The Supercar Body Challenge is over and the winners have been announced. Read what the winners said about their entries and what they learned from participating in this challenge.
1st Place by Greg Thompson
I have personal and commissioned projects that I'm always involved with, so it's a nice change of pace when you're confronted with requirements that aren't part of your normal process, workflow, or schedule. It's also important to have reality checks as well stacking your own work against others to see if what you are doing is relevant. I'd say I spent around 200 hours on this Challenge before letting the computer crunch out renders 24 hrs a day. Its fun and exciting to go wild when starting a new project, but its very taxing to objectively look at the work and edit, edit, edit. I flushed out the design in about a week and the remaining time was dedicated to the editing process.
2nd Place by Pedro Almeida
I chose to enter this Challenge because I have a long time passion for car design. The fact of showcasing my work to a new company in the automotive industry was also very important for my motivation and my designer career. I spent around 200 hours on the whole process, from concept sketches to final 3D models and renderings. A lot of sleepless nights, but it was definitely worth it. The main challenge was definitely create a appealing design around the given chassis and integrate all the details like air intakes and lights. I simply loved this challenge, and in the end taking 2nd place, is the cherry on top of the cake.
3rd Place by Benjamin Garcon
I wanted to prove to myself that I could deliver a mature car design using SolidWorks, which is not my favorite software. Cars are one of my passions and is a very small family where it is difficult to enter, there is nothing better than an open challenge to have room to showcase your passion and design philosophy without having a Transportation Design certificate. I started to model when I was in christmas holidays and didn't stop until the last minutes of the deadline. I think I have spent about 90 hours [to model] and another 60 to 80 hours for more than 50 renderings. All in my spare time. When GrabCAD was 5 ,000 people, the Challenges were "easier" to win, now there are too many talented engineers and designers! But that's really really inspiring and motivating! Work hard and it will pay off.
4th Place by Fateh Merrad
I am very honored to be selected as one of the winners! I really liked the theme of the Challenge as it corresponds exactly to what I like to do and create - beautiful organic shapes that combine beauty and function. I knew that it was very important to pay attention to every detail in order to be a contender. I devoted 30-40 hours to creating the 3D model and another 30+ hours to perfect the rendering. Before I started [my entry] I had to think a moment, "What do I have to create to win?" I find that I perform better when I am surrounded by other highly skilled professionals from the industry. A good challenge brings out the best in me! I would like to congratulate Greg Thomson on his very impressive design!
5th Place by Christian Vlad
I chose this contest because I found it to be on the edge between styling, engineering and design. And, I have always wanted to have a supercar design in my portfolio. I spent probably 100 hours creating my entry. The challenge was making the 3D model respect my vision. The reality of 3D can be disarming sometimes. GrabCAD rules in terms of free 3D engineering content and the idea to create a platform where the clients can access world wide engineering resources. It's incredible...the products born from this will be the power of the platform.
6th Place by Tibor Rak
I decided to enter since I just love cars and car design. I spent many hours (actually days) on my entry. I worked on many concept cars at the same time and then, at the end, I combined all concepts into one car. I think I spent about 60 hours (15 days for about 4 hours per day) creating my entry. The main challenge was to make something unique and not some "copy-paste" design. My inspiration came from [many different] cars like the Audi TT, Nissan GTR, Toyota 86, and more.
7th Place by Chris Teddy Manka
Modeling car bodies is my hobby and I wanted to improve my skills and get some feedback from the pros. I am a MD and have no design or technical education. I made many submissions - like brainstorming - and spent about 6 to 12 hours on each. I made some just to get feedback. It was not easy to stick to the [challenge] guidelines and chassis, especially the front. We had to design a fast car, but most didn't think about the aerodynamic issues, drivability or safety.
8th Place by Flaviano Crespi
I decided to enter because I like the lines of a car, one of the most visible creative expressions of our times. Also, the switch from simple user to creator is very inspiring. I spent too many hours on my design; I do not know how to count them. The biggest challenge for me was realizing the design lines that I had in mind. I'm very satisfied with eighth place considering the high level of the participants. Indeed, my intention was to not create forms based on the usual lines, but soft curves as the best examples of the past. I think most participants improved a lot during the [challenge] and I am sure that if restarted, the results would improve yet again.
Congratulations to all winners and good luck with participating in future Challenges! You can read more about the 500 Group Supercar Body Challenge on GrabCAD.
