Design language

Honda CRZ hybrid in detail

2010-03-05T17:29:00Z

“We believe the time is over to think about ‘hot hatchbacks’.” Those are the sentiments of project leading engineer Norio Tomobe, one of the key men responsible for the development of the Honda CRZ. “The world is changing, and we should take care to make cars that are both fun to drive and low on emissions.”

That’s the philosophy behind this compact, enthusiast-targeted hybrid: it’s an eco-car, but not such a worthy one.

Geneva motor show: Honda CR-Z

Using the same IMA hybrid system as the current Insight hybrid, Honda mated it to a larger four-cylinder petrol engine than the Insight uses: the 112bhp 1.5-litre engine fitted to the Japanese market Jazz, to be precise. Together with the electric assist system, this tandem powertrain develops 120bhp and 128lb ft of torque. But it’s the ‘ready-at-any-revs’ nature of that torque, which comes mostly from the electric motor, that makes the CRZ feel so responsive – or so Tomobe claims.

And that’s not all Honda has done to make its new hybrid more of a driver’s car. Firstly, it’s a manual, not a CVT. “The driver gets a much more direct feeling of boost from the electric motor,” Tomobe says, “and at certain points in the operating range, the manual gearbox even makes the car more efficient.”

Second, Honda moved the car’s 38kg Nickel Metal Hydride battery back, which is mounted in its boot, further forwards within its wheelbase, for a better weight distribution.

Third, they designed in wide tracks and a low centre of gravity: the CRZ’s centre of roll is 15mm lower even than that of a Civic Type R.

And fourth, they overhauled the chassis. The CRZ has forged aluminium wishbones front and rear, which save it 16kg of unsprung mass relative to an Insight, as well as 16in alloy wheels that are 5kg lighter per corner.

Could they have done more? “We wanted to be careful to make the car both efficient and fun,” says Tomobe, “and I think we have arrived at the right compromise. For a long time, we planned to use the same 1.3-litre powertrain as the Insight, but I succeeded in convincing the management eventually that we could use something more sporty.”

“It’s true that we could work the hybrid assist system harder,” he goes on. “At the moment it’s supplying 13bhp and 60lb ft, but only using about 50 per cent of the capacity of our batteries. We could increase that assistance, but we would need to provide more cooling for the batteries, and we would also shorten the battery pack’s operational life. In our view, that’s too big a price to pay.”

And we’ll have found out by this time next week exactly how much fun it’s possible to have at the wheel of a hybrid; our man in Japan, Peter Lyon, is driving the car on Wednesday. Having had a closer look at the car, I’m actually quite excited to find out.

Aston's Cygnet splits opinion

2010-03-02T11:17:15Z

Aston Martin's new Cygnet was met with slightly uncertain applause at it was unveiled in Geneva this morning.

It's fair to say Aston design director Marek Reichmann has changed everything about the car he easily could - grille, airscoops, lights, badges, colours, body trim and so on - but the car's unmistakable proportions and window graphics still advertise its £10K Toyota roots, too loudly for some.

Aston chairman David Richards reckons it'll sell the way a £3000 Hermes handbag does to rich ladies, but if so, it's going to have to be ladies who don't understand the Toyota range too well.

If you want a car that splits opinion, this is it.

The irony is that in a way it's far more of of an emblem of careless wealth than the big Astons that surround it.

Technorati Tags: Aston Martin Cygnet, Geneva motor show, Toyota iQ

First-hand view of the Porsche Cayenne

2010-02-25T21:04:00Z

So what’s the new Cayenne like in the metal?

Well if you didn’t like the bluff and aggressive look of the old one there’s little hope that you’re going to think that this one is a beauty either.

New Porsche Cayenne revealed

That said, there’s no doubt that it looks sleeker, sportier and has much tidier and more tapered front and rear ends. And yes it’s a good deal more handsome and more sculptured than the outgoing model. But it’s still a big, bulky car.

