Coventry University' Budding Car Designers Given Ultimate Teaching Aid
July 3, 2009 | Levent OZLER
When Universities talk about the use of teaching aids to assist with students' studies, they do not usually include a brand new car for budding automotive designers, but that is exactly what Coventry University has been given.
Poalo de Luca, Special Projects Manager for GM Motors in the UK, came to Coventry to personally hand over the keys of the Vauxhall Insignia to David Browne, Course Director of automotive design in the School of Art & Design.
The Vauxhall Insignia is the current European "Car of the Year" and it was donated to the University because of Paolo de Luca's awareness of the University's prominence in automotive design.
"This is a pre-production car and it is actually more usual for these to be crushed!" said David Browne. "We are delighted to have been given this for our students to work with. It is not something that we will be able to drive on the road but it will be a valuable teaching aid and used extensively to raise awareness of the many aspects of car design, build and assembly."
It is likely that the car will be used in several areas of teaching ranging from ergonomics evaluation (suitability for a range of user sizes) to materials, appreciation of assembly methods, and not least, as an aid to discussing form, styling subtleties and brand characteristics.
"Probably the most fun we'll get with the car though, will be taking off the easily-removable front and rear ends so the students can work on full-size clay model 'facelift' designs, mirroring industry practise," added David. "The same could be done with interior items such as door trims and the steering wheel. Having a full size car to work on gives us so much scope for realistic design study.
This is an ideal use for what is basically an un-sellable pre-production vehicle, so our thanks go to Paolo for his thoughtfulness and generosity. We will, of course, be showing him our re-designs!"
The car will initially be based in the design studio in the Bugatti Building and be ready for use for the beginning of the start of the new year in September.
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