Mazda Kaan wins LA Design Challenge

The Mazda Kaan has won the Design Challenge at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show.The 2025 futuristi race car was designed at Mazda North American Operations by a team led by Jacques Flynn and Carlos Salaff.

The Los Angeles Auto Show has awarded the Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) design team top honors for the Mazda KAAN - the company's rendition of a 2025 race car.
With eight other Southern California automotive design studios, including Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen in the running, KAAN took first place for how well it integrated a high level of innovation and technology into the design, as well as its truly unique styling.

Taking into consideration key racing principles like speed, power, performance and safety, the MNAO design team lead by Jacques Flynn and Carlos Salaff created an electric race car designed to compete in the 2025 season of E1 races, a time when California freeways have been resurfaced with a sub-level electro-conductive polymer that powers the electric cars of the modern world.
Mazda's patented electronic tire system uses this technology to power the KAAN to reach 250 mph with no harmful emissions.
The vehicles are piloted by individual drivers but teams are made up of thirty cars, all on the track together. Using strategies similar to those in cycling peletons, the tighter the group sticks together, the more aerodynamic and powerful it becomes.
Inspiration for the KAAN comes from electric fields and textures seen in nature, particularly those in a lightning bolt. The car is uniquely designed around its powerful electric wheels while the cockpit acts as a capsule to safely house the driver, allowing for tighter peloton formations and a team victory.
The team included Jacques Flynn, Carlos Salaff, Minyong Lee, Greg Lee, Tim Brown and Jordan Meadows.
(Source: Mazda)

NEW DSIGN Contest for Interior Designers

http://wsca.world.co.jp/

A GREAT DESIGN COMPETITION FOR STUDENTS WANT TO CONTINUE MASTER'S

Domus Academy and Audi Group have launched the second edition of the Desire Design Competition, which asks participants to create a dream car and offers sholarhips for the 2009-2010 Master in Car Design. The deadline is 15 January 2009.

The brief: design the most desirable car ever

"Among the mass production objects, cars are the most diffused, the most expensive, the most technologically advanced and above all still the most desired.

"What makes a car desirable? What makes a vehicle the actual platform of our dreams? What makes car design a promise for a forthcoming future? Desire Design is a competition project that aims at rediscovering the fundamentals of car design."
Participants are requested to submit a design project of a car with a strong emotional impact. Any dimension or typology of cars are accepted as long as they represent a vehicle that people could dream about.
The aim is to find out what makes a car a living object with a soul out of a mechanic components assemblage.
The project should express a good balance of proportions, graphics, materials and technology, ideally creating an object which is able to move passions and desires.
About the Competition
The prizes are:
One scholarship covering 70% of the total tuition fee of Euro 17,000 + VAT 20% for Domus Academy Master in Car Design.
One scholarship covering 50% of the total tuition fee of Euro 17,000 + VAT 20% for Domus Academy Master in Car Design.
One scholarship covering 30% of the total tuition fee of Euro 17,000 + VAT 20% for Domus Academy Master in Car Design.
The scholarships are intended only for the Academic Year 2009/2010 (April - March).
All the participants will receive an award consisting of 10% discount on the tuition fee to attend the Master in Car Design.
The winning projects will be selected by Marco Bonetto (Domus Academy, Master in Car Design Director), Walter De Silva (Volkswagen Group, Director of Design), Wolfgang Josef Egger, (Audi Group, Head of Design), Fabrizio Giugiaro (Italdesign Giugiaro, Style Director).
The deadline for submission is January 15, 2009. Candidates will be informed on the results of the competition via e-mail by January 31, 2009.
For additional information visit http://www.domusacademy.it/. or download the official announcement in pdf format.
About the Domus Academy Master in Car Design
The Master in Car Design (April 2009 to March 2010, in Milan - Italy) aims at strengthening participants’ design competencies together with the development of their professional profile.
At the end of the program, they will be ready to work as car designers within the framework of a company or design studio, and they will be able to effectively interact with the marketing, production and finance functions.
The Master follows the approach of “learning by designing”, where participants learn by a direct, active involvement in several design experiences. The program is articulated into 4 sections: Induction (lectures, testimonials and field visits), Workshops, Focus and Final Master thesis.
During workshops, from May to December, students work on different areas of project in collaboration with well known car designers and the partner automotive company. Every workshop includes lectures, meeting with automotive sector experts and a design project developed with the supervision of experienced designers.
In the last 3 months of the course, the students will be asked to choose a design theme to be developed in a final thesis.
(Source: Domus Academy)

A NEW DESIGN COMPETITION

Do you wanna participate in a creativity design contest?
Check the advertising...

A NEW DESIGN CONTEST FOR DESIGNERS

Furniture Design Award 2009 (Open Categories), Furniture Design

http://www.singaporefurniture.com/design/fda_2009.html

The Parajet Skycar: From London to Timbuktu on Biofuel

A 3,700-mile intercontinental journey in a high-tech swamp boat?

The Parajet Skycar: From London to Timbuktu on Biofuel: The Skycar Expedition Team plans to cover the distance of 3700 miles from London to Timbuktu in a vehicle resembling a high-tech Everglades swamp boat. Its builders say the two-seat Parajet prototype will drive on land or reach 100 mph at 2,000-3,000 feet in the air. Skycar Expedition

If you were wondering, Timbuktu isn't some mythical city with a skyline of emerald buildings housing a race of unicorn-men. It's a real place, situated in the west African country of Mali, a city historians cite as an intellectual and spiritual center of the 15th and 16th centuries. It's also some 3,700 miles from London. Keep that in mind when you consider a scheme to cover those miles in a car that looks like an Everglades airboat designed by Luigi Colani.
The plan's proponents call themselves the Skycar Expedition Team, a name that could have figured in a Gerry Anderson TV show. But they're serious about the trip. Skycar designers include aviation engineer Gilo Cardozo, who says the Skycar will be able to toggle between "road mode" and "fly mode" in three minutes. Cardozo is best known for flying to Mount Everest in his Wankel rotary-powered Parajet, a personal aircraft he designed.
What makes the Skycar different from other flying cars is its unorthodox method of staying aloft. Still in the prototype stages, the vehicle uses a similar method of flight as Cardozo's Parajet -- a parawing that's force-fed with air by a large fan. In the case of the Skycar, that fan is driven by a 140-horsepower Yamaha sportbike engine set up to burn ethanol. The team says an air speed of 100 mph is possible at an altitude of 2,000 to 3,000 feet.
Skycar is also expected to generate sports-car performance on terra firma, with a zero-to-60 time of around 4.5 seconds and similar off-road capability as a motorcycle or dune buggy. That kind of thing should come in handy in the Sahara.
The Skycar Expedition Team says it expects to get underway sometime in January 2009.
[via AutoblogGreen]

Ferrari Zobin a nice Design from an Iranian Engineer

The Zobin Concept is a design study of a single-seater aerodynamic sportscar inspired by Ferrari Formula 1 cars. The author is Iranian engineer Siamak Ruhi Dehkordi.

The Zobin design study by Iranian engineer Siamak Ruhi Dehkordi is an aerodynamic single seater with compact dimensions (4,114mm long and 1,855 mm wide).
The exterior design is characterized by the original front structure made of a metal band, which supports the headlights and integrates the front spoiler and the front fenders, and gives the car an "open-wheels" look.
Focused on efficiency, the car is powered by a compact unit mounted in mid-rear position.
About the Designer
Siamak Ruhi Dehkordi (33 years old), from Iran, graduated in mechanical engineering 10 years ago.

He is currently working in the Iranian car industry (Saipa-Zamyad) and looking for master course or a job in transportation design.

Muscle car meets computer mouse

November 7, 2008 If hot-rod screen-savers just aren't enough to satisfy your automotive-obsession while perched in front of the computer, it might be time to branch out into peripherals. The new Road Mice series from Four Door Media is range of a wireless car-shaped computer mice (complete with working headlightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlamp ) officially licensed by some well-known auto manufacturers, including Corvettehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvette , Chevrolethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet and Ford.
The RF wireless optical mouse has 800-dpi resolution and officially licensed models include the Chevrolet Camaro Concept, a Corvette Z06Inexpensive-High-End-Sports-Cars Nov-07 , the Dodge Charger SRT8 and SRT8 Super Bee (think “Dukes of Hazzard”), a Dodge Viperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Viper SRT10 and a Ford Mustanghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mustang GT. The Chevy Camaro and Dodge Charger are also available in either authentic Highway Patrol or City Police designs. All makes and models are available in multiple colors, except for Highway Patrol.
Additional features include individual (VIN) serial number, built-in automatic timer shut off, on/off switch for LED headlights, and personalized registration and title.
Road Mice retail for US$44.95. Four Door Media plans to add more models to the range on a regular basis.

