Local Realtor's Daughter Wins Michelin Futuristic Car Design Challenge

Local realtor Helen Tothero’s daughter, Lily, won the Michelin Junior Design Challenge at the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance Motoring Festival held on November 4, 2018.

Lily, a senior at Hilton Head High School, competed with other high school students to design a classic car of the future; one that is capable of winning a car show in 2025. She was awarded a scholarship check for $500.

“I created a future model of a Mercedes car. It’s called a Mercedes APV, which stands for Air-Powered Vehicle. So it’s completely environmental-friendly, and it’s operated by a large battery that is in the front, and the big fans are in the back that power it. The whole car is hooked up with your phone on an app, and the car is also completely self-driven,” she shared.

Students from every high school in the district submitted their designs and each school’s winning sketches were displayed at the Michelin tent during the event.

“What I love was people did not just leave technology behind, you know. We still saw some really interesting technology. And the winner, actually one thing that the judges really liked about her entry, was that she not only did the outside, she also did the inside. So she started looking at the user experience in the car, and that is something that for designers is so important; it is thinking about how someone would use this vehicle,” says Michelin representative Ben Ebel.

Michelin recognized the winners from each school by presenting them with $250 checks each. The students say they had a lot of fun adding futuristic technology into their designs.

Jared Thomas from Beaufort High School explained their concept of using a nanobot damage-detection system for their car. It works in a way where there would be small linking nanobots that if a link gets severed, it would tell you so you can go get the car fixed before you drive it and make the damage even worse. According to Thomas, this would be best for internal damages where the driver would not be able to see and detect the issue as soon as possible.

Another entry is from Lukas Bukoffsky of Battery Creek High School. His design is inspired by an R8. He designed his car with an aerodynamic spoiler like a McLaren P1 and an Audi R8 gearbox which allows the driver to shift manually and also shifts itself when it needs to.

This is the second year that Michelin has held a Junior Design Challenge.

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