The Hurricane Golf 8 R with our wide body
We need a discreet widening for our project car… in three weeks.
Volkswagen
That was the order from Volkswagen. So we were either the saviors and heroes of the project, or the ones to blame for it not being finished on time.
Volkswagen Group Retail Germany has put the VW Golf 8 R Hurricane (2022) on wheels based on the compact sports car. Part of the conversion was the wide body to cover the larger tire dimensions. So we had the specific task of designing a body that wasn’t too extreme, as otherwise you could use the TCR kit, was visually appealing and therefore didn’t change the lines of the vehicle and at the same time had a function by covering wider tires without dragging.
What requirements do we have to meet?
It started with the scanning of a standard Golf 8 R. To keep to the schedule, we had exactly 5 days for the complete construction of the widebody kit after scanning. It should be borne in mind that this kit consists of several parts, because we have to consider the interruption to the bumper, that there must be separate parts for the rear doors so that the door can also be opened and closed and also small details such as the implementation of the sensors for the parking distance control. So the whole thing has to be glued on and be paintable and must be adapted to the design of the car, because the Golf 8 R must retain its features.
One single attempt!
What’s more, you need to think about how to attach the parts as early as possible. In plain language: We have to specify where the flex is to be applied and where our parts have to be glued and how, so that we have a perfect result.
Why do we have to do all this in 5 days?
We actually had a different schedule: The target was 3 weeks. However, our client wanted the finished parts in 3 weeks! So we only had one chance: we designed the kit within 5 days and had it milled from solid ABS. There was absolutely no time for a prototype or the production of tools to laminate the final components. So we had exactly one attempt at the deadline and only one chance.
And if the story didn’t have a happy ending, this blog post probably wouldn’t exist 🙂
See for yourself:
