British supercar maker McLaren->ke284 and the Turin Instituto Europeo di Design recently collaborated on a project designed to give IED students the opportunity to create their own concept vehicle that could potentially find its way into the Woking production facility in 2020. The requirements for each designer was simple: design a hybrid, mid-engined four-wheel drive SUV that’s based on a McLaren chassis and has enough space to accommodate two people.

Each of the 33 participating designers had the opportunity to pick the minds of McLaren designers and engineers at the automaker’s headquarters. After completing their design proposals, McLaren and the IED went out and selected the 11 best designs that were put in the “further development” category. In the end, three models stood out from the rest with the designs for these concepts getting the green light to be produced via a 1:4 scale model. The three concepts that made it this far include the Holon, the Bio Renovatio, and the Torok.

The collaboration between McLaren and the IED gave the school’s students the opportunity to work with an esteemed automaker like McLaren. The attention-to-detail required in this line of work was an eye-opening experience for all the designers.

“McLaren is known for its attention to design detail,” said IED director Cesar Mendoza. “Everything is for a reason and that is what we wanted our teams to understand. Then, in order to heighten the quality of the final works presented, we chose virtual presentation, including animation, that enables us even to test the movements of the parts."

Check out the concepts in the photo gallery and let us know which one you like best. You can also have a look at a couple of videos after the jump featuring some of the concepts entered in the competition.