A Porsche racing car tailormade for young racers to hone their skills at the very basic level, along with the go-karting drills. The designer envisions a future where the open racing cars will replace the Porsche Supercup, prior to the Formula-1 extravaganza.
Porsche carries the crown of being one of the most iconic automotive brands in the last century or so. The German luxury and high-performance sports car manufacturer based in Stuttgart has Volkswagen AG as the current owner – but the core values of the brand haven’t been tampered with. The single-seated Porsche 804 and Porsche 718 racing car for the Formula One championship are great examples of the German brand’s growth curve all these years.
Passionate automotive design student Jan Bendixen relives that golden era of Porsche open-wheel racers with his modern interpretation that’s purely magnetic. The concept renderings here of the Porsche open-wheel racing car is in fact Jan’s internship project done at Porsche’s Designstudio in Weissach. So a very good probability you might get the traces of the design elements in future Porsche designs or even better, a similar-looking open-wheel racer. According to him, the idea was to create a “tiny E-Fuel driven formula car for Porsche.” The final 4 cylinder boxer engine-powered car came out to have minimal aerodynamic drag, lightweight credentials.
This Porsche concept is highlighted by clean, flowing lines that give it a unified dimension. The classic open-wheel racing character is pretty evident in the very low center of gravity dimensions – hug very close to the tarmac. The car is only going to be limited to race tracks and the cockpit positioning suggests that. Modern interpretation comes in the form of the black and silver combo skin – giving it a great sense of depth and contrasting muscular aesthetics. Match that with the uber-cool wet of wheels and this Porsche racing concept is ready to take on any challenge.
Taking a cue from the Porsche Supercup, the open racing wheel series will use 100% carbon neutral E-Fuel for a new era of green and sustainable motorsport racing. Formula-1 is also headed in the clean fuel direction by the way. This way, Porsche will acquire fresh talent straight from karting and lower racing series. Then polish their racing craft and give them the opportunity to move to the big league of advanced racing series – the likes of F1, WRC, or World Endurance Championship.
The bike’s design envisions a Brain-Machine Interface (akin to Elon Musk’s Neuralink) connecting the machine with the racer’s brain making the flow of command and interaction almost seamless.
Let me confess; I was mildly intrigued with Moto-GP until I attended my first race ever in Twin Ring Motegi, Japan, in 2017 – the sound of those bikes racing is etched in my memory. I discovered a newfound respect for the biker’s skill and courage while getting soaked to my bones in an unrelenting drizzle! Unfortunately, this was the event where I had to watch the legend Valentino Rossi, crash at Turn 7 on the sixth lap while running in ninth place – and if there is a way to make these machines safer, I am all for it!
Taking a vision of the future into consideration, automotive design student Minhyuk Seung has penned a jaw-dropping Moto GP concept carrying the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing livery. The technology showcased in this design should be available by 2035 for the conceptual KTM RC – F35.
Unlike other racing concepts that picture a future of autonomous racing on the speedy circuits, Minhyuk believes that the human element will always be there. I totally agree with him as emotions, sudden situations, and racing strategies seen in this sport are human at heart. However, we cannot discuss the future without AI, and the bike incorporates an AI-enabled self-balancing technology. This neat piece of technology means the racer can concentrate on the race while maneuvering tight turns.
In addition, the design boasts an exciting tilt motor (located on the top and bottom) driving system for aggressive cornering. The bike’s connects to the racer using the BMI technology (Brain-Machine Interface), making the flow of command and interaction almost seamless. The BMI tech, if realized, seems like the neural connection between the Avatar’s Na’vi and their creatures – forging a bond where human-machine interaction goes beyond the screens we see every day.
This Moto GP concept takes inspiration from the Icarus’s wing, while the visual design takes cues from the Swallow, the national bird of Austria. What we love the best is how the design balances stunning aesthetics with thoughtful functionality. Overall the KTM RC – F35 concept feels like it could turn real with ease, especially given the strides with Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Elon, we have some inspiration for you and hope you are listening!
If you also believe in the future of autonomous driving, then taking humans out of the equation has many benefits. First of all it much safer (Romain Grosjean’s crash in last season’s F1 Bahrain GP is a shocking example), the aerodynamics of the vehicle are much better (the drag created by the rider in case of bikes is eliminated), and the possibility of reaching break-neck speeds that cannot be humanly possible to achieve due to the limitation of human body’s endurance for g-forces. The sport of professional racing is even more dangerous in the case of bikes. Reason enough to give autonomous bike racing a well-needed boost.
