Toronto man makes Le Mans design splash
Michelin has announced the winners of its “Le Mans 2030” global design competition.
With 1,600 registrants from 80 different countries worldwide, this year’s entries featured a wide range of exciting and high-quality designs.
Michelin honoured three top winners this year, as well as seven finalists and 10 honourable mentions from its pool of registrants. Over the 16 years of the Michelin Challenge Design, it has received a total of 9,901 entries from 123 countries.
This year’s winner is Tao Ni of Wuhu, China, who submitted the design entry “Infiniti Le Mans 2030.” Second place went to Daniel Bacelar Pereira of Vila Real, Portugal, while third place went to Kurt Scanlan of Toronto. The top three finishers will be invited to attend the Detroit Auto Show as guests of Michelin and will be recognized during the company’s annual private Designer’s Reception, where they will participate in a private portfolio review with members of the jury.
Also, Tao Ni will be recognized at the 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours race.
The 2017 Michelin Challenge Design jury included Acura global creative director Dave Marek; BMW Groupe Design creative director of concept cars Joji Nagashima; General Motors director of design Thomas Peters; Nissan Design America general manager of design business Richard Plavetich and Gilles Vidal, PSA Peugeot Citroen director of design, among others.
“The winners of our 2017 Michelin Challenge Design presented numerous highly innovative features for the Le Mans race in the year 2030 and the quality of work from this year’s entries was truly outstanding,” said Thom Roach, vice-president of original equipment marketing for Michelin North America. “We congratulate the winners for their thought-provoking, visually captivating designs for the world’s greatest endurance race, Le Mans 24 Hours.”