Also, just like the new VW Touareg with which it shares a platform, Porsche has made impressive weight savings and engineers say that this has proved dividends in its off-road capability. Even though a lot of off-road hardware has been removed to save this weight.

The real benefit for most customers though is with the interior. With the Panamera saloon Porsche finally proved that it could do classy and luxurious, as well as durable, and the Cayenne continues the theme. In fact, there's now a lot of similarity between the SUV and the saloon. Quality, luxury, and comfort have all been pushed up several notches.

But is it as classy as a Range Rover? It's too close to call.

Mercedes F800 has something of the BMW CS about it

2010-02-25T10:43:00Z

Earlier today, the Autocar inbox received a very interesting e-mail from a chap who only identified himself as ‘Chris’.

My guess is that ‘Chris’ is a car designer, because he’s noticed something very intriguing about Mercedes’ latest concept car, pointing out a remarkable resemblance between it’s rear and the rear of the cancelled BMW CS limo.

Although not identical – the Mercedes F800 has clearly developed the basic CS design theme – the look is remarkably similar.

Chris points that Karim Habib, one of the top designers at BMW – he was responsible for both the new 7-series and CS concept – also worked on the new Mercedes.

Habib unexpectedly jumped ship from BMW and joined Mercedes-Benz team last year.

Chris reminds us that Autocar reported this move last March: "Canadian-born Habib will be responsible for the F series cars, the concepts and experimental cars that Mercedes uses to develop its future design themes. Recent F cars include the F700 and F400.

These are cars that will influence not the next generation of Mercedes but the one after that – cars that won’t be on the market for another decade."

Well, it looks as if Habib was loathe to let some of the great ideas that made up the CS concept go to waste…

I might add my own thought, having been reminded of the CS’s impressive rear-end. Picture the E39 5-series, the last model before the Bangle revolution. Now imagine what the 5-series would have looked like, two generations down the non-Bangle line.

Quite a lot like the CS, I’d guess.

Toyota FT-86 - what you see is what you'll get

2010-02-19T10:02:33Z

On the site today you'll notice a story on the Toyota FT-86 Concept. Since I wrote it various rumours have been doing the rounds on the internet about the validity of the car’s design. According to these rumours “an unofficial source in Japan” has claimed that the final design hasn’t been signed off yet, the insinuation being that the car we photographed bears little true resemblance to the one that will go on sale in 2012.

I was, I admit, a bit shocked by these rumours, having recently spent a day with the car and some of the people responsible for its design. So I started to do some digging, and it now seems that the situation is a wee bit more complicated than it first appeared.

What I can gather, having communicated with numerous official, unofficial sources within and outside Toyota, is this. In 2012 Toyota will definitely launch a rear-wheel-drive coupe that will have an unusually low centre of gravity, and for a target price of less than £20k equivalent to today’s money. But its final production design has indeed not yet been finalised.

However, what I can also tell you is that, unofficially and very much on the QT, Akio Toyoda himself loves the current design just as it is, especially the rear end. He’s also taken particularly keen note of the enthusiastic way in which the FT-86 concept has been received by its critics. And so, basically, it would seem he wants to keep the production car’s design as close as possible to that of the concept, once various aspects have been integrated to make it production friendly; such as pedestrian crash protection etc.

In other words, and despite nothing yet being officially official or otherwise, what you see is what we’ll get.

Which is very good news if you ask me.

Audi A1 looks familiar

2010-02-15T13:05:00Z

With my background in design, I know I really shouldn’t be saying this. But ever since I saw the Audi A1 metroproject concept at the Tokyo show in autumn 2007 I have had a niggling thought in the back of my mind.

There was something about the car’s rather plump, potato-esque, shape that reminded me strongly of another car.

When the pictures of the final production A1 arrived, I couldn’t resist asking the obvious question any longer.

I am the only one who thinks the baby Audi looks remarkably like an Austin Allegro?

There’s something about the short, tubby shape, the sweep of the C-pillar, the amount of bodywork above the front wheel and that deep ‘shoulder’ surface that runs off the front wing and down the side of the car.

