Taking a fresh look at motorcycle aerodynamics is at the core of White Motorcycle Concepts’ approach and while our developments are aimed at reducing drag and improving efficiency, they inevitably influence the external appearance of bikes. With that in mind it’s a privilege to be collaborating with the most famous automotive design house on the planet, Pininfarina, to explore the styling possibilities that our patented aerodynamic duct concept present for future motorcycles. These designs will be released at the Pininfarina headquarters as part of their Design and Performance in Motion (Shaping 2-Wheel Aerodynamics) 95th Anniversary Event on the 6th March 2025.
Pininfarina needs little introduction. If you had posters of cars on your childhood bedroom walls, they probably included Pininfarina-penned machinery. The company has been responsible for the look more Ferraris than any other, including greatest hits like the F40, the 365 GTB/4 Daytona, the Testarossa and the 250GT, and this year Pininfarina celebrates the 95th anniversary of its founding by Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina in 1930.
What began as Carrozzeria Pinin Farina – renamed to simply ‘Pininfarina’ in 1961 – is far more than just a design studio. With its own R&D department, wind tunnel and manufacturing facilities it has been responsible for both developing new ideas and adapting them into commercial propositions for decades. That makes it all the more exciting to have Pininfarina’s involvement with White Motorcycle Concepts. Examples of the company’s foresight include the Ferrari 365 P concept of 1966, which put forward the idea of a three-seat, V12 supercar with the driver in the centre decades before the McLaren F1 adopted the same layout, while Ferrari 512S Speciale concept of 1969 and the Modulo concept that appeared the following year helped form a wedge-shaped template for supercars that echoes on even today. In the 1980s Pininfarina repositioned the Ferrari Testarossa’s radiators from the front of the car to the sides in pursuit of better packaging and improved cabin comfort, but far from compromising its style, that decision conjured up the straked air intakes that influenced a whole generation.
It’s not just the at the exotic end of the market that Pininfarina has proved its worth. When Cadillac created the Allanté convertible in the 1980s, Pininfarina both designed and manufactured the bodies, which were then air-freighted to Detroit to be fitted with their powertrains. And when Honda created the world’s first production convertible to combine a monocoque chassis and a mid-mounted engine, the tiny, 660cc Beat roadster of 1991, it was with the help of Pininfarina.
With that in mind, nobody is better placed to incorporate White Motorcycle Concepts’ aerodynamic duct into a study for a future motorcycle design, employing its drag-reducing benefits and exploiting, rather than hiding, the potential it offers in terms of a fresh, distinctive appearance that sets it aside from today’s production bikes. With Pininfarina we envisage a machine that uses the duct itself as a structural component, with the powertrain – a small, efficient, supercharged combustion engine – and suspension attached to it.
The benefits of the duct remain, as exemplified in our existing bikes, from the WMC250EV electric land speed record challenger to the three-wheeled WMC300E+ and, most recently, the WMCSRS concept that we developed on behalf of Zero Motorcycles. Reducing frontal area and smoothing airflow by allowing it through the bike as well as around it, the duct lets us make substantial reductions in drag without forcing the single unalterable element present on every motorcycle – its rider – into a compromised riding position.
Pininfarina’s own heritage includes several vehicles that could be seen as creating a step-change in automotive aerodynamics. The BMC 1800 Aerodinamica concept of 1967 previewed a smooth-edged future for mass-market cars that was lightyears ahead of the bluff-fronted norm of the time and would clearly influence a whole generation of vehicles that followed it. Even at the dawn of the company’s history in 1936 its Lancia Aprilia Aerodinamica introduced a seamless teardrop-shaped style when most cars still sported separate wings and vertical grilles. Could Pininfarina’s collaboration with White Motorcycle Concepts make similar waves in the two-wheeled realm? We certainly hope so.