http://www.gizmag.com/

We Are Sorry and We have a new Competition for you

Now, A new design competition is here:

iF - lebens(t)räume 2009, Product Design


http://www.ifdesign.de/projects_lebenstraeume_index_en

Compressed-Air Cars Planned for Airport Test, US Launch

If Luxembourg's Motor Development International gets its wish, the next wave of alternative-energy vehicles will be a real bunch of windbags

The idea of using compressed air to propel a passenger car has been kicking around tech circles for years. Now, Luxembourg's Motor Development International SA (MDI) may have the first viable angle to launching a first wave of air cars: airport transportation. Behold the AirPod, a four-wheel, multipassenger minicar set to be built in Nice, France. It's one of the brainchildren of Guy Nègre, a former aeronautics and Formula One engineer who's been messing around with compressed-air technology in passenger cars for nearly two decades.
Nègre and company assert the AirPod can hit 43 mph, by way of MDI's 5.45 hp compressed-air motor with traditional pistons like an internal combustion engine. At 15-20 miles per hour, they say, the AirPod has a range of 130+ miles per tankful. Sporting a body of plastic composite, the AirPod is just 82 inches long, 63 inches wide and 79 inches high, and expected to come in passenger and cargo versions, each weighing under 500 pounds.
Not quite built for the interstates, the AirPod will be the focus of of a joint program with AirFrance/KLM airlines starting next Spring, in which a number of the vehicles will haul passengers between arrival and departure gates in Paris and Amsterdam airports.
The AirPod is just one of several compressed-air vehicle (CAV) prototypes MDI has in development. And the firm is serious about making such air cars a viable alternative energy, er, alternative. Reports earlier this year confirmed the company has sold the rights to build the cars to firms including US-based Zero Pollution Motors and India's Tata Motors.
Zero Pollution Motors' ambitious plan calls for production of up to 8,000 compressed-air vehicles a year beginning in 2011, with plants spread out among nearly every US state. That car, larger, more powerful and with a longer range than the AirPod, will cost in range of $20,000. As the largest potential market, California could have as many as 17 air car manufacturing plants, with 12 planned for Florida, eight for New York, four for Georgia, and two for the Connecticut/Rhode Island areas. Indian carmaker Tata has bought the rights to make air cars for the giant Indian market.
One thing air cars' proponents insist the vehicles are not: vaporware.

Design Studios Around the World

Motorcity Europe



Motorcity Europe is a UK Company with experience in Design-Styling, Engineering and Fabrication. It can develop any automotive project from initial sketch concepts to clay modeling to engineered CAD sufarces.




Link: http://www.motorcityeurope.com/

Design Studios Around the World

WITHOUT EXPLANATION JUST SEE

Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studio - Como, Italy

Exclusive: Interior Motives Design Awards 2008

An extensive report on the Interior Motives Design Awards 2008 competition, whose final ceremony was held during the Paris Motor Show. All the details about the winning entries and a selection from the finalist projects.

The 6th edition of the Interior Motives Design Awards ceremony was held at the Club Med World Paris, during the second press day of the Paris Motor Show.

The Jury, which included high-ranking design professionals such as VW's Flavio Manzoni and Faurecia's Andreas Wlasak, selected winners in 11 different categories.
The theme of this year edition of the contest was "Design for Life".
Participant students were asked to explore designs that would improve the travelling experience by making it easier and more sustainable, while encompassing the ever expanding technology used everyday.

The Winners

The Overall Winner of the contest was Pierre Sabas (Royal College of Art - UK) with his Free Form Concept.
The award includes a $5,000 prize and an intership at VW Group and VW's Future Design trendlab in Wolfsuburg.
Sabas was selected for his intelligent approach to design and also received the first place in the Best Safety Interior category.
Euan Sey, chair of the judjing panel and Interior Motives magazine editor, commented: "Pierre is an inspirational designer, whose creation demonstrated innovation by taking credible technologies a step further. [...]
"With its simplistic interior, free from gadgets and clutter, this conception really does push the boundaries of desBelow we report the complete list of the winning entries in the different categories:

