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At its launch earlier this year, it was described as “the
most innovative and technologically advanced car ever
produced in Australia . . .”
Without any doubt, the pundits were right.
Equally without any doubt, the aXcessaustralia Concept
Car will never roll off the production line.
By ROSS TESTER
Love it or hate it, you cannot ignore the
aXcessaustralia concept car. Nor can
you ignore the amazing range of
Aussie ingenuity and expertise
which has gone into making
this dream a reality!
4 Silicon Chip
Australia’s Concept Car
That’s because the aXcessaustralia
Concept Car is just that, a concept. It
demonstrates what could be the future
of motor vehicles given the
right economic, political and
industrial conditions – and
showcases more than 140
Australian component companies and service suppliers.
In other words, the
aXcessa ustralia Concept
Car is more a component
showroom on wheels than the family
car of the future; a showroom for the
ideas and innovations which Australian components companies can
produce right now.
They’re hoping that
the big car makers
will be impressed
and will sign some
lucrative contracts.
That’s one of the
things that makes
this concept unique
– it didn’t come from the drawing
boards of General Motors or Ford (or
any of their global affiliates or com-
Great car –ll
but you wiit
never buy
petitors), as virtually all new vehicles
currently do. The aXcessaustralia
Concept Car was designed and built
by the component companies themselves as a means of showcasing the
industry’s capabilities to the world.
And it has been done at a cost the
major manufacturers simply wouldn’t
believe: around $13 million worth of
goods, services and expertise supplied
by those 140+ companies. By contrast,
a major car manufacturer would have
a budget ten times that amount to get
to concept car stage!
Designed and co-ordinated by specialists Millard Design Australia, from
original concept to finished concept
car (if you’ll pardon the pun) took
just twelve months. That is some
achievement!
We will have a look at just some
of the features of the aXcessaustralia
Concept Car which make it so unusual; not just the electronics, though
there is a huge variety included, but
also the car body, chassis and power
plant, all of which are purpose designed and built.
Body construction
The most striking feature of the car –
love it or hate it – is the body. It’s quite
unlike anything you’ve seen before.
The X-shaped frame is actually on the
outside of the car and is a single piece
carbon fibre construction. Weighing
a tiny 69kg but incredibly strong,
the frame is attached to a precision
metal chassis by a series of bolts and
adhesive at key points.
A revolutionary riveting system
was used in the chassis, eliminating
the need for spot-welding. The rivet
makes its own hole and fastens in one
neat operation.
The 2mm thick carbon-fibre body
panels and doors are also mounted on
the X-frame. Each of the panels is one
piece, making removal and replacement easy if required. There are no
bumper bars as such but bonded twopiece moulded front and rear bumper
reinforcement beams are included.
One noticeable feature is the lack
of a “B-Pillar” – the vertical pillar
between the front and rear doors. Instead, the “clamshell” power doors are
mounted on the front and rear of the
May 1998 5
frame and close on themselves, interlocking as they do. The single-hinged
doors are all operated by electric linear
motors which also engage the locking
mechanisms. As a safety measure, the
rear doors cannot be opened until the
front doors are slightly ajar.
Keys are not required to open or lock
the doors: they are activated from the
outside by touch pads and by voice
commands or fingertip controls on the
inside. In fact, keys are not required
at all – but more of that anon.
While the door windows are made
from conventional toughened safety
glass, the front and rear windscreens
and roof panels are made from Lexan
Polycarbonate, protected from UV
light, abrasion and chemicals by a
flow-coated layer of silicone hardcoat.
Not only do these reduce weight by
40%, they give a high resistance to
forced entry or impact.
Still outside the car, solar panels in
the roof generate enough electricity to
power an air extractor fan, keeping
the car cool while parked in the sun.
The mirrors also bear special mention
because they are much more than mirrors! They incorporate a signal lamp,
temperature sensor and the antenna
for the passive entry system.
The drive-train
The engine chosen for the concept
car is a supercharged, 2.3-litre twostroke inline six, made by the Orbital
Engine Corporation. It’s only about
three quarters the weight of a conven-
No less than five prototype mock-ups were made during the design stage but
despite this, the whole project took less than a year to complete. While this
photo shows the traditional method of clay modelling for aXcessaustralia,
extensive use was also made of computer modelling and design.
tional (four-stroke) 6-cylinder engine.
The block is aluminium while the
bore is nickel-silicon carbide to give
high wear resistance. It’s a small
engine but delivers peak power of
160kW and 250Nm of torque. Unlike
conventional two-stroke engines, it
uses a wet sump lubrication system
(similar to four-strokes).