Even the Allegro’s side windows seem similar in proportion and shape to the A1’s.

I have met Harris Mann – ‘designer’ of the Allegro – a couple of times. A charming chap, he showed me his original design sketch for the Allegro.

It was a sharp, wedgy, coupe with a narrow nose and rising window line. Unfortunately, what passed for production engineering at BLMC in 1970 saw the management to change its plans, and fit the Allegro with an existing heater and engine, which were too tall to fit under Mann’s sharply-drawn bonnet.

So they simply lifted the bonnet line up until they could accommodate the engine and heater. Rather than pass it back to the design department to try and tidy up the result, the Allegro went into production. Amazingly it was made for a decade, from 1973 until 1983.

As for the A1, it’s roughly based on the Polo, so there seems to be no good reason for its podgy form.

Interestingly, the Audi A1 does have an obtuse BL connection. The concept A1 was called the Metroproject. However BMW, which owns the Metro badge, objected rather strongly to this and Audi had to purge its files and the web of pictures and text that used the ‘metroproject’ name.

And funnily enough, Harris Mann was one of the lead designers on the original Austin Metro…

VW Touareg kept on track by VW’s crack CO2 team

2010-02-12T10:56:00Z

The new VW Touareg is 20 per cent more fuel efficient than the outgoing model, and according to those in the know in Wolfsburg, that wasn’t an easy saving to make.

When VW CEO Martin Winterkorn laid down that 20 per cent target two years ago, the lead engineers responsible for the car knew they would have to work differently in order to make extraordinary gains. And that’s exactly what they did.

New VW Touareg unveiled

Ordinarily VW engineers work in conventional teams. One team works on chassis, another body, another powertrain, another aerodynamics, and so on. And all of them work largely independently, moving closer together as the car nears completion.

With the Touareg though, Jochen Bohle, head of technical development for the car, decided to poach one expert from every team and throw them all together to work towards one aim: bringing the car’s emissions down. This team had operational veto over every decision during the Touareg’s development. If a chassis engineer wanted to fit wider wheels, or if the powertrain team needed more cooling, they had to refer to the CO2 team. And if the CO2 team said no, they’d be sent back to think again.

“The CO2 team was 20 people strong, meeting twice a week, at one point,” Bohle says. “To begin with we simply collected ideas on whiteboards. We had to be creative about increasing efficiency and saving weight, and we knew that we’d be unlikely to find one big, 20 per cent fix. In the end it was more like a hundred 0.2 per cent fixes.”

Some ideas were no-brainers. “We fitted low-rolling resistance tyres,” says Bohle – “that was an easy one – and a new Torsen centre differential, the same one you’ll find in the Audi Q7. It’s 16kg lighter than the one in the outgoing Touareg, and it’s also a cheaper component.”

But some of the measures they took needed more thought. “The aerodynamics team wanted to make the car ride lower on its air springs to reduce drag, but the chassis department said that would sacrifice comfort too much. So we ended up settling for a new control program for the air suspension system. Basically, we added a second, even lower ride height setting for the car when it’s at high speed.”

The new Touareg automatically settles down on its springs by 10mm at 87mph, it turns out, and then by another 10mm at 118mph, and the latter setting makes it a little less thirsty at big autobahn speeds.

VW is a company led by engineers. Some nine thousand of them are employed by the VW brand alone, and judging by this example, challenged by ever-more-stringent environmental concerns and ever-more-demanding customers, they're really earning their keep.

VW Touareg - first impressions

2010-02-11T10:11:00Z

“When we designed the first Touareg, we deliberately set out to make something different-looking; with this one, the brief was for a car that looked more like its siblings. That’s because eight years ago, VW was casting itself as a maker of even more premium, luxury cars, and Touareg Mk1 was a big part of that effort. This time around, our agenda is different.”

