Audi
has released an official design story of its e-tron Spyder Concept,
presented at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. The material also includes
photos from the design and prototype construction process.
The Audi e-tron Spyder Concept was developed from the fist sketches to the final prototype in just five months.
Below we report the official press release from Audi. Apart the
self-promotional intent, the document is an interesting reading about
the work done by Audi designers, engineers and modelers.
Audi e tron Spyder Concept Clay Model Audi e tron Spyder Concept Clay Model
You can also check the gallery of photos taken during the design process.
From the official Press Release:
The creation of the Audi e-tron Spyder
It
is a functional, rectangular building with a gray facade – a hall like
thousands of others in the industrial parks dotting our cities. The only
sign of any significant activity is a lone Bavarian flag fluttering on a
wooden balcony that seems a bit out of place. This seeming wasteland is
in reality a place where the future of the automobile is quite
literally being made.
Things are much livelier inside the hall.
Two designers and four modelers are working on a large block of brown
industrial plasticine. The result of their handiwork is pioneering for
the design of one of Germany's most successful carmakers. This is where
the Audi e-tron Spyder, the latest show car from AUDI AG, is being
created.
The faces are drawn with tension at this decisive
moment. The modelers and designers are going through the data on screen
together one more time. There is no time for lengthy consideration and
discussions. Then the decisive click on the "Confirm" button.
The
mill mounted on two giant arms goes into motion. Fed with the vehicle
data, the mill begins carving the designers' design out of the clay. For
the next 18 hours, one layer after another is cut away until the first
side of the car stretched over a frame of steel, wood and rigid foam
stands on the floor of the hall in three dimensions and in full size.
The
mill receives a new load of data for the second half of the model. The
designers work on two different vehicle sides in this early form-finding
phase, which allows alternatives to be compared directly and makes
decisions easier.
Frank Lamberty, a designer at Audi, uses dark
adhesive tapes to check the contours of the model carved by the mill. He
carefully works until arriving at the perfect line. Again and again he
steps back to view his work from a distance and compares it with the
cross-section of familiar production models. A show car should also bear
the Audi signature.
When describing the form-finding of the Audi
e-tron Spyder, Lamberty says, "We were constantly bouncing between two
worlds like a ping-pong ball. On the one side was the elegant shape of
speedboats. On the other was the radical world of naked bikes
(motorcycles without full or partial fairings) or roadsters from the
1960s and 1970s. The Audi e-tron Spyder is the result of this inspiring
convergence process and unites these two worlds."
Three months
before the start of the show, Lamberty and his team are working
time-intensively on the clay model in the hall. That they are
concentrating on the design of a show car is already a success in
itself. To design a show car is the dream of many automobile designers
and thus a coveted job.
"The beauty of a show car is that the
initial ideas are often implemented almost unchanged. We are largely
free of technical constraints," says Wolfram Luchner, a designer at Audi
who played a major role in the creation of the exterior of the Audi
e-tron Spyder.
A multi-staged internal competition decided who got to design the car. 17 designers entered the competition.
"The
ideas developed were bold and free of constraints. Some of them were
even radical. The broad scope of the designs shows the great potential
of our designers," says Stefan Sielaff, Head of Audi Design.
He
initially chose four teams, who then had two weeks to flesh out their
"directions," or initial designs. In the next step, two designers built
their designs as 3D data models. For the final choice between the last
two designs, the teams projected their computer data on the big screens
in the design studio. What just a few weeks ago were the initial strokes
on paper was now displayed on the walls as a three-dimensionally
tangible show car.
A lot is at stake with the final decision.
After all, the chosen design will be catching the eye of thousands of
international visitors at the show in Paris.
A second portrayal
method viewed under daylight helps to properly evaluate the colors and
shapes. The designers build full-size silhouettes of their proposals and
position these on a race track. The winning proposal is then chosen in
daylight at a distance of approximately 100 meters – a radical and
simultaneously emotion- packed design. An open sports car with a
distinctive, prominently arched windshield that, like the visor of a
helmet, describes speed in its purest form.
