Frequently asked questions

The DREAM TEAM - where the designers and engineers are the same people. Meet son and father designers, Dean and Jon Crooke. Hyper Racer Design and Prototype Construction Team Design Concept Design Jon Crooke and Dean Crooke Computer Aided Design - Dean Crooke and Jon Crooke Engineering Design - Dean Crooke and Jon Crooke Styling Design - Jon Crooke, Dean Crooke and Johannes Collopy Aerodynamic Design - Jon Crooke and Dean Crooke Prototype Construction Engineering Construction Jigs / Welding / Machining / Fabricating - Dean Crooke Body and Wings Pattern Making / Plug-Buck Fabrication - Jon Crooke Body Part Moulds - Dean Crooke and Jon Crooke Composite Body Parts - Dean Crooke Electronics - Dean Crooke Graphics - Jon Crooke Development Drivers - Dean Crooke and Jon Crooke A successful car design is comprised of two major elements - form and function. The design stylist’s responsibility is the form of the car, while the function of the car is the responsibility of the design engineer. Neither form nor function presides over the other - they are co-dependent. The world of race car designer and engineer is a complicated one and many disciplines must be mastered before a successful outcome can be achieved. For the design stylist there are the disciplines of aerodynamics, safety, component packaging, ergonomics and aesthetics. In the discipline of chassis dynamics the design engineer must consider, amongst other things, chassis rigidity, wheelbase, front and rear track, suspension pick-up points, suspension travel, weight bias, ride height, roll centres, anti dive, anti roll, wishbone length, camber, caster, KPI, tow, Ackerman, scrub radius, spring rates, shock damping, bump stops, bell crank ratios, shock linkages and steering ratio. From the public's perspective, in the early days of the new cars life, the design stylists contribution is the most influential part of the equation. A soundly engineered but ugly car will not sell, whereas a poorly engineered but good looking car will, until its mechanical inadequacies are revealed. So the goal is the design of a breathtakingly beautiful AND brilliantly engineered car ... well that's the dream. Automotive design is essentially the process of creating an object - or a related group of objects - be it a headlight, a piston or an entire car. In almost every area the design stylist and the design engineer must work closely together. In the case of a headlight for example, the design engineer must produce a headlight that conforms to a strict set of lighting criteria - the function - and the design stylist must integrate the shape of the headlight into the overall design theme of the car - the form. Each design team must consult the other throughout the entire process. This consulting process, more often than not, is fraught with danger. A design engineer who has run out of ideas and cannot re-design his component packaging in line with the stylists design, can leave the design stylist nowhere to go and vice versa. In most car companies the conceptual designer(s) envision a vehicle and the engineers then provide a basic structure while the stylists work the proportions around that structure. From the stylists point of view, great car design is a synergy between proportion, the surfaces and the graphics. The engineers foundation chassis can, in many cases, adversely compromise the stylists work and the finished vehicles design. So it is important that in the early design stages the engineers and stylists work together to arrive at a base package that addresses the brief. At this point the proportions and hard points are established and the stylists then work the surfaces and graphics around that structure. And what if the design engineers and the design stylists were the same people? Dean and Jon Crooke are just that - both design engineers and design stylists - and 'pro' race car drivers. This unique design pair are able to simultaneously engineer, style and test drive a car along its journey from concept to race car. It's rare that a car design makes the journey from sketch pad to showroom without its essential essence in some way being diluted. The design journey of the X1 Hyper Racer has been the antithesis of the traditional process, with the final product design exceeding all expectations. The result is a motor vehicle that exceeds all its engineering and performance goals and looks even better than the original design concept. A breakthrough design that is fast and affordable.