So says Klaus Bischoff, VW’s chief exterior designer, about the firm’s new Touareg SUV. “I would say this design is more typically, classically Volkswagen. It’s elegant and sophisticated; attractive and modern; but absolutely not stylised, not ‘fashionable’. Volkswagens must always go their own way, which is why this car doesn’t look like a Range Rover or a BMW X5. We will never make a ‘me-too’ design.”

VW Touareg unveiled

Looking at the new Touareg from the outside, its new grille and headlamp design is what immediately strikes you. It certainly suits the car better than the gauche, chrome-centric old one. That new face is strongly influenced by the new Golf and Polo. "This is the third car to get our new corporate brand look,” Bischoff says, “but there are 20 more in the pipeline for the next three years.”

Inside, VW has racheted up the Touareg’s plushness, material quality and equipment count. There’s more room in the back too – a lot more. The rear seats have 40mm extra legroom, thanks to that lengthened wheelbase, but they also slide fore and aft by 160mm now, as well as reclining. This’ll be a much more limo-like car to ride in than the last.

But it’ll never be a Range Rover rival.

“Our design mission for this Touareg was to create a responsible SUV,” says Bischoff. “We had to make a car as refined, comfortable and capable as a full-sized luxury 4x4, but at the same time make it car-like, because VW has no history of making big SUVs. And so we lowered the roofline a little for this version, and we retained the car-like seating position. And we tried to soften the design forms, and to keep the aggression that you find in so many 4x4 designs out of this one. W tried to communicate the strides that our engineering team made in making this car more fuel-efficient. And I hope we succeeded.”

Young, single, urban male? Then here's the Nissan Juke

2010-02-10T21:30:00Z

Are you a young, single, urban male? Then, according to Nissan, you’ll be interested in the Nissan Juke when it goes on sale in September.

I’m currently at a French military base just to the south of Paris, where the Juke has been unveiled for the first time.

Nissan Juke revealed

Nissan bosses say they are sure that this highly distinctive 4m-long car – described as a cross between a crossover and a sports car – will be as successful as the Qashqai was in its market.

Nissan makes a point of not selling ‘me too, copy-car’ cars in Europe, which is why it no longer has conventional EU market models competing against the Golf and Mondeo. (Interestingly, the Ford is healthily outsold by the Qashqai, which shifted 200,000 units in Europe last year).

I’m moderately surprised at their confidence. In the metal, the Juke is pretty unusual. Imagine a Nissan Murano scaled down to fit on the same platform as a Nissan Note. The car’s proportions are quite dramatic, particularly the boat-like front end. This styling theme was dreamt up by UK-based designers at Nissan Paddington design centre.

Nissan’s design chief, Shiro Nakamura, says there are elements of the Murano, Infiniti FX and even GT-R in the Juke. He admits that the Juke has been seen as a polarizing design in customer clinics, but thinks that there are plenty of buyers who will love it, especially if they don’t mind the tight rear cabin and smallish boot.

Prices are expected to kick off at between £13,000 and £14,000, but the real interest lies with the range-topping model, which combines a 188bhp 1.6-litre turbocharged engine and a four-wheel drive system with torque vectoring.

In steady conditions, the Juke runs as a front-driver, but when the car’s various sensors (including a yaw, steering and accelerator sensors) detect either sharp maneuvers or the onset of understeer, the drivetrain sends 50 per cent of the engine’s torque back to the rear wheels.

The rear differental can then split that torque between the rear wheels, helping the Juke steering aggressively, but steadily, into bends. The Juke has also been benched marked against cars including the Peugeot 207 and Mini and has been extensively tested on UK roads. European Jukes get their own, unique, chassis settings.

Sounds pretty handy, and an advance on what anybody else is doing in this sector. I just can’t help wondering if the Juke is really going to appeal to sportily inclined young male who will appreciate that kind of advanced drivetrain.

I suspect that it is young women who might fancy the SUV looks and car park-handy sizing.

But whoever buys it, the introduction of the Juke is great news for Nissan’s Sunderland plant.

