Gran Turismo concept car built and run with help from 3D printer

The i.materialize 3D printing folks were tapped by Citroën to help build a working, full-size Citroën G, this being an imaginary car that had previously only existed in the virtual confines of the Gran Turismo 5 racing game. They did so, and actually drove the car around the streets of London.

The concept car itself is an impressive racing monster, a virtual design transposed to reality with quite irrational proportions. The car remains fully functional with butterfly opening doors and passed top speed tests at about 200km/h on a racetrack.
The architecture was made from a tubular aluminium racing chassis with carbon fiber body parts around. The engine was taken from a competition car with the corresponding harassing sound.
The exterior design emphasizes speed with a very aggressive racing look, while the interior was designed to create an impression that the cabin is literally on fire. For the GT concept, most of the interior was 3D printed.

3D printing a supercar, the Citroën GT

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Anonymous

What material did iMaterialize use?
- Muse
  
  iMaterialize used stereolithograpy to print the parts. That means that the parts are resin. Looking at the photos in the article and comparing them to the finished car, they are copper in the final photos. My guess is that the printed parts needed lots of hand sanding and then were just used to make molds, then laid up in fiberglass or carbon fiber and finally plated with copper.
IamInnocent

200 km/h isn’t that fast. Was it designed with any racing qualities or just for looks, more likely ?
- RikF
  
  You do realise that a lot of concept cars don’t get above about 10mph, if they move at all? This isn’t a production design that’s being tested, it’s a one-off designed to market the brand.
- Methusedalot
  
  If it was designed for looks it is a failure. That is one ugly car.
Muse

The story makes it sound like the majority of the car was 3D printed. That is not the case. This is not different than most modern concept cars which use a combination of 3D printing, CNC and a whole bunch of spectacularly skilled designers, engineers and craftsmen to fabricate one of a kind vehicles.

Stereolithography is not a new technology, although I haven’t seen pieces quite as big as used in this car. The 3D printed parts were all used on the interior of the car (not shown in the video) and it must have taken a ton of hand finishing to make them show car ready. We are still a long way off from simply being able to hit a “print” button and have an entire, running vehicle emerge. The only car I have heard of that claims to have an entirely 3D printed body is the underwhelming looking Urbee Hybrid, but I can’t find any construction images, so it probably still needed hours of sanding and cleanup before it was smooth enough to paint.

If people knew how much labor, skill and artistry it takes to execute a typical concept car, they would be shocked.
shashi2005

Modern vehicles seem to scowl.

Old cars had happy faces on them. The Morris minor, the Cortina or Singer Vogue and VW Beetle were *happy* looking cars.
- turn_self_off
  
  Iirc, its by design. Hell, i recall reading that in certain parts of the world they want cars that are intimidating on the outside (almost like a tank) while very comfortable on the inside (i think womb-like was referenced).
  
  Also, i think sound have a very big influence on driving behavior. Put a big rumble in the engine and people will drive more aggressively.
  
  Modern car design is very much psychology, but then again everything is in the hunt for that extra percentage of sales.
  - Muse
    
    Yes it is intentional. Is anyone really surprised that a vehicle designed to be in a racing game looks aggressive?
    
    In general, modern sports cars skew towards the “angry face,” but that is in direct response to customer demands. Almost without exception, sports cars that are initially designed with neutral or sad faces get “angrier” in later iterations.
    
    For example, the Audi TT originally had headlights that could be interpreted as neutral or even a bit sad.
    
    The New TT has distinctly angry looking headlights.
    - turn_self_off
      
      Puts some “new” context on the use of big cat names for the various OSX releases…
- lazyopportunist
  
  Your observation is profound!
  Only a furrowed-brow, highly stressed executive could afford such a status-symbol.
- empathy44
  
  They do tend to look like they are angry–or angry cat’s of prey faces. Although, I’ve noticed that from the back they often look happier…or like beavers (because of the license plate).
Chentzilla

You probably should mention that it happened back in 2008.
Jean-Luc Turbo

I have to admit that the design so appeals to my inner 13 year old…and I’m not normally into mid-life crisis cars or ones that are designed to compensate for a poor endowment from God, if you will…
drukqs

Obligatory: a car + a 2 minute video of enthralled men snapping photos + the “Goodwood” Festival of Speed.
Anonymous

“You wouldn’t download a car, would you?”

You bet your ass I would.
krispyD

Butterfly doors? is the common vernacular not Gull-wing? or is that an American thing?
- RikF
  
  Similar visual effect, but a different design
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_doors
racerabbit

Not going to lie, the design made my jeans feel tighter! Also, that exhaust note? Pure sexyfuntimes.
Anonymous

You are all boring old men, I WANT!!!!!
If I can find 6 other people to help me rob some banks we can buy this car and have it for one day each per week.
Who cares if it’s ‘slow’ or odd looking, it’s a car from a video game brought to life.
Anonymous

They did a great job replicating the video game model. I do wonder exactly how long it took to do all that, from the project’s beginning to the finished car.

Even if you don’t like the car itself, at least consider the gigantic amount of man-hours required to do something like this. There are no machines where you can just lay there and lazily press a button to attach the fenders or weld the frame. People had to manually do all of that stuff, and they had no precedent from which to work. They had to engineer everything.

So, yeah. I’m impressed. It’s a pretty car, too.
codesuidae

Surface finish of 3D printed parts varies. Some are sufficiently smooth to be easily metalized to a mirror finish.