When Universities talk about the use of teaching aids to assist with students’ studies, they don’t usually include a new car. What would normally spring to mind is something a little old that’s probably been stripped and rebuilt so many times that actually using it on the road would be an MoT man’s worst nightmare. However, thanks to Vauxhall, students at Coventry University will soon benefit from the donation of a new Insignia to be used as a teaching aid on the university’s Automotive Design course.

David Browne, Course Director of Automotive Design in the School of Art & Design, accepted the keys from GM UK Special Projects Manager Paolo De Luca. The Insignia was donated to Coventry University because of its prominence in automotive design. David Browne said: ‘We are delighted that Vauxhall has chosen to donate this vehicle to the university for our students to work with. It is a uniquely valuable teaching aid and will be used extensively to raise awareness of the many aspects of car design, build and assembly.’



The car will be used in several areas of teaching ranging from ergonomics evaluation to appreciation of assembly methods, and as an aid to discussing form, styling subtleties and brand characteristics. David added that, ‘We will also be able to take off the easily-removable front and rear ends so the students can work on full-size clay model ‘facelift’ designs, mirroring industry practice. The same could be done with interior items such as door trims and the steering wheel. Having a full size car to work on gives us so much scope for realistic design study.’

The car will initially be based in the design studio in the University’s Bugatti Building and will be ready for use at the beginning of the new academic year in September ’09. We hope here at Total Vauxhall that there might be the chance to have a good look at what students create in terms of developing the design of the Insignia and how creative they get with their clay modelling; it should provide some interesting and exciting results.