After Audi gave us its Techday video on the lightweight materials being used in its car design, BMW is now on the job, too, releasing these pics of its lightweight products. As environmental issues makes themselves felt in the world of car manufacturing, high performance and luxury manufacturers are increasingly turning to lighter materials to keep fuel consumption down, but the revs up.

These images are being released in occasion of the 2011 BMW Group Innovation Day and show the various carbonfibre and aluminium parts that are being used by the company: from seats to bonnets, steering columns, doors, pedals and alloy wheels. We’re not in the market for either an Audi or a BMW at this stage, and remain skeptical at times on the whole reduced emissions and fuel consumption debate (somewhat like John Elkann’s statements from Fiat).

But this is interesting technology and has been the saving grace so far for high performance supercars. They might not be seriously affected in the near future by the green tinge overtaking the car industry, especially given their limited production numbers, but the manufacturers are certainly investing to keep themselves at the cutting edge of technology, expensive though it might be.

BMW lightweight car design: materials

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The legendary Renault 4 is getting a new look via a car design competition to celebrate the 50th birthday of the model. The Renault 4 Ever competition asks entrants to provide a design for a modern R4, while drawing inspiration from the original and keeping in mind the current focus on reduced emissions and fuel consumption.

There’s no indication that the winning design will mark a revival of the Renault 4 or if this is an official Renault competition, but apparently there are some cool prizes on offer, including the first prize of a Renault 4 that was driven by Michel Leclère in the 2011 historic Monte Carlo rally. It is based on a 1965 Renault 4L and is valued at €15,000.

Renault design head Laurens van den Acker will form part of the jury to judge the designs, which need to be presented by June 16. Winners will be announced in July. To register, go to DesignBoom.com.

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This video will go some way to explaining the Audi Quattro Concept’s use of lightweight materials on an eventual production version. As we said earlier today, the concept could get a limited production run as the Audi Quattro coupe, using CFRP and aluminium. For supercar and sports car manufacturers, lightweight design is the new trend in keeping performance up, but fuel consumption and emissions down.

There are some interesting safety aspects to do with using lighter weight materials that you can hear about in the video. It seems that with some materials absorbing energy more efficiently, lightweight structures don’t have to produce safety concerns. After some further talk about Audi’s research into composite materials, we get to see the cars using them.

There is an Audi R8 5.2 quattro prototype model which uses composite materials for the roof and floor. Those materials will go on the production model Audi R8 GT, which is 100 kg lighter thanks to the use of carbonfibre. There is also an Audi TTS coupe, weighing 1,390 kg in total (80 kg less than the current production model), and the Audi A5 we see in the video uses CFRP and aluminium to weigh just 1,400 kg. See them in video.

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Chris Bangle has an insightful and entertaining take on modern supercar design in this video from CarDesignNews. Interviewed at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, Bangle says a lot of things about supercar design that we suspect a few insiders and afficionados have been thinking for a while. But still, if supercar produces are protecting the design status quo there’s probably a reason for that.

Anyway, Bangle says that if supercars really want to push the boundaries they should start injecting some serious design innovation into the models. If a supercar is going to be about fast, hyperbolic performance, then it should have a design to match: something which knocks your balls off, in his words. It’s a great little video and not only is it entertaining, it should give some people in the car industry something to think about.

Source | CarDesignNews via Autoblog.com

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New renderings for the Audi A3 Sportback and Sedan models have been produced by Theophilus Chin, who has done another nice job. He has tried his hand at both models and we like what we see on the Sportback. The Audi A3 Concept revealed at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show should be exactly what we can expect from the new A3 sedan when it gets to production.

While the A3 sedan will position itself below the Audi A4, and is designed to charm the American public, the European market will get another restyling of the A3 Sportback, which could borrow from the new sedan. In these pics it gets a more slanted rear in a coupé style which should give it a more modern design than the traditional boxy hatchback look.

Audi A3 renderings: sportback and sedan

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We’ve all had someone write something in the dust of our car when we’d been a little too long between washes, and in light of this, Mini has produced a “Mini Wash Me” art book featuring artists that have worked with automobiles for the first time.

Ten artists have produced works for the project: Smash137, Fabian Bertschinger, Marisa Pichler and Gigi Burn, Tika, Euro, Aurèle Sack, Stefan Ege and Seak, August, Rémi Jaccard, and Dieter Meier.

The book has been produced in Zurick by designer Alfredo Häberli, author Michèle Roten and Professor Jacqueline Otten from the Design Department at the Zurich University of Arts. 2,000 copies of the book will be available from November, showing Mini’s long term link with the art world and pop culture. For more information, see www.washme.ch and check out the lovely gallery below.

Mini Wash Me artbook

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“Why Ferraris have lost their beauty” could be the topic for an entire thesis on Italian car design and automobile history, but as it happens, Gavin Green writing in Car, has put together a simple but effective piece on the new Ferrari style.

Green seems to be a real fan of Ferrari, and someone who knows them well, so we can assume he hasn’t written the piece to increase readership. Basically he says that while modern Ferrari models have maintained, and even developed if that’s possible, the pure driving style, the beauty has been lost along the way.

But as the capability has blossomed, the beauty has been besmirched. Ferraris aren’t gorgeous any more. The California has a fat arse. The 612 is fussy and ill-proportioned. The Enzo is more bug than bird. Even the F430 lacks the visual grace and profile poetry of the old F355, the last lovely Ferrari.

Continue reading: Ferrari: Italian automobile design goes astray

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The inauguration of Stile Italiano Giovani 2008, or young Italian style, has taken place. The event is an exhibition that presents the best from young car designers and will run until November 23.

The exhibition is part of the Torino World Design Capital 2008 festival, and will take place at Torino Esposizioni, the historic venue for the old motor show. The event shows pieces from car designers around the world, examples of which you can see here.

The first is a Porsche 917 V10 central-rear, created by Adriano Stellino who is 20 years old. It has entered the top of the rankings at the competition. The second is a Lamborghini Lidia from Luis Camino Calleja, 26 years old from Spain, who is in second place thanks to his “accessible supercar” idea.

The third is the lovely and asymmetric Trioba 2+1 from Indian Shashwath Bolar, 26 years old, which has been appreciated for its original and adventurous interior of an electric supercar. You can find all three projects in the following PDF file.

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