Car design facts for kids

Car design is all about creating how cars and other vehicles, like trucks, look and feel. It's a big job, usually done by a team of many people, including artists who focus on looks and engineers who make sure everything works perfectly.

How Cars Are Designed

Designing a car usually starts with lots of sketches and drawings. Designers also use special computer programs to create models. Once the team likes the basic shape, they build a life-sized model out of clay. They add small details to this clay model and can even change its shape a little bit.

Then, another team works on the car's inside, called the interior. They make sure it has everything a driver and passengers need, like comfy seats and entertainment systems. Fancy cars, like luxury cars, have really nice interiors for a fun driving experience. But vehicles like vans have tougher, simpler interiors, designed to handle different kinds of cargo.

Other important parts of the car, like the chassis (the frame) and the engine, are mostly designed by engineers. For these parts, it's more important that they work correctly than how they look.

A Brief History of Car Design

In the early days, cars were built more for getting around than for looking good. But this started to change when an American businessman named Alfred P. Sloan had a new idea. In the 1920s, he decided to change car styles every year. This made older models seem less new, which encouraged people to buy the latest cars. This idea helped car sales grow a lot in the United States.

After World War I, car companies in European countries started focusing on luxury cars. Special companies called "coachbuilders" would create unique bodies for these fancy cars. Sometimes, they even made custom designs for very rich customers.

After World War II, the American economy got much stronger, and most Americans could afford cars. Because cars became so important in the United States, their style became a huge deal. One of the most famous American car designers was Harley Earl. Car design also became very important in Europe, especially in countries like France, Italy, and Germany.

Images for kids

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  The 2003 Bertone Birusa concept car on display at the Geneva Motor Show. You can see some concept sketches in the background.

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  A draft of an OScar car design idea.

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  A futuristic sketch for the Ferrari Modulo 512-S concept car by Paul Martin in 1967. It shows many features of the final car.

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  A 1986 Ford Taurus clay model being worked on at the Ford Detroit Styling Studio.

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  The Opel Monza Concept during its early design stages.

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  An early example of Harley Earl's design work: the 1938 Buick Y-Job.

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  An early example of the Forward Look design, with a tailfin by Virgil Exner on the 1956 Plymouth Fury.

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  The Jeep Cherokee (XJ), a design that many other carmakers later copied.

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  An early and unique French Voisin C26 car.

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  The famous Citroën DS car.

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  The 1981 Ford Sierra with its "jelly-mould" or "aero look" styling, which was very advanced for its time.

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  The 1972 BMW 2002, designed by Giovanni Michelotti.

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  The Lamborghini Miura from Bertone Studios, designed by Marcello Gandini.

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  Ursaab, an early Saab concept car showing a new way to design headlights.

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  The 1934 Czechoslovakian Tatra 77, the first car made in large numbers with an aerodynamic design, created by Hans Ledwinka and Paul Jaray.

See Also

In Spanish: Diseño de automóviles para niños