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There is a vehicle mock-up in the lobby of the ATEP IDEA building.
It is a gravity racer from just a few years ago.
Think of a gravity racer as a soap-box racer, there is no no engine for propulsion and it was made using modern materials and methods. This is exactly how cars are currently prototyped.
The body is made from fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP). The body you see in the lobby was a static model that was displayed on a wall.
Below is an early illustration of the car prior to the start of the project.
The Extreme Gravity Racer
UCI Engineering project
The Gravity Racing Series was created as a nonprofit organization to support young adults in foster care. The downhill events created a team atmosphere for groups from a variety of companies to participate in a team building exercise while donating time and expertise for foster care awareness.
Local automotive design studios used the events to stimulate creativity with-in their own designers and challenge their fabrication craftsmanship. Mazda Design manager Truman Pollard headed the UCI team with the ambition to create a real world relationship between the functional skills of UCI engineering students with the exterior styling and fabrication skills of the Industrial Design students.
UCI develop a very unique steering geometry. As the car turned into a corner the inside corner wheelbase would decrease as the outer wheelbase increases, thus creating a longer my stable wheelbase to the outer turning radius.
The project was used to explore styling directions to best fit the engineered chassis and support the brand recognition of the corporate sponsor, Mazda.
Every company develops a brand recognition strategy and styling language to best represent their product to the consumer. The question is, "What functional features and styling personality will stand out enough to draw the customer to your product in a very competitive world? Example: Apple design has a bright satin metal finish and very thin lines to support a technically superior performance in a world of typically black plastic competition. Porsche Design is a luxury and lifestyle brand. Porsche forward motion styling illustrates strong highlights tilted forward with a history of sophisticated surface development unique to a sports car manufacturer. Aston-Martin styled a vehicle with a very statuesque presentation.
After the race, the vehicles were auctioned off to fund several youth programs in the Southern California area.
The picture below shows the team as assembled after the last gravity run. 3 bodies in total were created, the body in the lobby was created to be a static display model, it was never mounted to an operational chassis.
Below is a design language board used to provide a design direction for the team. During the design process, the team would refer back to this board for guidance during the process.
The body started life as a high-density urethane foam block. The foam was carved and the surfaces were generated and refined until the finished body was achieved. When complete, this foam will be a master that can be used to generate a mold.
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