High school students suggest future Jeep EV

Trite but true, the third time was a charm for Vincent Piaskowski, winner of the ninth annual Drive for Design contest now staged by Chrysler’s newest owner, Stellantis. Piaskowski, a high school student in Michigan, finished in third place in the contest in 2019 and was runner-up in 2020.

The competition is staged annually to educate and encourage students to pursue careers in automotive design.

The challenge for 2021 was to design an electric-powered Jeep vehicle within the 10-week deadline. Judging was done by members of the Stellantis North America design staff.

The winning entry by Vincent Piaskowski

Second-place winner by Rocco Morales

Third-place winner by Alex Wang

“What’s exciting about this competition now is that we’re seeing previous students enter, but with notable improvements from the previous years,” Mark Trostle, head of Ram truck and Mopar exterior design, is quoted. “Students are digging deep and focusing their attention not only on the details, but the thought process of automotive design. It’s encouraging and exciting to see young artists take this competition seriously.”

Trostle created the Drive for Design contest in 2013 based on a competition he had won when he was in high school.  He credits his own experience in that earlier contest for encouraging him to become an automotive designer.

In addition to Piaskowski, a high school senior, other winners in 2021 were runner-up and Michigan 10th-grader Rocco Morales and third-placing California high school senior Alex Wang.

“Since the contest began, we’ve been able to help young artists establish a career path in automotive design,” said Trostle. “We’ve employed previous contestants as summer interns and today one of our former winners is working in the Ram Truck interior design studio. It’s rewarding to our team to be able make an impact on someone’s career.”

Prizes include one-on-one mentoring time with leading designers at the Stellantis Design Studios and a scholarship to attend the College for Creative Studies virtual summer design program.

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Kids Develop Rolls-Royce Concepts That Are Actually Aspirational

Illustration for article titled Kids Develop Rolls-Royce Concepts That Are Actually Aspirational

Illustration: Rolls-Royce

Super-expensive car designs like the Rolls-Royces and Bentleys of the world have stayed neutral and nearly unchanged for decades. The legacy is the whole thing with those cars. But when a bunch of kids start drawing their dream Rolls-Royce designs, we actually get to see something interesting for once.

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Rolls-Royce in April announced a design competition for kids 16 and younger trapped at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the automaker’s entire design team looking over every submission to pick the winners. The winner in the UK was offered a chauffeured ride to school in a Rolls when the time is appropriate, and they’re invited to bring a friend.

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Illustration: Rolls-Royce

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My favorite by far (sorry kids, favorites exist) is the speed-record gunning Rolls-Royce Bluebird II, with four engines mounted on top of water skis, designed to go really really fast across various surfaces. According to the designer, 13-year-old Chenyang from China, the skis can be used over snow or water and can also retract for spherical wheels to be lowered for road use.

It looks like something out of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, which in a vacuum from the original movies has some of the best science-fiction world-building and ship design of anything I’ve ever seen. So seeing that aesthetic play out on a Rolls-Royce makes the kid in me very happy.

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Illustration: Rolls-Royce

Similar in functionality, 16-year-old Forian from France submitted a Rolls-Royce inspired by sea and land turtles with a pilot’s cockpit and a rear “shell” area for passengers or cargo. According to the original sketch, the Turtle Car would be capable of going on land, sea and in the air.

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Illustration: Rolls-Royce

Then there’s 6-year-old Saya from Japan, who clearly hasn’t grasped that Rolls-Royce is a company that makes products for people who hoard the wealth earned from others’ labor for their own selfish gains and desires while actively withholding valuable resources from society. Saya’s design, the Capsule (above and at the top of this post) is aimed at helping people — a Rolls-Royce filtration vehicle that sucks up viruses and pollution from the air and filters and stores it in the see-through cab.

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Illustration: Rolls-Royce

The Bolt is a very cool intergalactic space travel vehicle that looks like an ’80s Rolls-Royce cast in a Speed Racer movie, and I’m fully onboard with more cars coming with giant lightning bolt graphics.

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Illustration: Rolls-Royce

I love the radiator grille treatment on the Glow concept from 11-year-old Lena, from Hungary, who wanted to express the ultimate creative vision for the brand with a lot of rainbow lights.

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Illustration: Rolls-Royce

Six-year-old Alisa from Russia submitted the House of Esperanto, a magical Rolls-Royce capable of communicating with every creature on Earth thanks to a “mysterious bird that has been living in outer space for a million years.” The Rolls designers translated that into something that looks like The Rocketeer’s… never mind.

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Illustration: Rolls-Royce

Finally we get to 9-year-old Tim’s iconic design from Germany, dubbed the Prosperity, which I think nails exactly what the future of Rolls-Royce will most likely look like: a giant land yacht with zero consideration for space or others that requires seemingly zero driving and features a pool and a helicopter.

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The kids are alright. The future is secure. I can’t wait for a magical bird to let me talk to my cat while piloting our Bluebird II off of the Mediterranean Sea and straight into the Alps.

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