This is the jargon of car designers: from body section to cab rearward

B

body section:

The body is a surface for the car designer. A surface that gives character to the car design. body sections are actually the cross-sections of the bodywork. You can see it well if you open a door and look at it at right angles. It then becomes clear how the bodywork runs in and out.

Creating new types of surfaces and controlling highlights (where the light hits the car) and shadows is very complex and the main reason why clay models are still widely used in the car design process. The entire clay modeling phase is all about refining the surface, the surfacing. Surfaces are often underestimated and misunderstood. They don’t just happen.

How many lines does a particular panel need? How strong should the shoulder line be applied? What character should the section have? Is undercut, positive or negative shaped surfacing required? How sharp or soft should each radius be? Is a highlight light catcher necessary and where? How should convex and concave surfaces be joined? How much can surfaces be twisted while still controlling the light lines? These are all questions that the designers have to solve. And then the whole must also be innovative on the one hand and match the brand DNA on the other.

Organizing a smooth run of the complex 3D shape that is a car so that it works from all angles is a huge challenge and requires a great sense of sculpture and a lot of experience. This part of the design process is where automotive design differs uniquely from product design or architecture and even from other areas of transportation design, such as motorcycles.

With lines across the sketches, the various body sections described. Like cutting a pie. These lines provide the 3D CAD modellers and the clay modellers with visual information about how shapes accelerate, develop and their character.

bone:

The basis of the car design are the bones. A Dachshund and a Greyhound both have basically the same bones, but with completely different proportions. The design of the two therefore produces a completely different result.

Car designers often describe their ideas with animal terms and associated adjectives. In the masterclass films you will hear terms such as strength, hard and soft. A car can be nimble, muscular, feline, fat or lifeless. In humans or animals, small differences in skeletal proportions quickly lead to very different species and character traits. This shows the importance of the bones.

The very first sketches a car designer makes, the so-called ideation sketches, are aimed at defining the concept of the car, in particular expressing the basic volumes and profile. The side view is extremely important and designers start with this to define the silhouette of the car. The bones of the car are formed at this stage, often based on the technique, if it is known beforehand.

Is the design a one-box, two-box or three-box (more on this later!) shape? How steep are the windshield and rear window drawn? How upright is the nose? The bones determine the proportions of the car.

C

Cab forward:

In automotive design, cab forward is a body style with the cab positioned far forward in the body, towards the front axle. This type of design allows for a more compact configuration within the wheelbase, ideal for creating space between the wheels. This space can be used for the interior of a compact hatchback, for example, or a large V12 in the back of a super sports car! The term was made famous by the Chrysler Group cars of the 1990s. Chrysler often used the phrase cab forward in its marketing materials. Now the principle is widely used on smaller vehicles, where it is critical to achieve a better relationship between exterior dimensions and interior space. But many sports car manufacturers also use the layout for mid-engine cars.

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Cab rearward:

A car whose long nose brings the cab closer to the rear is drawn cab rearward. With such models one sits near or even on the rear axle. The application is mainly used for classic muscle cars and sports cars, but also for very luxurious cars.

Ever since cars have hoods, its length has been associated in our collective memory with a large, powerful engine. Car-loving audiences often love cab rearward ratios.