College Students to Compete in Automotive Aluminum Design Challenge

Detroit's College for Creative Studies and Pasadena's Art Center College of Design 'Join' Forces in Competition; Top Auto Designers and Reporters to Judge

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif., Aug. 19 -- From the famed 18th green at the 53rd annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, aluminum industry officials announced the "2003 Auto Aluminum Design Challenge" between the country's most prestigious automotive design schools. The competition challenges students from Detroit's College for Creative Studies and Pasadena's Art Center College of Design to create new vehicle concepts taking fullest advantage of the performance advantages of automotive aluminum in all of its product forms. The Challenge is sponsored by The Aluminum Association and will be judged in several categories by a panel of leading automotive designers and reporters.

"This competition allows the next generation of auto designers to leverage aluminum's unmatched versatility to design exciting new concepts that showcase the performance advantages aluminum offers automakers and their customers," said Dr. Richard L. Klimisch, Vice President for The Aluminum Association, Inc. "The Auto Aluminum Design Challenge also will afford students the opportunity to learn from some of the top designers in the business,"

Klimisch noted that a unique feature of the competition is that each of the expected 14 teams competing this fall will consist of one student from Pasadena's Art Center teaming with one student from Detroit's College for Creative Studies.

"Today's automotive designers work with their colleagues in studios around the globe and not necessarily in the same room all the time," said Klimisch. "These students will need to face the challenge of developing a great design while they are a half continent apart."

Judging the Auto Aluminum Design Challenge, and lending some of their expertise in the classroom, will be a virtual "Who's Who" of auto designers and reporters, including:

  -- J Mays, Group Vice President Design, Ford Motor Company
  -- Ed Welburn, Design Director for Body on Frame Architecture, General
     Motors
  -- Tom Semple, President, Nissan Design America, Inc.
  -- Freeman Thomas, Vice President Design, DaimlerChrysler
  -- Csaba Csere, Editor-in-Chief, Car and Driver
  -- Dutch Mandel, Associate Publisher Auto Week
  -- Paul Eisenstein, The Car Connection

The vehicle class for the competition will be a new creation -- the Sport Aluminum Vehicle or SAV. Students will be tasked with maximizing aluminum's ability to further improve the environmental, safety, performance and utility for the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. motor vehicle industry: Sport Utility Vehicles.

  The designs will be judged on the following criteria:

  -- Overall design of the complete vehicle, including the effective use of
     aluminum in both form and function - 25%;
  -- Positive potential impact on safety of occupants, passengers of other
     vehicles (compatibility) and pedestrians - 25%;
  -- Positive potential impact on the environment through lower fuel usage
     and lower emissions - 25% and
  -- Positive potential impact on the utility and attributes of the vehicle
     for customers including people carrying ability, cargo carrying
     ability, towing capability, user ergonomics and unique features that
     would make it a "must have" vehicle - 25%.

Students will work on their designs during the Fall semester of 2003, with the best team entries being selected for the final judging that will take place in January 2004. The winning student teams will receive scholarship money from The Aluminum Association and all the students will benefit from classroom visits and related discussions with the judging panel and aluminum design technical experts.

Ken Okuyama, Chair of the Transportation Department of Art Center College of Design noted, "SUVs remain the fastest growing vehicle class and aluminum remains the fastest-growing automotive material. It's fitting that this design challenge focuses our students on those intersecting market realities with an eye towards designing even better SUVs for the future. We are preparing our students to help meet that challenge."

"The rising generation of auto designers is not constrained by simply designing cars and trucks with the same materials we've used for the past Century," said Bryon Fitzpatrick, Chair of Industrial Design for the College for Creative Studies. "As our students look ahead to the growing and often conflicting environmental and safety pressures facing automakers, aluminum's design flexibility offers nearly unmatched potential."

The announcement of the Auto Aluminum Design Challenge was made at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, a premier industry event that brings together some of the world's most exquisitely designed vehicles, along with top industry executives and leading automotive journalists. Some of the world's most advanced, high performance vehicles that make strategic use of aluminum were displayed at the announcement. They included:

  -- Aston Martin Vanquish
  -- Audi A8 L
  -- Cadillac 16
  -- Ford GT
  -- Harley Davidson V-Rod
  -- Jaguar XJ
  -- Jaguar C-Type
  -- Morgan Aero 8
  -- Rolls Royce Phantom                                      3

"Aluminum is the key ingredient for many of the world's supercars, and it consistently provides added value to countless family cars, as well," said Klimisch. "The 2003 Auto Aluminum Design Challenge will help the next wave of auto designers fully explore aluminum's potential to make the next generation of cars and trucks even safer, greener and more exciting to drive."

The Auto & Light Truck Group of The Aluminum Association is based in Southfield, Michigan, represents primary producers of aluminum, recyclers and producers of semi-fabricated auto aluminum products. To learn more about automotive aluminum applications and attributes, please visit www.autoaluminum.org .