Jaguar lightens up

2010-01-26T10:17:00Z

I shot this picture at Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich plant last week. On the left is a rear door from the new XJ saloon. On the right is a rear door from an XF saloon.

This little hands-on demonstration was designed to show us just how much weight can be saved through the use of aluminium. The XJ door weighs just 8.9kg, while the XF door weighs 13.9kg. That’s a massive 5kg saving, making the XJ door nearly a third lighter.

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What struck me straight away was the seemingly comparative ease of fitting aluminium doors to the rather weighty XF saloon. I suppose if we have four doors the total weight saving would be 20kgs, and we could deduct another 25kg by using an aluminium bonnet and boot lid.

Of course, the door hinge faces would have to be made of aluminium to prevent rampant galvanic corrosion between the ally door structures and the XF’s steel monocoque, but some bright spark can surely develop a bi-metal design, that bonds an aluminium face onto a steel hinge plate.

Interestingly, if I heard the engineer on the shop floor correctly, the XJ production equipment can produce a full set of ‘closures’ in just 206 seconds. So perhaps this clever robotic machinery has the capacity to make aluminium doors and lids for the XF as well? It might be good idea for the car’s mid-life facelift.

Nobody at Jaguar would give me a clue as to whether the next XF would also be made entirely of (relatively expensive) aluminium, but I was told that large volume production demands that an aluminium car is made from stamped sheet rather than square-section aluminium extrusions, like those used in the Jaguar XK and Lotus Elise. And Jaguar has clearly invested in a serious aluminium stamping operation.

Could Jaguar base the next XF off the XJ’s floor structure? Why not? BMW’s 5- and 7-series cars have long been basically the same vehicle. Such a move would raise the prospect of this Castle Bromwich production line building the same basic saloon car at a rate of, say, 55,000 units per year. That has to be a sound recipe for profitability.

Incidentally, the hunks of green-painted metal in the background are the press tools used to stamp out the panels that make up the inner structure and exterior skin. I asked how often the tools are taken in for inspection and repair.

"Once a year or every 25,000 operations," said the Jaguar engineer.

Does that mean Jaguar wants to build 25,000 XJs per year? If it does, it would be huge jump over the sales of the old XJ. But they deserve to do so.

The XJ’s body engineering is a work of art.

Why the Vauxhall Meriva is as clever as a Porsche Cayman

2010-01-22T12:00:59Z

Fascinating trip to Russelsheim (which is still the home of Opel) to see the new Meriva – or rather to see how and why Opel ended up equipping this mini-MPV with rear-hinged doors.

Now you may see the Meriva as just the kind of car you would never buy, and it is aimed at young families and older, retired types, but the process of developing any car is much the same and the one thing that always strikes me when I meet the engineers involved in taking a car from an idea to a real, tangible object is the total immersion these people put themselves into.

Vauxhall Meriva - first pictures

Take the doors on the Meriva. Nobody’s done these on a car the size of the Meriva before- in fact, nobody’s done two full-size rear hinged doors that can open independently of the fronts on anything other than a Rolls Phantom or a London cab in recent years.

So back in 2005 Opel took a current Meriva and cobbled together some rear-hinged doors for it with the aim of improving access to the back seats, especially for adults strapping kids in and for the elderly. People liked the idea, and Opel went on to the next stage – how to construct it.

It turned out that it wasn’t the construction that took the time – essentially the engineers moved the hinges to the C-pillar and added plenty of strength around the mounts – but the locking system. The problem with rear-hinged doors is that if they come open, they’ll effectively take your head off if you fall out of the car. So Opels’ people spent may thousands of hours developing an electronic locking system that would not under any circumstances fail. They stressed the car’s electronics to the point of catching fire to make sure that should there be some sort of system meltdown, the doors wouldn’t pop open.

Then there’s the interior, which had to have lots and lots of storage for kids’ books, plus 1.5 litre bottles of water in the front and 0.75 litres in the back, because children don’t need big bottles, a 250g bar of chocolate and so on and so on. All cars go through this process, but with something like the Meriva accurate storage becomes one of the key selling points of the car. It must work.