The Armadillo by Christian Grajewski is a motorcycle concept that’s envisioned in the Moto Ai X Championship – sometime in the future – for high octane racing to thrill the online fans or crowds at the autodromes. The idea’s uniqueness culminated from the fact that the designer imagines the bike to be the character with an arm, legs, body, and head. To be fair, it indeed looks like some creature, ready to wake from its slumber – boiling to chase down any prey on its two wheels. Since the ride is fully autonomous, the seating position has been done away with – giving it a definitive creature-like shape. It’s more like a swan ( I guess the designer imagines it as an Armadillo) on two wheels, one wheel is bigger than the other for optimized front wheel grip on the road, especially while taking those chicanes.
Tires of the Armadillo are heavy treaded indicating, the motorbike is made for dirt tracks as well. The swingarm of the bike also indicates high-speed racing character, as it is quite thick and reinforced. Along with these unique elements, the ride looks made for the future-ready era of racing to excite the fans with unbelievable maneuvers – on and off the track!
DJI‘s latest drone doesn’t want you to simply operate it… it wants to put you in a virtual cockpit. The DJI FPV Drone isn’t so much about being an incredible drone as it is about boasting of its one, standout feature – the FPV or First Person View. Armed with a pretty futuristic-looking pair of goggles, a low-latency video transmission unit, and a redesigned set of controllers, the DJI FPV drone is about giving YOU the thrill of the flight by allowing you to see exactly what the drone sees… in real-time!
At the heart of the DJI FPV drone are two incredibly revolutionary innovations. Firstly, its HD Low-Latency Transmission of video that gives you the ability to view high-definition footage from the drone in stunning real-time; and secondly, its set of hardware controllers, which allow all sorts of users to experience the FPV’s glorious adrenaline rush, whether you’re a novice or a pro drone-flyer.
The quadcopter drone was built for the thrill of racing. Its uniquely curved and aerodynamic design is engineered for minimal drag, as well as to house all of the drone’s modular, removable, and replaceable parts, including the battery, camera, gimbal, landing gear, and the top shell (which acts as a helmet, protecting the drone from head-on collisions). Needless to say, if your drone ever feels the wrath of a tree or a boulder, it can, for the most part, be fixed or repaired.
The Aircraft
Built for the thrill of racing, the DJI FPV drone boasts of a camera that’s arguably as cinematic as the ones found on its Phantom series of drones. The DJI FPV aircraft can record 4K/60fps video at up to 120 Mbps, capturing crisp details that make footage look as exhilarating as the flight. Electronic Image Stabilization reduces jitter during flight, while DJI boasts of being able to beam videos from the aircraft to the goggles with as little as 28 milliseconds of latency, up to a distance of a whopping 10 kilometers or 6.2 miles. With that kind of speed comes responsibility too, which is why the aircraft comes built-in with a whole set of preventive measures and fail-safes to ensure your drone doesn’t crash or plummet from the sky as its battery dies out. Multiple sensors located on the aircraft allow it to dodge obstacles, while smart RTH features ensure the drone makes its way back home when it’s low on battery. In fact, the gear comes pre-equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), which receives flight location information of manned aircrafts in the area, sending alerts directly to your goggles to avoid problems.
The Goggles
The goggles/headset forms the primary sensory element of the FPV experience, allowing you to see what the drone sees. It isn’t like your everyday VR headset, but rather sports a super-wide 150° FOV (so obstacles never sneak up on you), along with a max frame rate of 120 FPS, giving you ultra-smooth video transmission with practically no delay… so you can zig-zag to avoid obstacles like a fighter-jet, make freefall dives like a falcon, or perform stunts like a, well, stuntman! The goggles even offer a virtual training experience with the DJI Virtual Flight App for your smartphone, allowing you to race through VR environments before you actually take to the skies.
The Controllers
To maneuver the drone, DJI offers two controllers that unlock the aircraft’s true potential. You have the standard handheld controller which lets you operate the drone as you would any other, albeit with three different modes. The S-Mode unlocks simplified flight, giving you the freedom of fully manual flight with simplified controls. The N-Mode, however, is ideal for new users and novices, offering a traditional flight experience with safety features like obstacle-sensing. The M-Mode gives you complete manual control, intended at seasoned FPV drone racers. You can customize parameters and enjoy limitless control over your aircraft, including acceleration speeds of 0-100km/h in a mind-numbing 2.0 seconds!