Cut off from the
outside world, designers and technicians are now working together inside
the hall, which is secured by an alarm system.
Technical
Development in Ingolstadt had initially developed the undercarriage of
the Audi e-tron Spyder separately. The two teams are now working
together on site on the clay model.
They measure, discuss and
talk about even slightly misaligned contours. Just a few centimeters can
mean that the required hardware will no longer fit in the show car. The
engineers define the most important structural design data during the
first design phase.
The exterior of the Audi e-tron Spyder has
roughly 10 so-called hard points – specifications that the designer is
not allowed to alter. Everything else is up for negotiation. And because
design does not always follow the rules of technical feasibility, these
negotiations are not always easy.
"The design freedom is what
makes a show car so appealing," says Luchner. "I always have the
original design in my head. My objective is to implement this design
with as few changes as possible."
The technicians, on the other
hand, sometimes have to reign in the creativity of the designers.
Although largely made from parts that only exist for this vehicle, the
show car must still meet all of the technical requirements. It must be
safe and drive in such a way that it can also be used by journalists for
filming and photo shoots.
While four modelers apply the
finishing touches to the door handles with knives, scrapers and planes,
the designers and engineers have turned their attention to a wheel.
Delicate struts of aluminum and carbon are reminiscent of a turbine; the
delicacy of the material more of a fine piece of jewelry.
Designers
and technicians agree that here they together have succeeded in turning
what initially seemed to be an impossible idea into reality. This could
not have been done in a production model. Whereas the wheels of
previous show cars comprised four to five pieces, the wheels of the Audi
e-tron Spyder are made up of 66 individual parts.
"The designers
were the driving force," says Uwe Haller, who is responsible at Audi
for coordinating the construction of concept vehicles. "It became clear
to us pretty quickly that this wheel could not be manufactured out of
one part, as is usually the case.
*"The design for the wheels was
so well received, however, that we did whatever was necessary to turn
the proposal into reality. *
"The result is a perfect fit for the
Audi e-tron Spyder: sharp contours and visually precise lines combining
carbon and aluminum."
Six weeks before the show, the two halves
of the model have been combined to yield a painted whole. The modelers'
work has paid off. At first glance the modeled clay looks no different
than a functional automobile. Even the headlights and door handles have
been carved out down to the last detail.
Everything has to be
just right, because the model serves as the basis for what is known as
the design freeze. This is the first major milestone for the designers, a
sort of advance premiere of the show car, with the excitement to match
at the presentation. The Audi Board of Management makes the final
form-finding decision, and the starting gun finally sounds: Construction
of the final show car can begin.
The outer skin of the show car
is made of carbon fiber. Because the material can still be modified
considerably more easily than steel or aluminum even at a late point in
the process, it is ideal for the Audi e-tron Spyder, which must be
created in a short period of time. The employees first mill the
individual body parts as negative molds from a block of rigid foam. They
then apply the carbon fiber fabric, let it harden, trim it, grind it
and prime it. Everyone working here is aware of the importance of
precision. They are making a one-of-a-kind vehicle.
And not just
the final show car is one-of-a-kind. Because there is only one of every
component of this vehicle, replacing components in Paris is out of the
question. The time pressure is enormous. The date of the show in Paris
is steadily approaching. The show car is still just a collection of
individual parts waiting to be assembled. It is hard to believe that the
Audi e-tron Spyder will soon make its big appearance.
As many as
ten employees at the same time work on the showpiece during the final
weeks and at least as many again are involved in the background work.
They are all experts for their respective components and know precisely
what they have to do. In the end they join the pieces together with a
precision down to the millimeter. The body is then crowned in silver in
the paint shop.
The Audi e-tron Spyder shines at the Paris Motor
Show, as do the employees. They have done it. The idea of a hybrid-
powered roadster has become a reality. It is on display in Paris:
compact, elegant and open to the heavens.
(Source: Audi)
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