A 320 kph + Sports Car

The subject of the diploma project for the students from the Instituto Europeo de Design from Turin, Italy was the designing of "A 320 km/h plus sports car" for the McLaren group. One of the best projects presented by was the "Manta" a car a concept car made with the task of challenging the present and future technologies. The "Manta" close in its inside the sports car defined as "legantemente potente" - powerful elegance, as Davide Amantea one of the students involved in the project has told us.

The shape was created with the goal of making a fluid and floating body taking many visual elements from the "manta" fish from where it takes the name. Looking to it's dimensions the supercar gives the imagine of fluid and delicate movement but very powerful.

The upper lines of the body are characterized by simple, fluid lines and a strong volume in contrast with the lower body part where the busy lines and the strong graphics are typical for a english car maker. In other words the there is a visual difference between the aesthetics of the car: the upper part of the body has the task of giving the character of the first impression the sensual, feminine, powerful lines while the "working" part of the car is the contrast of mechanical cold and technical language.

This project has been conceived not just as an exclusive supercar but in the same time as as an everyday supercar, that feels at home on the fastest circuits in the world as well as at low speeds on an normally traffic day, or the best car to show off to an important meeting or celebration.

The project has succeeded to combine the three elements of the McLaren design: precision, low weight and power.

The Manta team: Davide Amantea, Igor Fedorov and Ori Yemini.

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