THE BIRTH OF A CHARMING WORLD CAR : MATIZ

After General motors' exit from the alliance in 1992, Daewoo wanted a world car to become a top world player. For that they conceptualized a 5 door hatch back which have world wide appeal to being cheap to purchase and run. At that time the only small car in the Daewoo motor's stable was the Tico which is based on the Suzuki Alto of 1988 (In India it is Maruti 800).


CONCEPT


The key markets for which the new car was being made were identified as Korea, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, India, Australia and the Middle East. Thus was born the M100 project. The M100 is the smallest of five all new platforms which Daewoo created for its future, in which they spend 10 billion dollars. "The three diverse and important markets of Germany, France and Italy were picked out and we felt that if the car would meet the requirements of these markets, it would well satisfy the demands of any market world wide," said Mr. Robin Thatcher, the M100 project manager at the Daewoo Worthing Technical centre, UK - the facility which formulated the concept behind the car and then gave it a shape before finally making prototypes and putting them under rigorous testing.


Germany led Europe on the safety front right from the independent consumer tests conducted in the early 90s, and there is a strong focus in the country on minimizing fatal and serious occupant injuries during crashes. So safety and quality are main factors in Germany.


In France about 80 percent of the roads were sub A class at that time, and french companies like Citroen historically setting standards in ride and handling, one of the key factors in the success of a product had to be ride and handling. The Renault and Citroen vehicles illustrated the need for refinement and NVH performance.


Design would be one of main things to address in Italy - a country boasting of some of the top automotive designers like Pininfarina, Giugiaro and Bertone and some of the automotive style icons like Ferrari, Lamborghini  and Alfa Romeo.


The other factors to get covered were the corrosive environment of UK, cold climate of Sweden and the use as hire cars in south Europe which demands robust build quality.


Thus the basic features that had to be taken care of by the M100 project were listed out as an excellent package, class leading safety, outstanding performance, high level of refinement, impressive ride and handling, very stylish, thoroughly robust and durable and very cost efficient. The success of the project depended on how well these factors could be managed, as many of them turned out to be conflicting. Better higher levels of styling would lead to the product not being cost efficient. Safety aspects conflicted against the overall package and great deal of simulation was resorted to iron out any mismatches. And the team realized the need for making the best possible effective use of the powertrain technology. The product being robust and durable meant that performance could be compromised and the M100 team made a thorough analysis of more efficient structures and the use of more expensive materials was resorted to.



Once the demands and requirements of the product were worked out the development of the car started in full throttle.


DESIGN


The design for a unique body form was sourced from ItalDesign which met the dimensional requirements, was not too tall for handling stability yet was spacious and had efficient aerodynamics and was eye-catching and distinctive. The design was a 1994 Lucciola concept, designed by Georgetto Giugiaro with his son Fabrizio Giugiaro as a replacement model for the Fiat Cinquecento, but was rejected by Fiat!


1993_italdesign_cinquecento_lucciola_concept



SAFETY


The safety requirements were addressed with the car having to conform to the front impact 1998 Euro legislation of 56 kmph, offset deformable barrier, side impact, 48 kmph deformable moving barrier and rear impact, dynamic barrier, H-point intrusion. The product was designed and built to exceed the above requirements by 20 percent with concept simulation at styling phase and 9 pretest crash vehicles at early prototype phase. Development analysis was made in parallel with engineering design prior to prototype release and only minor tuning was required at prototype stage. The outcome of the above developmental procedures was that  the first prototypes achieved all but one safety target, and the pilot vehicles achieved all the targets and the final product is expected to be class leading in the New Car Assessment Program(NCAP) testing. Unique features resorted to achieve such high levels of safety were the use of 47 percent high strength steel in the body, a longitudinal crumple zone, a wheel to sill load-path in an offset crash, a shock-tower antibuckling member, a collapsible steering column and a two stage bumper.


POWERTRAIN


In this crucial phase of development, the targets set were that of a max power output of 49.3bhp@6000rpm, max torque of 68.7Nm@3500rpm, a low speed torque of 54.9Nm@1500rpm and a fuel consumption of 280g/PSh and mechanical durability of a minimum of 200,000km. The development of the engine was done in close collaboration with Tickford, UK and the resultant was the Matiz  engine having a low torque at 1500rpm of 56.89Nm and fuel consumption of 278.4g/PSh.

The basis for the development of the M100 engine was the Suzuki 800cc engine which was doing duty on the Tico, but the final result of the development has almost nothing common to the original engine except the engine block.


The superb engine has been a result of the development of an optimized plastic air induction manifold, the application of the Siemens Fenix 5M fuel injection system, an all new valvetrain designed for increased valve lift and volumetric flow, a 45 percent increase in valvetrain stiffness for improved control, an Exhaust Gas Recirculation(EGR) system for emissions enhancement and efficient running and enhanced mechanical components which passed full operational validation test(both vehicle and laboratory) without failure. An 8 bit ECU has been used for a100 percent map control of fueling and spark timing for optimum cold start operation, smooth idle and enhanced driveability.


DURABILITY


The durability of the car was tested using Road Load Data collected at the Millbrook Proving Ground(near Worthing), eastern Europe and India. The Fiat Cinquecento was used as the benchmark for durability evaluation and the requirement of dedicated suspension components for special markets was done. The car was exhaustively tested at Daewoo's worthing technical center at UK, on various rigs including the 18 channel rig. The Millbrook Proving Ground was used for full vehicle durability sign-off.


NVH


Great effort also went into the refining of the NVH performance with superior engine mounting systems using better materials developed jointly with Metzeler, fine tuning of the exhaust system for noise levels and quality in conjunction with Sankei with the using of twin braided exhaust bellows. Further refinements were made with the optimization of the plastic inlet manifold, air cleaner and resonator for noise level, the use of the low cost torque roll axis engine mount system, plastic parts and sealing optimized for aerodynamics and wind noise, and class leading body stiffness for noise attenuation.


RIDE & HANDLING


To better ride & handling a low centre of gravity was aimed for and hard points were optimized using a pretest vehicle at styling phase. Formal appraisals were conducted in Europe, Korea and India and Porsche Engineering was brought in to help in fine tuning this area of performance.


ALL in all 1,920,000 test kilometres were covered (and even more simulated), 656,000 km were dedicated to severe powertrain testing, a total of 140 prototypes were built and 89 full vehicle safety tests were carried out. To give an example of the magnitude of work involved, 27,000 man-hours were spent on the design and development of the instrument panel of the Matiz!!.


Specialists were roped in for key areas to speed up the development process and fine tune the product. Thus ItalDesign of Italy did the styling, Tickford, UK was used for engine development, Porsche, Germany were roped in for ride and handling, TRW, Germany for the steering system and the restraints, Siemens, Germany for the harnesses, Sankei of Japan for the exhaust and Delphi, France for the brakes.

All these work that gone in to the M100 project cost the company US $ 100 million, and an another US $ 700 million on tooling!, and the M100 project was signed off for production as the Matiz in the 29th month of development.