Korean students win Ferrari contest

It has been brought to Top Gear's attention that university is not about waking up at 12pm and arranging empty bottles of beer into the shape of some gentlemen vegetables. No. There is some study involved. And for 50 universities across the globe, this study involved designing a hypercar for one of the world's most famous brands; an ambition not entirely suffixed with ‘being rubbish'.

Step forward Kim Cheong Ju, Ahn Dre and Lee Sahngseok from Seoul's Hongik University, winners of the 2011 Ferrari World Design Contest with their ‘Eternita' concept (above).

The brief was simple: create a Ferrari of the future. Each of the design concepts eschewed the traditional TG theory of equipping a hastily-drawn car with a jet-fighter engine and scud-missile launchers in the front fenders, opting instead for hybrid technology and weight reduction (to improve driving pleasure).

Ferrari deemed the Hongik Uni students' entrant to be the finest interpretation of its brief for a thoroughbred hypercar ‘brimming with new generation technologies and materials'.

Second place went to Samir Sadikhov from the IED in Turin (above)...

...while third place (above) was awarded to Henry Cloke and Qi Haitao from the RCA in London.

Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo said: "I am certain that some of these suggestions will come to light in the Ferraris of the future".

Watch this space, Internet...

Finalists pose with Fernando Alonso and Big Luca