[GrussGott]

In a world that still dreams of flying automobiles, the designers at McLaren Automotive have released a prototype on April 1 of a carbon-bodied car with feathers. The design was inspired by nature—the idea being to conceive the lightest and most aerodynamic of cars.



“We call this biomimicry,” explains Robin Crane, biomimicry specialist at the British firm. “It was on a beautiful day walking around our Woking campus that one of us looked up at the birds circling our lake, then picked up a feather from the ground and placed it on a car.” The artisans at the bespoke McLaren Special Operations (MSO) division then made this dream into reality.



It took 300 hours to complete the prototype with 10,000 artificial feathers applied to the car's sculpture by hand. The feathers were coated with a pearlescent lacquer and applied to the car parallel to the forward direction cushioning the effects of air flowing over the body. They act as grooves contributing to a reduction in surface drag. As the speed of the car increases the feathers start to vibrate, further reducing drag by delaying the transition from a laminar to turbulent boundary of air.



The pioneering ultra-aerodynamic ‘feather wrap,’ as McLaren is calling the design, will be available as an option on the 570GT model and only fools can order it on April 1.

[HXS]

Haha wifey believed it.

[///M Power-Belgium]

The Mc has wing doors . So why not ?

[BitchinManWheels]

McLaren's April Fools vid...

[Mingwan]

I can imagine some rich dude from Dubai blowing up Mclaren's phone wondering why he can't buy this car.