3rd Generation Performance.
Tangent together with iconic performance manufacturer Shelby and Elkhart based premium truck up-fitter Tuscany Motor Co., teamed up to design & develop the 2022 Shelby F-150 Raptor, Shelby’s latest foray into the performance truck market. Tangent’s responsibilities included the design and development of numerous proprietary parts, including an injection molded grille, accent lights, and a custom hood with front & rear vent inserts.
Inspired by Shelby’s rich racing and performance heritage, as well as previous collaborations between Tangent and Shelby, Tangent set about designing a new Shelby F-150 Raptor that would stand out in an increasingly crowded performance truck market. This meant taking a more radical design approach to the Shelby’s bespoke parts, incorporating more advanced and robust production techniques, and adding a first of its kind dynamic signature lighting feature in the Raptor’s center grille.
Tangent began the development process with a combination of 2D sketching, and Alias based underlays of the 2022 F-150 Raptor to ensure that every sketched detail and component would accurately reflect its real-life counterpart.
After settling on a 2D direction, Tangent began modeling the Shelby’s complex injection molded parts in 3D CAD software, bringing the design from concept level surfaces, to tool ready solid parts. This process included the development of the aforementioned signature center lighting element, including its custom housing and lens.
Without the support of a full-size clay model to evaluate surfaces, Tangent turned to it’s in house, VRED powered, virtual reality set up to create a full-scale walk-through environment, which provided Tangent with critical insights into the design and scale of each of the Shelby F-150 Raptor’s numerous performance upgrades.
Utilizing VRED’s powerful rendering software, Tangent was able to visualize the Shelby F-150 Raptor in real time, generating photo real images for marketing materials and client reviews, ensuring that every image would be of a consistent quality and accuracy for client evaluations and design discussions.
The 2022 Shelby F-150 Raptor was debuted by Shelby in January 2022 and will be sold in limited quantities by official Shelby dealers.
Images courtesy of Shelby American