Best Conceptual Interior: Opel Siderium Concept by Vinicius Barbosa Crepaldi and Tiago Aiello Tomé De Souza (UNESP - Brazil)
Best Conceptual Exterior: Volkswagen Nepenthes Concept by Joon Hyung Park (Hong-Ik University)
Best Innovation: VW Slimo Concept by Young-Roh Yoon and Sung Uk Kim ( Seoul National University of Technology)
Best Eco Design Concept: Leaf Touch by Xiaosong Qian (Beijing Institute of Technology)
Best Lifestyle Interior: T6 Concept by Alexander Zhukovski (Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts)
Best Production Interior: My Lounge by Ilaria Sacco (Royal College of Art - UK)
Best Personalisation: Wigloo by Ralph Tayler-Webb, Kyu-Han Choi and Carl Saunders (Royal College of Art - UK)
Best Safety Interior: Free Form Concept by Pierre Sabas (Royal College of Art - UK)
Best Use of Ambient Lighting: Soul Concept by Dalim Seo (Pforzheim University - Germany)
Best Use of Technology: Helios Concept by Kim Gu-Han (Universität Duisburg-Essen - Germany)
Best Xperience: i-Shoes Concept by Yang Liu (Northumbria University, UK)

Design Competitions part has UPDATED

Check the Design Competitions part at the end of the page (YELLOW BOX)

Technology Introduction (City Safety by Volvo)

These are a selection of the press release issued by Volvo during 2007. They contain a wealth of information, both of a general and technical nature.
City Safety. Volvo Cars presents a unique system for avoiding collisions at low speeds

Volvo Cars unveils a unique system that can help the car driver avoid the sort of low-speed collisions that are so common in urban traffic and in slow-moving traffic queues. If the driver is about to drive into the vehicle in front and does not react in time, the car brakes itself. The system is called City Safety and Volvo Cars’ aim is to use it to help avoid half of all rear-end collisions.
The new system is part of the XC60 Concept and Volvo Cars plans to introduce City Safety on the market within the coming two years. "The system offers benefits to all involved. For the occupants of the car in front, the risk of whiplash injuries is avoided or reduced. What is more, the system can help reduce or sometimes even eliminate the cost of repairs to both vehicles," says Ingrid Skogsmo, director of the Volvo Cars Safety Centre. If the vehicle in front suddenly brakes and the City Safety senses that a collision is likely to take place it will pre-charge the brakes to help the driver avoid an accident by braking or let the driver steer away from a potential collision. However, when the system senses that a collision is imminent, the car will brake automatically through hydraulic pump activation. Statistics reveal that 75 percent of all reported collisions occur at speeds of up to 30 km/h. In addition, the consequences of small impacts are often so limited that not all are reported to the insurance companies. However, even the smallest collisions cost time and money to repair. City Safety is active at up to 30 km/h. If the relative speed difference between the two vehicles is below 15 km/h, the system can help the driver avoid the collision entirely. Between 15 and 30 km/h, the focus is instead on reducing speed as much as possible before the impact.

Optical radar monitors traffic in front of the car

The system keeps a watchful eye on traffic in front of the car with the help of an optical radar system integrated into the upper part of the windscreen at the height of the interior rear-view mirror. It can monitor vehicles that are up to 6 metres in front of the car. City Safety operates at speeds of up to 30 km/h and the system is programmed to respond if the vehicle in front is either at a standstill or is moving in the same direction as the car itself. Based on the distance to the object in front and the car’s own speed, the system runs a calculation 50 times per second to determine what braking speed is needed to avoid a collision. If the calculated braking force exceeds a given level without the driver responding, the danger of a collision is considered imminent. In such a case, City Safety helps avoid or reduce the consequences of a collision by automatically activating the car’s brakes or by auto-braking and switching off the throttle.

Certain limitations

City Safety has the same limitations as all conventional radar systems, that is to say the sensor’s capability can be limited by fog, mist, snow or heavy rain. It is therefore essential to keep the windscreen free from dirt, ice and snow. If the sensor is blocked, the driver is alerted via the car’s information display to clean the windscreen. The system works equally well by day or night. "It is important to emphasise that the system does not absolve the driver from driving with adequate safety margins in order to avoid collisions. The automatic braking function is only activated when the system assesses that a collision is imminent. The system then steps in to limit the consequences of – or in some cases totally avoid – the imminent collision," explains Ingrid Skogsmo.

Preventive system in focus

Volvo Cars has previously presented active safety systems that help the driver avoid and reduce damage and injuries from collisions. Collision Warning and Brake Support alerts the driver via audible and visual signals if the gap to the car in front is being reduced so quickly that an impact is likely. At the same time, the braking system is pre-charged so that braking is as effective as possible in this emergency situation. The system was introduced in the new Volvo S80 in early 2006.

(From: http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/)

(You can read about High-Tech and I.T based car systems from now on this site)