International Team Creates GM’s Most Global Concept Ever
The way in which the world-touring car took shape is indicative of Chevrolet's international alignment and intentions as a brand.
Australia’s GM Holden Ltd. designers are part of an international team taking center stage at the Paris auto show this week with the world premier of the Chevrolet World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) Ultra Concept Car.
The ready-to-drive car, the highlight of the Chevrolet Europe stand, was developed by an international team, with GM Holden’s Ewan Kingsbury and Breony Crittenden taking the lead for exterior and interior design, respectively.
GM Holden Design Manager Peter Bramberger says the WTCC Ultra is the most global concept vehicle GM has ever created. “The way in which the WTCC Ultra took shape is indicative of Chevrolet's international alignment and intentions as a brand,” he says.
Chevrolet World Touring Car Championship Ultra Concept Car debuting in Paris.
The concept car project was coordinated and approved by Ed Welburn, GM vice president of Global Design, and David Lyon, executive director Design GM Asia Pacific.
GM Vice President-Global Product Bob Lutz was involved in the project from the beginning and enthusiastically supported it from North America.
The initial concept and early design work was done by Max Wolff and Steve Eum at the GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. Advanced Design Studio in South Korea. However, the dynamic look of the car stems from GM Holden’s design center in Melbourne, which came up with the contours and interior.
GM officials say Melbourne is where the scale and fullsize clay models were constructed. A Digital Sculpting team using the latest in CAD software built the interior completely virtually.
The packaging development also was led digitally in Australia, to ensure an optimum result that did not compromise any of the advanced styling elements.
The same software was used by GM India (Ltd.) Digital Sculptors to produce 3D math data for the outer skin of the vehicle. The Swiss company Protoscar produced and rendered the animation to a storyboard provided by GM Holden.
The WTCC Ultra prototype was constructed by the Japanese company, YDS, which also built the Chevrolet concepts, T2X and S3X.
European input was provided by GM Europe Engineering and also by the British motorsport specialists Ray Mallock Ltd., which helped with race components and the chassis.
The compact WTCC Ultra is equipped with a 2.0L turbodiesel mill generating 186 hp at 5,000 rpm.
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