Oh yesss, the time has arrived to show you this…. finally!!!!! The Aston Martin V8 HydroElectric-Hybrid Concept!!! A project of my portfolio that I started a long time ago, but just now is the moment to share with you the development process of this car. That is going to be a serious team project involving in-deep design process and here on my blog you will see everything – sketches, renderings, 3D Model, technical…all the stuff! You can comment, criticize…worship or even damn the project if you like.
How It Started?
It started back in the 2006…well, I did a sketch of something I liked…but I just didn’t know what do do with it, sure… that didn’t stop me of making even more sketches on the topic. The problem was that I wasn’t quite convinced with the car, so I decided to give it some time until this thing takes a further shape in my head. Then again in 2007 I continued with it, thinking at the time I had it resolved….well, I didn’t! The problem wasn’t just sketching it, I wanted to create an interesting and an unusual car, therefore instead of endlessly drawing something I am not too sure about, I decided to wait once again because I really liked this one and I wanted to finish it all-over!
Design and why Aston Martin?
If that thing looks wrong to you from the first sketches…..hmmm…you’re probably right! Or maybe not! When I decided I want to name this vehicle Aston Martin I realised…hold on, I am not going for the journey in persuading the ultimate beautiful and elegant car. Without doubt the Astons are pretty looking vehicles and so they have always been, however in my opinion it’s a brand that’s hardly been “investigated” design-wise. Most of the works I’ve seen for Aston are some design ques that keep repeating on and on (particularly after the AMV8 Concept came out in 2002). Therefore, instead of making another boring car for my portfolio I thought some fun is needed and here we are – doing something out of the box and driven on the contrary of what the Aston Martins are all about.
While doing sketches in the year of 2007 (as mentioned above), Lamborghini showed their Reventon to the public and I was quite annoyed to see they had explored the Aeronautics kind of design language. I was already on the subject of applying that kind of design language on the Aston – it was fitting very well the body shell with multiple braking surfaces changing directions and giving the car this Stealth look. I continued doing few things here…few things there then I stopped and waited until better times arrive for this one. However, those of you who visit Car Design News regularly may have encountered this project featured in my online portfolio at the CDN – I refer to the 4th image in the gallery bellow. The first three images are some thumbnails sketches showing how this project began. (2006 & 2007).
After giving it the break for 1-2 years, I started thinking of the Aston again at the end of 2008. Peter already proposed me to combine our skills together and create something cool and I thought this is the perfect opportunity. Knowing what kind of work Peter is capable of, that boosted my imagination further and I began thinking of even more details and in-deep design development of the car was implemented. I let my mind go free in terms of package and the idea of having alternative fuel used in the car was also quite appealing to me. All this resulted in a 3 seater sports car keeping more or less the same design language with hard brutal surfacing, but now what’s more interesting is how the car is put together. The unusual package of the car measures about 4.65m in length, 2.0m width and 1.15m in height (or a little bit less). It is capable of fitting 3 passengers (1 driver in the centre and 2 passengers on each side of the driver – much like McLaren F1 layout). The vehicle has interesting structure inside made from carbon fibre and reinforced in places with casted Titanium or Aluminium bits. It is powered by front mounted V8 hydrogen internal combustion engine (HyICE) driving the front axle and two in-wheel motors fitted in the rear wheels of the vehicle. The car should be capable of running on liquid Hydrogen or electric power individually as well as utilizing both power sources at the same time – running on the internal combustion engine and benefiting from the instant torque of the electric motors while accelerating – something like K.E.R.S. in the Formula 1 cars. There will be more to see with the next posts where additional sketches and information will be revealed.
To give more light on the team subject I think it’s appropriate to introduce my partner on this venue – Peter Tarkanyi. He is a great guy I must say and you will have the pleasure to enjoy his amazing work throughout the project. You will see what I mean with this, really, just be patient with us! For your information the Aston Martin will be a mix of Hi-End poly and NURBS modeling using different software during the project.
Before ending today’s novel, I would like to point your attention in some technical but interesting facts related to my car. There are also some links of existing hydrogen internal combustion vehicles. Enjoy reading!
Liquid Hydrogen – physical facts /source Wikipedia/
Hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicle – definition of the HyICE engine /source Wikipedia/
HydrogenCarsNow – Website featuring a good list of vehicles using this source of energy
BMW H2R Concept Car – BMW Official Website
BMW H2R Concept Car – /source Car Design Online/
Italdesign Vadho Concept – Images
NEXT – More sketches of the Aston Martin showing what’s inside the car /sections for example/ and basic 3D Alias model for proportions…
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