The assignment for the 2002 MotorTrend design contest was to redesign an obsolete race vehicle for 2020. I chose to re-imagine Porsche's legendary 1970 917 LeMans race car. It would use a mid-mounted 3.0L twin-turbocharged flat12, for a lower center of gravity and better visibility and aerodynamics. The transmission would be a CVT, to guarantee optimal drivetrain ratios from an FIA GT standing start to the car's 200mph+ top speed. This transmission would also greatly simplify setup from track to track and reduce fuel consumption by automatically changing ratios during off-throttle periods. Other new features would be the inclusion of an exhaust brake, a proper Heads-Up Display, Multi-Function Display and carbon fiber wheels.

This year's design contest challenge was to re-design a vehicle no longer in production for production in 2002. I chose Ford's GT40. Little did I know that Ford was simultaneously working on bringing the GT40 back as the Ford GT! They released a press announcement a week before my work was due, although their car didn't appear until 2003. Regardless, I am pleased with how similar in content my design was with Ford's. Our aesthetic choices were a bit different, Ford's being more retro, but the performance, machinery and packaging are nearly identical. 

The assignment for the 2000 MotorTrend design contest was to redesign an existing vehicle for 2025, taking into account expected technological and economic changes. My F-150 for 2025 is what is now referred to as a "series" hybrid, powered exclusively by electric motors that are recharged as needed by an internal combustion engine. For my F-150 that engine is a turbine, which is the most efficient. Aside from improved handling and payload packaging my 2025 F-150 safety is markedly improved via a Heads-Up Display (HUD), wireless communication and crash detection, and pre-crash sensors that interact with onboard safety systems such as airbags and belt pre-tensioners. These technologies are just now becoming available, 9 years after my design.

This is my 1st place design for the first annual MotorTrend design competition. The challenge was to create a car for 2050. The Percheron is my futuristic take on the American classic format of the "pony car". It runs on water, using an on-board converter to distill hydrogen that powers electric motors through fuels cells. Through extensive use of lightweight materials and aerodynamics it would prove a fast and economical sporty vehicle with significant practicality. Other features include adaptive LED headlights and electrochromatic body panels that would allow owner to customize the car's appearance on-the-fly.

In my opinion the MacLaren F1 is the finest sports car ever built, when considering the total package of performance, appearance, quality and practicality. The Corsair was an ongoing project, started in 1994, attempting to conceptualize and improvement over the benchmark F1. While I have revisited the topic from time to time, technological advancements make each revision essentially a "clean sheet" design. The hand-sketched version pictured here is from 1995.