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BMW/Exa-sponsored project at ACCD

Art Center's BMW/Exa 7th term sponsored project, which we first reported on back in mid-February, recently had its final presentation at the conclusion of the Spring 2008 term. You'll recall the project tasked the students with redesigning a future X5 Sports Activity Vehicle with the express mandate improving its aerodynamic efficiency by at least 30 percent. To achieve this lofty goal, the co-sponsor on the project, Exa Corporation was going to provide both their engineering software PowerFLOW and their technical know-how to virtually test the students' Alias StudioTools design models and provide them with real world aerodynamic feedback.

Turin Dream Exhibition

The 'Dream' exhibition currently taking place at the Giovanni Agnelli Pavilion Esposizioni in Turin is a stroll through almost 60 years of creativity, which convinced the world of carmakers - and consumers - to accept new stylistic features; demand greater performance and safety; and to create new ways to adapt car interiors to the many demands of business and leisure. One of the main events commemorating Torino 2008 World Design Capital, there are 54 one-off examples and three-dimensional objects on view in the 12 galleries, piazza and atrium, including projects from local design schools Instutito Europeo di Design (IED) and the Istituto d'Arte Applicata e Design di Torino (IAAD). IED is showing two projects created by students on its post-graduate course in Transportation Design: the Fiat Panda from 2007 and the 2008 BMW ZX6 - a thesis project created selected as the main photo of the exhibition.

Nissan Celebrates 80 Years

Nissan held a little gathering at its Yokohama headquarters two nights before the Tokyo Motor Show opened to celebrate 80 years of building cars. It has been making them longer than any other Japanese manufacturer. CEO Carlos Ghosn, who can do everything except maybe juggle, addressed a crowd of several hundred executives, suppliers, car club members and even some media, giving his remarks in what sounded like pretty good Japanese.