Scion in their sights: Coventry design students developing customizable youth car
With Scion as their inspiration, three recent graduates from Coventry University's Automotive-Design program are creating their idea of a youth car. For now, the trio is only releasing this conceptual sketch, but they hope to have a 3-D model in 8 weeks.
Kazanori Inomota, Edward Stubbs, and Mujammil Khan-Muztar began the project to envision what young car buyers would want in 2020. Like Scion, the team sees individuality as a driving force in choosing a car, even that far into the future. But instead of wild graphics or neon shifters, they expect even more radical customization.
"It doesn't have to mean crazy paint-jobs and stick-on flames; more likely people will want a 'music-studio option' or a 'gaming experience option', which represents what's important in their life," Mujammil says in a press release that you can read in its entirety after the jump.
Update: Edward Stubbs sent us a series of sketches (see them after the jump) of their vehicle showing several more views and providing a better idea of the car's dimensions and attributes.
LONDON, UK
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Coventry Automotive-Design graduates develop customisable iconic 'youth' car
A group of three graduates from Coventry University's Automotive-Design MA course has joined forces to design a customisable youth car for the international market. With Scion in their sights, they intend to create a vehicle that can cross international cultural markets, and they will be presenting their design to OEM's worldwide.
Kazanori Inomota, Edward Stubbs, and Mujammil Khan-Muztar, graduated in December 2006 and recently started the project to develop a future iconic vehicle for 2020.
"We were exploring ideas for a future car," says Edward Stubbs, "and the idea of separatism was something we wanted to explore." It comes from the Japanese notion of 'Harajuku' gangs, where trendy teenagers create their own fashion and deliberately try to stand out from their peers. The idea of customising their car appeals to these people and encourages a stronger bond between the owner and their car. It's a common trend with personalised iPods, mobile phones and other gadgets, and is something likely to grow. Mujammil continues, "It doesn't have to mean crazy paint-jobs and stick-on flames; more likely people will want a 'music-studio option' or a 'gaming experience option', which represents what's important in their life."
They looked at Scion, which explored a similar cultural market in North America with great success, and Smart, to explore the long-term lifestyle implications of using our cars. Kazanori: "It's entirely possible that in the future we can be using our cars as surrogate homes and offices, so we intend to explore the 'liveability' of the car."
The group aim to have a finished 3D model for presentation purposes within 8 weeks.
_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg "2011 Audi A8: Live from Miami")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike M. 10:15AM (3/09/2007)
Soooooooo, which is the front??? One could argue that both ends could be the front! Nice school project boys! FYI, this won't cut it in the real world. But don't be discouraged, most of these concepts created by designers are just as dumb!
Reply
bill 11:21AM (3/09/2007)
How come we have all these new computers to design cars on and fancy schools and each year all of our cars get uglier and uglier - Most of the new conceptual designs look like ass, also. Give me the cars of the 30's when they sculpted from clay-
Reply
Rick Lyon 11:56AM (3/09/2007)
After deciding which is the front end, why am I not surprised this 'youth' car has 24" tires? Looks like someone sat on the car during the modeling phase.
Reply
mehugtree 3:19PM (3/09/2007)
man, you guys are a bunch of grumpy old men, ain't ya?
maybe in the future cars aren't supposed to look like cars of the past....we can only look backwards for so long guys.
(keep up the good work, guys, those cars look interesting)
Reply