I met up with an old (young) friend…. have a look at his amazing design work

We have exclusive pictures of the Porsche 9 inspired by some of the greatest racing Porsches of all time from the 908 through to the 917 and almighty 962. Is this Hypercar a successor to the 919 or is it for sale? Sadly the answer is no, the Porsche 9 is an entry into the 2017 Michelin Design Challenge, this year’s competition is about designing a Le Mans car for 2030. Designer Jeremy Rice created this vehicle from scratch and got it realistically rendered by Hervina Dyah. It packs a range of new technology including moving video displays on the sides showing off a range of liveries at night. It was a 9 month project in which Jeremy spoke to racing drivers, designers, played Le Mans video games, read books, watched hours of old races, drew 100s of sketches and built a computer model comprising 3000 components in an effort to succeed. It has been submitted for judging and we will update you on progress in October. Finalists build a physical model of their vehicles to exhibit at the Detroit  Motorshow and Le Mans next year.

You meet people through life & its human nature to make a judgement call (right or wrongly) I think it’s an ancient survival instinct . I have met Jeremy Rice on several occasions, all usually car related & always thought he was a pleasant switched on young chap however when he came on our stand at the Ignition festival of Motoring, He blew me away with his competition design entry. It’s not just fancy drawings & computer images, Jeremy has the logic behind every image & how it operates. We wish him well with his entry. If you’re looking for a young smart, intelligent dude to work in your company, get this guy signed up. It’s so refreshing to meet people like Jeremy (all positive)

Tom Fitzsimmons

Here’s Jeremy’s story

Dear Tommy

Good to see you at Ignition as promised I am sending you images of the Porsche 9 my entry into The Michelin Design Challenge which required a Le Mans Car for 2030. It has video displays down the sides of the car giving it some exotic moving liveries, hyper reflective glass bead paint, it has the ability to seat 2 but in race trim everything is moved centrally, an all seeing camera system, filters that increase oxygen content in the combustion process, 12  small jet turbines which produce electricity to send to the electric motors on each wheel. The central teardrop is designed to minimise air resistance and has an unusual wraparound forward opening cockpit glass.

The car is a tribute to the Le Mans greats the central air scoop and driving position are pure McLaren F1, the wheels are Ferrari style, the red interior, the key and lurid graphics, functional airduct wheelarch slashes (the red 917) even the rear deck treatment are all Porsche 917, the central teardrop roof is Porsche 956/962 probably my favourite hypercar and the most successful Le Mans car and Endurance Racer ever. those lights are airducts ringed with laser lighting are reminiscent of a 908. The rear lights are a mixture of a group C cars and a that iconic strip light seen on the early 911s and the 959/961. It has all these elements with my own twist on it, everything had to blend smoothly into a coherent design with repeating themes like the Ferrari star and the Porsche oblong I created. Small details like the rear wing endplates and that seat took weeks to get right. The funny thing about a Porsche Endurance racer is they seldom look like a 911 they are distinctly Porsche but distinctly different from every other Porsche, function is the priority. I could argue the pointy nose comes from the badge shape but the fact they work together is purely coincidental.

Why the Porsche 9? Well it is Porsche distilled and I felt 9 was like calling a Ferrari Enzo or the McLaren F1 its all about origin and this car may or may not be a Porsche but I have mixed together interesting details to help achieve that. If you were to simply read about this car without seeing it you would think “Frankenstein” so take a look.

The story of the Porsche 9 started with an email from Michelin. I have entered a few competitions but this is a car I have been researching and sketching for years, for the most iconic race of them all Le Mans, a chance to emulate the mighty Porsches; 917 and 956/962 the McLaren F1 and other greats. November 2015 my research began; racing a virtual version of the track, ordering a box set of Le Mans DVDs, examining every dimension of my extensive collection of scale model race cars, it was all I could think about, I even went to the London Classic Car Show to meet Gordon Murray and Peter Stevens, I even got some useful insights from two racing drivers at Porsche about their expectations “Speed, comfort and reliability” I built all my thinking around this.

The deadline was May 1st and I would have delivered something but the deadline moved to August 1st which helped me deliver so much more, a detailed computer model with over 3000 components and time to get it rendered professionally by Hervina Dyah. A complex 9 month project trying to capture Le Mans History, Aerodynamics, new Technology and Porsche Heritage in one pure form. The overall design with a few minor detail changes actually complies with the official rules for Le Mans.  The low nose and teardrop roof is from the 962, the front lamps 908 style the central Driving position and air scoop is McLaren F1, the wheelarch slashes are airducts inspired by the Iconic Red 917 as is the interior and the rear deck treatment, the rear tail lamp is part Group C part 959 the wheels are Ferrari style all with a new twist. Sounds like it could be a hideous who ate all the Porsches kind of design but there is just a hint of all these things with something new. The livery has video displays allowing the Graphics to change, I created lurid bright new graphics inspired by the Psychedelic 917s.

It was a massive challenge and just finishing it was a result in itself. Is it a Porsche? Well I hope so I also gave it the name 9 because it’s a distillation of decades of Porsche history and 9 is an iconic number associated with so many of their greatest cars. If it gets through to the next round a model will be built for exhibition in Detroit and at Le Mans 2017, we will find out in early October.

If you want some numbers modern Le Mans cars can cost over £9 million plus to build it would be powered by a gas turbine electric hybrid delivering over 1000BHP and over 250MPH and due to it’s electric motors acceleration would be extreme. It is truly a “design for the win” the strapline for Michelin’s Design Challenge.

Thank you for your time,regards Jeremy

P.S. It would be a dream to see this car go further but the competition is very fierce indeed I did my best and produced something to be a real contender.