Wolfgang Egger replaces Robinson at Lancia

As anticipated, Mike Robinson has been appointed head of the Fiat Design Centre. The designer expected to replace him at the Lancia Design Centre is Wolfgang Egger.

Egger has previously worked with Walter De’ Silva at Alfa Romeo where he designed the Alfa Romeo 166 and later the Alfa 156. Egger moved to Spain with De’ Silva when the Italian designer took charge of Seat’s Design Centre in Martorell.

With the new appointment the Design Team of the Fiat Auto Group is complete with Andreas Zapatinas in charge of Alfa Romeo and Spanish Humberto Rodriguez serving as director and co-ordinator of the entire group.

Ford's external airbags!

Ford Motor Company has revealed future technology for protecting pedestrians and other vehicles during a collision. An over-the-hood air bag offers protection to pedestrians, and occupants in other vehicles in certain types of impacts such as broadside collisions.

An interesting alternative for any design teams currently trying to design around the daunting requirements imposed by upcoming 'pedestrian protection' regulations...

Hyundai/Kia studio to be established in Germany

A combined design studio for Hyundai and Kia is to be set up in Eschborn, on the outskirts of Frankfurt. Intended as a satellite to their main studio in South Korea, Hyundai targets the new studio to have between 40-50 people and use the very latest technologies to get the most creative and efficient design process. Leading the design team will be Brian Lee as senior design manager, and Cor Steenstra as strategic design manager.

The area around Frankfurt is already home to a number of design studios, including General Motors Technical Development Center Europe (Opel/Vauxhall), and the European studios of Mazda, Honda and Mitsubishi.

Keio Advanced Zero-Emission Electric Vehicle reaches target speed of over 300 km/h

Following its world premiere presentation by the Japan Science and Technology Corporation at the Geneva Motor Show in March, the KAZ running prototype, brainchild of Professor Hiroshi Shimizu of Keio University and which was designed, engineered and built by I.DE.A. Institute, recently reached its target speed of over 300 km/h.

The high speed test drive of this extraordinary 8-wheeled electric MPV was carried out at the Nardò Proving Ground (Lecce) with the collaboration and expert driving skills of the technical team of Prototipo sPa. The top speed of 311 km/h was measured using highly accurate optical sensor instrumentation.

The result attained by the KAZ, measuring 6.70 metres long, is thanks to the eight 55kW motors located in each of the wheels (giving a total power output of 440 kW), as well as the culmination of the challenge accepted by I.DE.A. Institute to apply its engineering, prototype construction and styling capabilities to such an unusual vehicle.

And now for the slalom test...

Motorcycle wins Australian Design Awards

The Australian Design Awards committee has awarded the Hunwick Harrop Phantom 1500 supercruiser motorcycle and its design team.

The awards included the Australian Design Award for Industrial Design, and the Design Institute of Australia Design Selection in recognition of the effort invested by the Hunwick Harrop design team.

David Robertson, FDIA national president, said, "The Phantom 1500 is a marvelous world-class product with a considerable number of innovations. The styling is muscular and voluptuous and reflects its intended culture of use."

Jeff Haggarty, Hunwick Harrop's chief stylist, penned the Phantom's lines in 1999. Working from simple sketches, he then went immediately to clay, forming a full-scale model of the Phantom. "There were two important facets to consider. I wanted the Phantom to look long, sleek and sexy, but I also had to package that big engine and radiator. It was all about packaging without negatively affecting the styling."

Website: www.hunwickharrop.com