For reflections you could use a HDRI evironment map, usually takes quite a while to render. Or what I like to do is add two white planes above the camera and change the properties to make it invisible nad disable the shadows, so all it does is reflect. You could also do with a rubber material for the wheels.
I used the default raytrace rubber material for the tyres, but I removed the bumpmap. The environment is a white (standard material) geosphere with a raytrace gloss black plane underneath the car which bisects the sphere with 4 omni lights surrounding the car (2x .5 intensity + 2x .25 intensity). Probably a little over-complicated, but it was the first environment I tried rendering in, and it looks really nice. The overbright effect was done in Photoshop just to spice it up a bit. Here's the original render.
I think the main body is smooth enough, actually I think it needs to be sharper, which you can do easily by adding more polygons around the edges.
I think the bits that need to be softened is the front wings, which can be achieved by applying chamfer to the edges. Basic rule of thumb is chamfer any edges that are at 30 degrees or more.
Yeah, well, all these modifications to the mesh you guys are mentioning probably aren't as easy as you think. Like I've said so many times before, I don't model in 3DS, I use SketchUp. I may or may not smooth out the carbon fibre, though I doubt I will.
I added two intakes on either side of the car because I thought it looked a little plain before. What do you guys think?
looks hot Haz! Ibi is right though, some parts should get a little more sharper, not all to round =) but you did a damn good job with this one, i wish i could create such a model in Sketchup, i'm still figuring out how it works mostly but it's quite complicated in my view so i keep turning back to Rhino but can't get a decent car out of that at the moment =P
Hazmat, how did you apply materials to models you made in SketchUp? When I try to apply a material to esperate parts of the model I made in 3DS Max, the part becomes invisible and stays that way when I render it.
Ah, thanks, that fixed the problem. And I guess since I posted those renders, I might as well tell you guys that it is going to be a rocket car. This is only my second day working on it, but probably by the end of today it should look more like a car.
The 2 sided materials may fix your problem, but from what I've noticed, raytrace materials don't work well 2 sided. In SketchUp, go to View > Rendering > Monochrome. This wil display your model without and textures/shaders and it should either be all blue tan, or a mix of both. If your model has some polygons that are blue and some that are tan, select the tan vertices (shift+click) and right click > reverse faces. Try exporting your model then.
I've been working for almost a month now trying to set up an exterior environment that I liked. I'm pretty close now, so I put in a model I had and rendered. I still have a few thins I need to work out, but what I currently have is very interesting.
A preview of things to come:
Honest opinion, what do you guys think of the lighting in both pics?
All that's left to do is round the sharp edges there 
,