Okay, so it’s not refining the car’s turn-in under full throttle on the ’Ring, but I reckon there’s as much skill and dedication to getting a car like the Meriva to do its allocated job properly as there is in honing a Cayman’s reflexes. A different type of skill, but it’s just as admirable.

Citroen Revolte - as confusing as it is stunning

2010-01-21T10:11:59Z

Late last year I went on a rare trip to the Peugeot-Citroen styling studio, on the south side of Paris.

It was very interesting if rather frustrating day. We went over for a closer look at the dramatic Citroen Revolte concept. We also had a chance to talk directly to Carlo Bonzangio – Citroen’s head of concepts and advanced interior design.

Citroen Revolte in detail

But what we really wanted to know was whether the Revolte was new 2CV or not? Bonzangio’s reply was as baroque as the car.

"Of course it has 2CV influence," he said. "I think we can now shamelessly speak about future and our history in one breath. Citroen is ready for the next step. But this is not a retro design. It contains quotations from the past. The 2CV was spartan and essential – but the Revolte is rich."

I was left confused as to whether the highly appealing Revolte was going to happen, and how it could fit in with the new DS3. If Bonzangio know the answer, he wasn’t going to reveal it.

Interestingly, Citroen’s just-launched advertising campaign for the DS3 is based entirely around the fact that the DS3 is not a retro design.

Individually, Citroen has some very nice vehicles. The DS3, C3 Picasso, C5 and C6 all individually look good, but there’s no particularly clear thread that holds the company’s product line together.

Ultimately, I wanted to know what Citroen is about? Bonzangio wanted Citroen to be seen as ‘the most Parisian’ of brands and be able to mentioned in the same breath as the word ‘premium’.

The company’s current ‘creative technology’ tag line doesn’t help clear things up much, either. Nor does the recent British memories of Citroen as budget brand.

I think Citroen needs to follow in the very recent steps of sister company Peugeot, and really get a grip on a new product philosophy that successfully ties these frustratingly loose ends together.

Does Mini Countryman spell the end for the Clubman?

2010-01-20T16:55:21Z

Well, that’s not quite what we were led to expect.

The pictures of the new Mini Countryman show a pretty logical five-door extension of the established Mini. A polished mainstream model and an aggressive Cooper S hot hatch.

Neither car is anything like either of the taster concepts (The Crossover and Beachcomber) rolled out last year.

Indeed, it’s hard to imagine just why Mini showed the extravagant Beachcomber when the real thing is so much less of an SUV.

What mystifies me is that I was told, face-to-face, last month that the Cooper S road car had not been signed off by the BMW board. A few weeks later, it seems that the BMW board has had a change of mind.

All of which maneuvering might be evidence that concept cars and the subsequent media coverage does actually influence car company bosses.

With sales not starting until the autumn and the Magna factory in Graz only now limbering up to begin production, BMW must have had enough time to decided to build a premium supermini, rather than a 4m-long Tonka toy.

The Countryman will also test the theory that car buyers are willing to ‘downsize’ and pay Golf money for a smaller, albeit premium, package.

I also wonder where this will leave the Mini Clubman. Although the Clubman does pretty well in the US market (taking 20 percent of Mini sales), the Countryman is barely longer, but has a much more efficient interior package.

The higher roofline, five proper doors and a decent boot will probably throttle demand for the Clubman, which must be costly to produce, not only because of the single side door but the complex double rear doors.

Of course, recent patent drawings suggest the Clubman format could re-appear in a future version of the Countryman.

One BMW source told me last month that the Clubman’s ‘club door’ would have been more popular ‘if only we had explained it better’. I think that the near-certain success of the Countryman makes this year an ideal point to close the ‘club door’ for the last time.

