16 Rally chassis. This shell captures the legendary Audi 90 that utterly dominated the GTO class in the 1989 IMSA series.

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First pass on modeling the GTR coupe design... The 1/16 scale Traxxas chassis has an extremely short wheelbase which does create some challenges in getting the proportions of the design to work.

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The GTR Coupe is an aggressive dual-purpose drift and road-racing body-shell concept for the Traxxas chassis. The design makes use of the same aerodynamic downforce airflow treatments developed with the LMP body to cancel out lift and minimize drag at speed, yet remains stable and balanced even in low-speed maneuvers.

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The most recent build of the LMP revealed more dimensional problems between the source CAD model and the physical chassis. Since several parts were going to need to be revised, I made the update an opportunity for further refinement of the design concept.

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Quite happy with the Peugeot's proportions and shaping, so work turns to refinements to sub-assemblies - this is when all the dependencies between the parts begin to make adjustments more difficult.

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It's taken a few rounds, but I think I've now resolved the last few trouble spots on the overall bodywork design. So let's call the design work for the TRX LMP done. (unless, as it turns out, a test build reveals there are still a few things to address)

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The list of Peugeot to-dos is growing shorter... Got the body to about 90% sorted with lots of nudging and smoothing, and worked up the front tusks and snorkel intakes. Need to tackle the interior bits next, then I'll do some renders of the bare chassis. :)

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After some extensive research, I've got the lineage of this car's development over its 4 seasons mapped out (2007-2010, inclusive). While there were many small changes across the car, the most visible external evolution over that time was focussed on the rear panels and the shaping of the rear fenders. This means the forward bodywork and chassis can carry through all versions... Le Mans low-drag nose being a notable exception.

The 2009/2010 version with the ACO's narrow-wing regulations is modeled here.

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Nailed down the technical source drawings for the Peugeot 908 (2008~2010) and started CAD work over the last week or so. Much more smoothing and detail to come, but off to a solid start.

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Runs of the r2 red paper test build enabled me to experiment with airflow through the bodywork. Hacking and covering various inlets and outlets, the optimal combination seemed to be an open nose intake over a splitter, running air under a modified wing-profiled bumper then leading up and out through multiple vents along the forward cowl (essentially the trailing edge of a big forward wing). More overlap down the side of the car between the front fender trailing openings and the leading surfaces of the side pods kept the airflow smooth and controlled past the rear fenders on the way to the wing.

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