VE Commodore (left) vs VF Commodore (right)
Holden VF Commodore Underhood Design
Craftsmanship – Bridging Engineers and Designers
- Hardware styling direction for components which lacked traditional studio support such as advanced powertrains components and ‘b-class’ surfaces.
- Dynamic and static benchmarking of competitive landscape and provided program team with key targets and insights to customer expectations.
- Mediated cross functional teams of designers and engineering to produce quality execution of proposed concepts with achievable production feasibility.
- Developed accurate hard and soft models reflecting production intent for important program decisions.
GM Holden 
Year
Role
Team
2010
Perceptual Quality Analyst
Holden Co-operative Internship
Design Perceptual Quality
Design Studio
Underhood Design
Although VF Commodore is shares architecture with the outgoing VE Commodore it replaces, several new components were required to be designed to enable weight savings and additional content.
The perceptual quality team liaised between engineers and designers to maximise customer appeal by balancing technical engineering and aesthetic design by providing studio support and thorough analysis conventional teams would not be resourced to do.
Development of the underhood compartment
Focused on “no cost” design improvements
Working with engineers while designs were still fluid, increasing perceived quality of the product without any additional cost investment.
Fascia Attachment
Managed and clean appearance while maintaining fastening and clearance issues
Remove clearance channel for hood seal.
A taster into Design for Automotive
Benchmarking
Tuning a front grille is a way for engineers to tune aero performance without affecting styling surfaces. By opening and closing holes in the pattern, it is possible to increase airflow into the radiator or deflect air into other paths of less resistance.
However, aesthetic issues are sometimes unintentionally created and must be balanced between styling and engineering.
Underhood Management
Engineered components require specific materials, geometry, and locations to perform their tasks. The limited packaging space to accommodate component attributes also affects the vehicle’s balance, HVAC, NVH, aerodynamics and other systems.
As the vehicle is designed for dynamic loading, clearance tolerances are enforced to allow the components to move while the chassis bends through tight corners.