With a view to export, it meets the
strict 1998 California ULEV emission
requirements.
The engine mates with a fully computer-controlled and programmable
“intelligent” four-speed automatic
transmission. Gear selection can
be made by voice control or by the
“Touchtronic” control system, allowing manual operation. In normal
operation, a computer selects the
appropriate gear depending on the
driving style. And in case you forget,
the handbrake is automatically applied when you place the transmission
in “park”.
A specially designed lightweight
aluminium propellor shaft and fluid-coupled limited slip differential
complete the power train.
Suspension, brakes, wheels and
tyres have all been specially selected
or designed for the concept car using
advanced components. The large 18x8
magnesium alloy wheels, for example,
were directly cast from the original
computer design.
Incidentally, the anti-lock brakes
feature their own microprocessor
ECU module with self-diagnosis
and a “limp home” mode – a feature
previously found in EFI systems but
certainly not in braking systems!
Estimated top speed of the concept
car is close to 240km/h.
Interior features
This impression of the interior of the car (with the frame and roof panels
removed for clarity) was drawn by the car's interior designer, Yan Hong Huang.
Everywhere you look, aXcessaustralia represents the very latest in design and
technology.
6 Silicon Chip
Even if the outside appearance
hadn’t fazed you, your first glance
inside would convince you this is no
ordinary car! From the revolutionary
instrument pod to the entertainment
modules in the rear, the concept car
has everything in electronics that one
could wish for with an open order
The highly innovative instrument pod is designed to mount on the steering
column rather than a “dashboard”. This makes it an easy switch to left-handdrive – again, keeping the concept car’s main purpose of a showcase for the
world market. All switches are finger-tip operated membrane types.
book and Australia’s best suppliers.
Let’s look at that instrument pod
first. Mounted on the steering column
(making it suitable for left or right
hand drive), it is less than 60mm thick
and weighs less than 1kg, yet incorporates all the controls and instruments
usually found on the dash and steering
column combined.
The gauges and speedo use ultra
thin stepper motors while a liquid
crystal display shows distance travelled (odometer) and current gear
engaged. A single LED and light
ducting provides illumination to all
pointers. You can even have your
choice of illumination colour, thanks
to bi-colour LEDs.
All conventional switches have
been replaced by membrane (touch
pad) controls within easy fingertip
reach of the driver, hands never having
to leave the wheel. Turn indicators,
light switches, windscreen wipers
(though both headlamp and wipers
can be set to automatic operation) and
even the dimming for the display are
immediately accessible. Many of the
controls can also be voice-activated.
Also integrated into the instrument
cluster is another innovation, the
hazard warning system. A pulsing
LED and audible warning is activated
when the vehicle approaches a range
of hazards – emergency vehicles, rail
crossings, even accident black spots
where safety transmitters have been
installed.
To keep back-seat passengers
amused, there’s an entertainment
centre housed in an automatic-opening rear seat centre console with
such goodies as a Sony Playstation
and video payer, connected to colour
monitors set into the rear of each front
seat. Naturally, there’s also a complete
audio system for the driver/front
passenger too, much of it operated by
voice control.
Voice activation
We’ve mentioned that voice control
a few times. Developed by Robert
Bosch Australia, the system recog-
nises up to 40 commands which not
only activate those items already
mentioned but will also set individual driver and passenger temperature
controls, open and close the doors,
dial the telephone, and even start and
stop the engine!
The system also has the capability of
giving speech warnings and information such as open doors or headlights
left on, vehicle diagnostics, road
alerts and navigation information.
Navigation information? Of course, the
vehicle is fitted with GPS navigation.
Another nice feature (albeit also
already found on some high price
cars) is the memory keycard system
where the car “remembers” a driver’s
personal information – seat and mirror positions, entertainment centre
settings and so on.
There is a lot more to the aXcess
australia car than we can cover here.
However, it does have its own web site
(www.axcessaustralia.accp.net.au) for
more information.
If you want to see the vehicle “in
the flesh”, unfortunately you’re too
late, at least for the present. Since its
release in February it has travelled to
the US, appeared at the Melbourne
Motor Show and the Australian Grand
Prix and most recently left for a tour
through south-east Asia, commencing
with the Automechanika Asia show in
Singapore in late April.
The web site will probably give you
the best idea of when aXcessaustralia
is coming “home”.
SC
Never again would Dad get “Are we there yet?” from the back seat! Not with
individual Sony Playstations, video player and full entertainment system to
choose from. Individual colour monitors are fitted to the rear of the front seats
with the entertainment system mounted between the rear seats.
May 1998 7
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