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McLaren Tiger Stripe: Young Aussie engineers design the drift car of tomorrow

The high-performance drift car – which is loosely based on the McLaren Senna GTR – took the Year Three students 10 weeks to design and build.


A futuristic drift car has been designed by students at Adelaide’s St Francis Primary School, as part of a program to promote “science, maths, and design skills.”

The two-metre long papier-mache concept – known as Tiger Stripe – reportedly took 10 weeks to build, and is loosely based on the McLaren Senna GTR.

The name references the vehicle’s orange rims, which, according to the year-three students who built them, “look like fire” when spinning.

The design team are keeping powertrain details strictly under wraps, however its safe to assume the wheels are driven by an arts-and-crafts variant of the standard Senna GTR's 607kW 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8.

The external aesthetic is characterised by an aggressive rear spoiler, tall air inlets, and a tail-fin, all of which were added to "reduce lift and assist [Tiger Stripe] in becoming the ultimate drifting machine".

Moving inside, the plush interior was enhanced with the implementation of teddy bear fabric to compliment the lightweight cardboard surfaces.

According to the kids who built it, the limited-edition model will be priced from "$2 million dollars" in Australia, making it one of the most expensive vehicles on the local market.

It is unclear if St Francis Primary School plans to offer fixed price servicing.

Rob Melville, the Design Director at McLaren Automotive, was impressed by the result.

"Great design tells a great story. The "Tiger Stripe" project embodies the spirit of McLaren," he said.

"It’s cool, fast and utilises technology to create a vehicle that is striving for technological perfection – I was very impressed with the students’ attention to detail, from the concept and research stage, to the final execution," he added.

"Projects like this are so important because design is a tangible expression of how art and science combine to produce innovative ideas of the future. It was a privilege to see the hard work that the St Francis students put into designing a future McLaren."


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William Davis

William Davis has written for Drive since July 2020, covering news and current affairs in the automotive industry. He has maintained a primary focus on industry trends, autonomous technology, electric vehicle regulations, and local environmental policy. As the newest addition to the Drive team, William was brought onboard for his attention to detail, writing skills, and strong work ethic. Despite writing for a diverse range of outlets – including the Australian Financial Review, Robb Report, and Property Observer – since completing his media degree at Macquarie University, William has always had a passion for cars.

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