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Front Page
India Fiesta: The Nuts And Bolts of a New Fiesta
Staff, Tuesday December 13, 2005.
Page 1 of 1
"Now that we've been involved in a process lasting more than three years and incorporating numerous trips between the two countries, it's not surprising that a large number of our 150 strong team now think of India as a second home," said Asia Pacific B Car Chief Nameplate Engineer for the India four door Fiesta, Murray Dietsch.
"It was an important early objective to get the engineering team to India, so they had a thorough understanding and appreciation of the conditions Fiesta was expected to perform in."
Extensive market and consumer familiarisation by the Ford Australia team helped establish a defined set of program objectives. Targets included leadership in style, a spacious and classy interior package, spirited performance and leadership in driving dynamics.
One important consideration revealed by the focus groups was a number of specific needs prioritised by Indian motorists, which were very different to those of their Australian or European counterparts.
"Indian roads can be very bumpy, and traffic is on occasion slow moving. It is important to Indian motorists that the suspension of the vehicle is compliant enough to absorb impacts experienced on coarse road surfaces and potholes, without upsetting the balance of the car and all the while maintaining driving dynamics," said Mr Dietsch.
"There are also many roadside hazards, which can result in low speed frontal impacts. Most of these are caused by stray dogs darting into the path of the car, so the Fiesta team devised a robust system design which aimed to prevent fluid loss following such an impact. The 'dog bar' was born, and subsequently incorporated into the front bumper design of the vehicle."
While existing European architecture formed the basis of the India Fiesta, the design team was able to utilise the powerful capabilities of Ford Motor Company computer aided design (CAD) facilities to fine tune the new model. CAD models were used extensively to model a wide variety of operating conditions and parameters.
For the Fiesta program, approximately 214,000,000 central processing unit (CPU) seconds, equivalent to 2477 days or 4.3 years continuously running on a single CPU, were utilised to analyse and verify crash performance. Over 400 virtual crash simulations were run during the development of the program.
Real world testing was carried out around the globe. Extensive testing in nine different countries and 25 locations was undertaken, including Ford Australia's You Yangs Proving Ground, hot weather testing in the Australian outback through to crash tests in Sweden.
In total, some 700,000 test kilometres were completed, with nine Fiesta durability vehicles covering 240,000km in Australia alone.
"To ensure integrity of our tests, we actually imported 42,000 litres of Indian fuel for use in engine and durability testing," said Mr Dietsch.
The end result is a vehicle based on global technologies, fine tuned for a specific market and which delivers on the key targets identified at the start of the program.
"It proves that a popular and successful model can be modified and enhanced for local conditions, whilst maintaining the features and attributes of an internationally critically acclaimed motor vehicle," said Mr Dietsch.
"The India Fiesta was specially designed and engineered to create a world class four door sedan, with a distinctive Indian influence."
For further information, please contact:
Ford Australia Public Affairs
Phone: 03-9359 8491
Fax: 03-9359 8900
