Sam Livingston, senior tutor in vehicle design at the Royal College of Art recently stated ‘We are seeing a return to the prominence of aerodynamics, and the aerodynamic look, to both deliver and visually convey efficiency.” This was the initiative behind Aero-Ace, a collaborative design project, just completed with Bentley – the objective being to explore a new aerodynamic design direction for the luxury marque. Second year RCA students were asked to identify a new vehicle direction for Bentley that would appeal to the ecologically conscious consumer.
Aided by specialist EXA evaluation software PowerFlow, their two-dimensional design proposals for a conceptual coupé needed to embrace aerodynamics in order to both reduce energy consumption and form part of a future Bentley design aesthetic. The 11 participating students came up with very different proposals, with aero performance results ranging from CD 0.167 to 0.35. Livingstone notes: ‘There are no two that are thematically similar despite all being large Bentley coupés.’ The degree to which aerodynamics plays a role depends on the marque, although Livingston has noticed a growing trend in considering aero performance at the early stages of design.
The winner will be announced on 4 February and will spend six months working at Bentley.
View the rest of the proposals after the jump
Via Wallpaper
