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Innocent Kid

Innocent Kid
Tolong selamatkan kanak-kanak ini..Dia tak bersalah..

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Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Car Designing

There are two aspects to designing a vehicle.The appearance of a vehicle, both exterior and interior and the engineering aspect.

The two can probably never be found in the same individual. As has been pointed out, 'There are two kinds of designers, one from NID with great conceptualising powers but limited technological knowhow, the other from IDC who is technically superior but creatively inept.'

According to NM Rupani, designer and owner of Land Escapes, "No car in India has been designed indigenously." For the most part, companies have in-house studios which employ teams that specialise and work in particular areas like only drawings, models and engineering. In contrast, Italian houses like BMW, Fiat and Ferrari work from the ground up -from conceptualising the design to arriving at the finished product.

When it comes to the Indian market, Dilip Chhabria, a redesigner of some repute, is of the opinion that "Telco is the only company that has a capacity to design a car in-house, though companies like Mahindra are also entering the scene." Mostly, though, the capacity is unutilised. With all the foreign collaborations and introductions of tried and tested models, most companies prefer to go in for a short cut to profits and not work on original ideas. Dilip Chhabria is known in Mumbai circles for his great designer cars. 50 cars to be precise, inclusive of the red sports car in Yash Chopra's 'Dil to pagal hai' and a Mahindra's car. Many of the celebrities get their cars done from him. With a degree from Art Centre, Pasadena, California, he is in this field due to his expertise in handcrafting.

The Indian automobile scene can be explained best by Rupani: "You can't reinvent the wheel, but most Indian designers actually start by reinventing it." Every Indian car manufacturer has in-house designers on payroll who, in reality, may not have the talent or even the basic knowledge of the car. There is a vast contrast between them and their foreign counterparts, for international designers enter the field because of their fierce love of cars and driving.

Rupani gives a classic example: "Ferrari was a racer who participated in races, using and breaking cars of other makes. Later he started making cars correcting faults he found in others."

According to him, in India it would seem that Telco is the only company with international vision. Tata is the only Indian company to have its two latest models 'Mint' and 'Safari' on display at the Geneva car show and to have met with success despite companies like Ferrari, BMW and Suzuki competing for the European segment.

While it would seem apparent that originality in the Indian market for automobile design is not at present as it should be, an emerging trend is redesigning. Redesigning vehicles is a whole new concept leaning towards what is called 'customising' or 'add-on'. "This is a whole new industry and is catching on."

Automobile designing, it could safely be said, is not for the faint-hearted. It's a delicate amalgamation of, as Rupani puts it, form and function. So if you feel racy, this is what you should be doing.

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