When the top brass at Ferrari like your car design, you're onto something.

Kim Cheon Ju, Ahn Dre and Lee Sahngseok took first place in the Ferrari World Design Contest in Maranello, Italy. The three budding designers, students at Hongik University in Seoul, Korea, were personally congratulated by none other than Paolo Pininfarina, chairman of Ferrari's styling counsel and non plus ultra of Italian automotive aesthetics. That's almost as cool as the three-month internships they'll serve at Ferrari HQ in Maranello.

They were among more than 50 teams from design schools around the world who submitted their designs for the "Ferrari of the Third Millennium," a vehicle extreme enough to wear the cavallino rampante. The design brief was simple: The car must be fast, it must be light and it must be packed with leading-edge tech. Fuel efficiency was a top concern, so many teams specced hybrid drivetrains.

The seven finalists’ submissions included a 3-D rendering and a 1:4 scale model, complete with a full interior. The cars were designed using Autodeck Alias.

The winning design is called Eternità (above) – painted, of course, rosso corsa. It's got microscopic ground clearance, sleek lines and styling decades beyond anything Enzo Ferrari could have imagined.

These are concepts, and they'll probably never see production, but that's not the point. Ferrari says the contest is meant to foster "the creative energy of the next generation."

"I saw at first hand the many genuinely innovative ideas that these talented youngsters sent us and could feel the enormous passion and commitment that had gone into them," Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo said in a statement. "I am certain that some of these suggestions will come to light in the Ferraris of the future.”

Big shoes to fill, indeed.

Photos: Ferrari

The second-place design, Xezri, by Samir Sadikhov of IED in Turin, Italy.

Third-place design by Henry Cloke and Qi Haitao of the London Royal College of Arts.

A look at the finalists.

Video: HighGearMediaVideos/YouTube

A word on the contest.

Video: Autodesk/Youtube