Technorati Tags: Mini, Clubman, Countrymnan, Cooper S, Beachcomber

Peugeot SR1 is just as striking in the metal

2010-01-08T15:05:42Z

When I managed, a couple of weeks ago, to clap eyes on the new SR1 concept car in the inner sanctum of Peugeot’s design centre just outside Paris, it wasn’t so much the car’s Aston-like profile that delivered the shock. It was the scale of the company’s ambition for its future designs.

Here was a car, unrecognisable as a Peugeot except in the broadest terms, which both of the company’s design bosses - PSA group chief Jean-Pierre Ploue and newly appointed Peugeot design head Gilles Vidal - reckoned was a reliable guide to the design features and philosophy we’ll see applied to much more prosaic Peugeot models of the future. Starting, evidently, with the 207 replacement (probably to be called 208, though it’s not absolutely certain) we’ll see in 2011.

Peugeot SR1 concept revealed

Gone is the much-criticised wide-mouth frog look, along with the saggy backside that always reminded me of a fat person overhanging a piano stool. Instead, we’re to get a smaller, precisely designed grille countersunk into the car’s frontal shape, along with defined, simple surfaces designed to make the car look lighter and more “technical”.

Ploue and Vidal regard the 205GTi and 407 Coupe - both much admired where designers of all persuasions gather - as recent Peugeots whose balance and grace they want to emulate.

Interestingly, Pininfarina has important input into both of them, though that won’t be the case in future, Ploue suggests. The Italian design house is struggling, whereas Peugeot design is more focused than it has been for decades.

I think we’re in for an exciting time. The top men at Peugeot, not just managers but designers too, are making all the right noises. It’s a rare event, not being able to predict in your mind’s eye the major styling features of car as close to the mainstream as the 207 replacement.

According to Jean-Pierre Ploue there will be more concept cars to illustrate the new direction between here and Geneva/Frankfurt 2011, when the new production car appears, and I suspect their launches will be moments to savour.

Designing 2020's hot hatch

2010-01-04T10:50:00Z

In this week’s Autocar magazine, we revealed the results of our Hot Hatch 2020 Design Competition.

The winner was Minwoo Hwang and part of his prize was spending the week at Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre in Essex, where I caught up with him, helping sculpt his design out of clay.

Minwoo’s design provided Ford’s model makers Brad and Jamie with an interesting challenge. The modellers usually get their hands on a model when it is already nearly complete as milling machines carry out the majority of the initial sculpting. But Minwoo’s design was on paper, so Brad and Jamie had to revert back to the ‘good old days’ and sculpt the design by hand – all under Minwoo’s watchful eye.

Minwoo spent a month refining his design and chose to enter the competition as a project for the automotive side of his transport design degree at Coventry University.

He included some evolutions of Ford’s traditional design traits – such as the trapezoid grille and front lights – while other design features were unique to his design, such as the belt line which kicks down towards the rear, rather than up as is the norm on Ford’s production models.

Paul Wraith, an experienced Ford designer who worked with Minwoo on the project, was impressed with the maturity of the student’s design. “Good cars look good right at the start of the design process,” he said. “And this is certainly the case with Minwoo’s design. Things that may look good on paper or a computer screen won’t necessarily look good when you turn them into a scale or full-size model.

“Minwoo has had to make compromises, but the design changes are intelligent ones and he’s offering an interesting take on how hot hatch design may evolve.”

When I left Minwoo and the Ford team, changes to the clay model’s design was about to be frozen so the car could be GOM-scanned and turned into virtual form. From here, its data will be put into a clever 3D printing system which creates a scale model out of resin. This model will then be painted and be put on display on the Autocar stand at next week’s Autosport International show.

Like all designers, however, Minwoo was still making last-minute changes to his creation. The biggest debate was over its colour; Minwoo was leaning towards silver, but the Ford guys gently reminded him that the traditional RS colours are blue and white, and even the luminous lime green seen on the current Focus.

I’ll be interested to see just how the model will look – and in what colour - on the stand itself next week. Judging by the level of detail on the clay version, Minwoo’s concept is sure to get some admiring glances.

Technorati Tags: Ford, hot hatch, design competition