6th March 2025, Turin: White Motorcycle Concepts has started a collaboration with Pininfarina and revealed the initial output at the ‘Design and Performance in Motion – Shaping Two-Wheel Aerodynamics’ event at Pininfarina’s Turin wind tunnel and headquarters, 6th March 2025.
WMC founder and CEO Robert White spoke at the event, part Pininfarina’s 95th anniversary celebrations, to show and discuss the WMC250EV electric land speed record bike, WMC300E+ three-wheeled first-responder bike and the recent WMCSRS, designed with Zero Motorcycles. Pininfarina’s new design study illustrates how White Motorcycle Concepts’ patented aerodynamic duct can be incorporated into a potential future street motorcycle that is powered by a compact forced induction hybrid powertrain.
The duct was demonstrated first on the WMC250EV to illustrate its ability to significantly reduce aerodynamic drag at the highest speed ranges. The WMC300E+ incorporates the same idea, but focusing on the benefits in terms of efficiency at lower speed, while the WMCSRS shows how the duct can be incorporated into an existing electric sports bike – the Zero SR/S – and provide benefits to real-world riders.
Taking air from the front of the bike and passing it directly through the middle to exit under the seat, the duct reduces frontal area and slashes drag to boost efficiency and performance. Pininfarina’s study shows how a clean-sheet design for a new compact forced induction hybrid powertrain motorcycle can maximise the benefits and combine them with distinctive styling that visually emphasises the duct while retaining proportions that won’t alienate existing motorcyclists.
Pininfarina might be best known for some of the most stunning machines ever seen on four wheels, but the company’s abilities go far beyond design – incorporating manufacturing and research and development as well as styling. Aerodynamics is a key area for Pininfarina, which has operated its own wind tunnel since 1972 as a key player in shaping dozens of familiar vehicles of both the past and the present. It’s a vital strategic advantage for Pininfarina, allowing it to sculp designs that are as pleasing to the airflow around them as to the eyes, and as such Pininfarina is the perfect partner in the development of White Motorcycle Concepts’ aerodynamic duct.
The Pininfarina Wind Tunnel is also a facility in constant technological evolution and is enhancing its aerodynamic validation methodologies to provide two-wheeler customers – OEMs, startups, and racing teams – with a crucial tool for product development. It is now possible to evaluate the aerodynamic performance (drag and lift) and cooling efficiency of motorcycles with rotating wheels while remotely adjusting the bike’s attitude using an active suspension system, allowing for a lean angle of up to 55°. Additionally, the Pininfarina Wind Tunnel can be used to assess aerodynamic and thermal comfort, either with a test rider or an instrumented dummy. This facility is also an essential resource for racing teams, helping optimize riders’ positions on the bike.
Naked & Semi faired roadster with structural aerodynamic duct
The first result of the collaboration between Pininfarina and White Motorcycle Concepts is a set of concept sketches for a street-biased roadster that uses the aerodynamic duct as a key element of both its appearance and its structure.
Rather than focusing on faired sports bikes, the idea emphasises that the duct is designed to facilitate a comfortable, conventional riding position in a bike that creates far less aerodynamic drag than traditional naked motorcycles. By passing air directly from the front of the bike, below the rider and venting it above the rear wheel, both frontal area and coefficient of drag are reduced without making any compromises to the riding position.
In the new design, the duct isn’t just aerodynamic, but also structural. Its tubular shape is inherently rigid and creates a strong connection between the steering head area at the front and the seat and rear suspension pick-ups at the back, as well as providing a mounting element to hang the powertrain from.
In this instance, the powertrain is envisaged to be a combination of a small, forced induction combustion engine linked to a hybrid electric energy source, maximising performance and efficiency in a compact, lightweight package. Minimising the size of the powertrain allows more space for the patented duct above it, and by adding forced-induction it’s possible to get a combination of packaging efficiency and performance. The structural duct above it, made from composite materials, helps further reduce weight.
Pininfarina’s wind tunnel, able to simulate crosswinds and gusts as well as constant airflow, has played host to countless competition and street cars over more than half a century, but also played a role in developing the first mass-made motorcycle with a fixed full fairing, the BMW R 100 RS. That was a quantum leap in aerodynamics for production motorcycles when it was launched in 1976, and now Pininfarina is playing a role in another step forward as it helps create a design around White Motorcycle Concepts’ central duct idea.
“It has been a true pleasure collaborating with Pininfarina on these initial imaginings of how our patented duct could be incorporated into a new motorcycle design with a compact forced induction hybrid powertrain. I am particularly proud of how we have managed to make the duct both a structural and style feature on a faired and naked concept.” said Robert White CEO White Motorcycle Concepts. “The duct concept has always been about improving efficiency no matter the fuel source, but this collaboration has taken this to the next level showing how the duct can provide functional performance as well as be an aesthetic feature for future motorcycles”
The exclusive ‘Design and Performance in Motion – Shaping Two-Wheel Aerodynamics’ event took place on 6th March 2025 at Pininfarina’s headquarters and wind tunnel Turin, Italy.
About Pininfarina
Global icon of Italian style, Pininfarina is recognized for its unparalleled ability to create timeless beauty through its values of elegance, purity, and innovation. Founded in 1930, Pininfarina has evolved from an artisan concern to an international service Group, supreme expression of automotive styling and an established reality in industrial and experience design, architecture, nautical and mobility beyond automotive. A group employing 500 people, offices in Italy, Germany, China, and the United States and listed on the Stock Exchange since 1986. Over the course of nine decades Pininfarina has designed more than 1,450 automotive and mobility projects and more than 750 product and architecture projects, receiving more than 90 international design awards in past 10 years.