The second controller feels a lot like entering into VR territory. Styled like a joystick, or the kind of controller you’d get with a VR headset, DJI’s Motion Controller (sold separately) lets you literally control the drone with your hands. You can maneuver the drone by simply tilting and moving the joystick around, giving you an incredibly intuitive and natural controlling experience. Moreover, a dedicated stop-and-hover button lets you instantly pause the drone in mid-air (a feature that’s great in emergencies), and a return-to-home button allows you to summon the drone back with a simple push of a button. Every aspect of the DJI FPV aims at giving you unbridled control over the drone, and putting you in the drone’s virtual cockpit. Unlike DJI’s other drone offerings that are made for videography, the FPV is for the sheer thrill of being able to fly like a bird, jet, or quite frankly, like Tony Stark… minus the weapons and hand-repulsors of course!
The DJI FPV drone currently retails for $1,299 on DJI’s retail website, with an additional $199 for the Motion Controller.
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As a Motorsports fan, how do you think the scene is going to look like come the year 2030? It’ll definitely be dominated by electric cars, as fuel-powered racing monsters, gradually give way to 100 percent clean energy vehicles – on the streets as well as on the racing tracks. Be it the endurance races like the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans or the thrilling Formula-1 races that’ll eventually be overshadowed by Formula-E fraternity. In a future dominated by electric batteries, we cannot overlook the role of Tesla and being a dominant EV manufacturer already, it would be a safe assumption to make that the Elon Musk-led army will also take over the racing field, a decade from now.
The Tesla Squad envisioned by Fabian Breës is a logical assumption of a racing division that is made possible by the battery evolution of the company giving rise to hypercars that battle it out on technologically advanced circuits. Yes, a future where the charging batteries will be laid down the pit lane and certain parts of the track – just like the DRS zones in F1 racing. This will give the drivers the option to juice up their hypercar’s battery while fighting for position on the track – bringing in a new level of strategic decision making to the live race. The cars have lithium-ion batteries rigged to the floor that get charged wirelessly from the induction charging hardware installed underneath the asphalt. Keeping in tune with the future of racing, the airless tires are 3D printed – filled with a porous material to provide cushion from the extreme pressure on the tire walls at high speeds. Interestingly the heat generated from the friction of the tires and the brakes are used to charge the racing cars
Tesla Squad’s most exciting bit will be the cars dubbed Tesla LMPE 2030 that’ll have drivers like Verstappen, Le Mans veteran Webber and probably the young rookie Robin Räikkönen – the youngest LMPE entrant. The crowd at Le Mans will be able to experience the race from the driver’s seat with the VR headsets with all the vital statistics like the graining of tires, battery level and more on the HUD. A unique way to experience high-speed racing, indeed!
I’ve watched lots of car races over the years. I’ve driven on race tracks and dragstrips, and have even been in a stock car at about 170 mph. But you know what I haven’t experienced yet? Tardigrade racing. These tiny creatures are known for their resiliency, so they’re unlikely to get injured in a crash, making them perfect for high-speed action.
These pull-back tardigrades come in a set of four so you can race up to three of your friends to see who has the fastest time in a drag race. I’m going with the bright blue one, mostly because it looks like Swedish Racing Green to me. Now, as far as I know, tardigrades are so tiny that you need a microscope to see them, so the guys at Archie McPhee decided to scale theirs up to 2-3/4″ long so they’re visible to the naked eye. Hey, put some clothes on that eyeball!
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If we already don’t see it coming, automation in the automotive sector is inevitable. There’s the seamless transition from manual vehicles to ones that are semi-auto driven or even some prototypes that are fully-autonomous. The fully-automated vehicles are still a few years away from the commercial market, however, we already have more than a peek at the coming future with self-driving vehicles being tested by a number of automotive brands. Look a little more distant into the horizon, and one cannot deny automotive races being held to entertain motorheads. Cue in the scenes from Altered Carbon that showcases the power of virtual reality in one of our future realities.
Christian Grajewski wants us to zoom-in on that future, where circuit and street races will be totally automated – as pro drivers fight out for skill supremacy in virtual reality with their motorbikes racing on the real circuit. Not only can drivers compete against each other but also take on the tougher AI opponent. Christian calls his autonomous street racing motorcycle, “Cobra RoboMoto” and it indeed looks like one. With a very low center of gravity and a front shaped like the hood of a Cobra, this two-wheeler stings the tarmac at tremendous speeds, as no human subject rides it. The overall design is quite aerodynamic, and the bike seems to be made for high-speed street races on smooth-surfaced roads.
The bike has an interesting magnetic wheel and body design which eliminates the need for any physical joints. There are LIDAR, Radar, and AI sensors on-board for communication in case the human subject is controlling it in VR. It is worth mentioning that the project germinated during Christian’s sabbatical as he was finishing up his art book on futuristic vehicles and uncharted territories.
