But what about the future?

That is where the Michelin Concourse D’Elegance 2050 comes in. In this virtual future event, visitors can marvel at cars from 2025 that have by 2050 already become classics. It’s a challenge for designers, companies & institutes to show off their vision on future elegance.

Ivo Mukkulainen, student Vehicle Design at the Lahti Institute of Design, chose to envision the future for Jaguar - one of the most legendary brands in racing history as his final bachelors project:

“I want to show how driving passion can continue in the future (considering future technology and standards) with intentions to drive on the race track and not be scared of the consequences”

So, although spectators may be looking at his car through VR glasses in 2050, it’s meant to be driven for real. The result is a sleek racer that combines typical Jaguar proportions with future technology.

Safety standards, the end of car magic?

Sadly though, it happens all too often that a stunning concept car like this is toned down to match safety standards, production requirements and emission regulations. So it is ever more crucial to get insight in these topics early on in the process and cope with it before the car loses Its magic! But how? If only few details on the technical side are available, let alone a 3D model for computer simulations?

That’s where AirShaper comes in!

To demonstrate how things can be sped up in terms of aerodynamics, the Lahti Institute cooperated with AirShaper: they took a 3D scan of the clay model of the car and fed it directly into the AirShaper platform without a single modification to the 3D model. Days later, Ivo was looking at an aerodynamic analysis of his baby, instantly able to spot areas for improvement regarding for instance air resistance and thus energy consumption.