User:Ondreue/sandbox

Shinya Iwakura
Shinya Iwakura (former Senior Managing Director and Head of the Four-Wheel Vehicle Division), who at one time engaged in joint research on design management with the author, joined HONDA in 1964 as an in-house designer, where he learned many lessons from Soichiro Honda. The 1960s in particular were a time when Iwakura was laying his foundation as a designer. He was learning about actual product development and taking this in as his own personal knowledge. In reflecting back over his own experience, Iwakura perceived it as an age when designers would start by just getting their hands dirty, next they would start using their head, and finally their hearts would be moved. For Iwakura the 1960s were an era when he single-mindedly put his hands to work. According to Iwakura, his hands would set to work on whatever Soichiro Honda, who was a master at scolding, ordered him to do, and were none other than the hands that were involved in developing products for HONDA.

Soichiro Honda knew more about the importance of learning by putting one’s hands to work than anyone else. From among the acts of seeing, hearing, and testing which are conducive to remembering things, it was the testing that Soichiro Honda valued, as he was convinced that learning by testing things was an asset that surpassed all others. There is a well known tale about how the actual hands of such “handy people” (people who have a tendency to instantly set to work with their hands once they get an idea in their head to give it shape and prove their idea) like Soichiro Honda differ considerably in terms of their palm size and the shape of the fingers between their right and left hands. Since his right hand was his working hand and his left hand was his support hand he was constantly getting injuries on his left hand, such that it became slightly shorter than the right hand. This was because he would shear off the tips of his fingers and so on countless times while he was working. Since this hand knew everything that he had done, he felt the strength of experience in it.

= Shaping Honda by Design = Once some survey released the results of an analysis that said, “Both lines and cross-sections of HONDA car designs are arrayed in a radial pattern.” Upon encountering this, Iwakura recalled Soichiro Honda once looking at a clay model of the Civic and saying, “You should really go with an onmora (amply rounded) shape. That way people won’t get tired of looking at it.” Iwakura says that he no longer knows the meaning of the word onmora, but his understanding is that it is something like a warmness that makes you feel like it was crafted out of clay that has been sculpted.

For Iwakura the 1980s started with the development of the second generation Prelude in pursuit of this graceful seductiveness. Around this time Iwakura was informed by the director of the research institute that, “I want you to set up a design office that can keep churning out the best designs in the world one after another.”

= Prelude = Therefore, at the beginning of the implementation planning sheet for this he wrote, “Form is all about heart.” This was shot through with his ardent conviction that, “Form is an expression of what is in the creator’s heart, and so it is important that the designer temper their heart.” Furthermore, he expressed his wish that, “More than anything I would like to see designers set designing things wholeheartedly for the world and for people as the cornerstone of their heart” through the phrase “design redemption.” Moreover, he indicated that the requirements for carrying out design are: (1) Universality (it must remain unchanged even after many long months and years of weeding out and culling), (2) Cutting edge-ness (it must be ahead of the curve where people are concerned and not lose its freshness as time passes), and (3) Service orientation (it must align with the trends in human society and of the era). He pointed out that it is important to have a perfect combination of these three elements.

Around the middle of the 1970s, prior to beginning the development of the Accord, Iwakura was pleased with the success of the Civic, and drew a picture of an ostentatious new car. Upon seeing the state of the emotions that had bubbled up in him, Soichiro Honda candidly remonstrated him by saying, “The artist can’t create new forms.” Upon soon realizing that this statement contained the implicit admonition that “You are all industrial designers,” Iwakura interpreted the true meaning of his words in the following way. The first thing is that there is a difference between artists (painters, sculptors, potters, etc.) and designers. Both of them are alike in that they create object’s shapes and colors. But there is a major difference between what artists create (artworks) and what designers create (products) in the sense that only one is made of the former while the latter is mass-produced. In most cases, artists create a single piece of art on their own and which is just for them. As opposed to this, designers go about manufacturing mass-produced goods via joint processes with lots of other people in order to benefit people in their daily lives. He thought that herein lies the true meaning of the term “artist” as cited by Soichiro Honda.

"Our new battle to pave the way to a different life-cycle segment wasn't an easy one," recall Shinya Iwakura, chief designer at the R&D. "We had to research, grope and find the only strategy by which we would be sure of victory, as advocated by the great admiral Yamamoto." Sportscars and sporty cars are now in full bloom all over the world. Honda's designers initially came up with the image proposals of sleek and contemporary sports wares, and they put these images in clay. It was toward the end of the early design development stage when the final shape of a notchback coupe with a strong teutonic influence appeared. During the Prelude development, Honda men visited the grand landscape of America, where they examined cars in motion. Their conclusion was, "However sporting it may be, a car still has to meet the demand of the changed world. It cannot sacrifice comfort and convenience for sheer performance. It cannot be a stark and crude device, or a thinly disguised sedan." A new sporty car could relatively be easily developed using existing components. In fact, such a car was built from the Accord. But Kizawa's team wouldn't have it over their dead bodies.

The new car had to be sexy. But they wouldn't want superficial and flippant sex appeal. it should look good but it should also show it's Honda discipline. 'Le Cap' describes the fact and heart of the Prelude, "Sexy and intellectual. "No one in his group denies a Mercedes 450SLC influence in the Prelude. Iwakura admits, "A Mercedes would is the only one that permissible in the sector we are aiming at."

The well mannered coupe was initially conceived a 2-seater, which explains a rear seat that looks impressive but good only for a couple of pigmies. Honda who has done such outstanding packaging jobs as the Civic and the Accord, must have thrown out it's text book, and concentrated in improving dynamic quality and visual appeal in the Prelude. Iwakura and his designers wanted to keep the overall height under 1300mm. Their irresistible force finally moved the immovable object that was Kizawa. And they managed to put a 50 litre fuel tank under the floor as well.

Halfway through the design development, Iwakura and company were still spending agonizing days and nights, unable to realize the visual quality they had worked so hard to achieve. It was found in the missing link to the old S-Sports car - friendship with wind and air, thus the adoption of the electric sunroof in a wholesale scale across the board. The interior is not exemplary in space utilization, in certain directions it is limited, to the say the least. "Minor trade-off in view of the car's dynamic quality and refreshing appeal. It is an acceptable package even for the most discriminating," asserts Iwakura.

Honda has a very practical approach to the aerodynamics. Kizawa is fully aware of drag improvement with a fastback shape with extending roofline. But coefficients aren't everything. The prelude drag coefficient is CD 0.45 and lift CL 0.32, which are within the norm of the day. The design teams efforts were directed at practical aerodynamics, like reduction of wind noises, addition of the air-flow lip on the trailing edge of the hood to direct onrushing water off the windshield.

One of the most controversial features of the Prelude design is undoubtedly it's "Concentrated target" instrument, a concentric multi-story speedo/rev counter/warning lamp cluster rather like cyclos. The basic concept of this unique instrumentation is to emphasize the speedometer, which is the most used and relied upon information source. It is given the largest space, best location, most prominent color contrast and illumination in the panel. Kizawa contends, apart from what he likes and dislikes, that the multi-story layout is better for quicker recognition and digestion of information than scanning instruments on the same plane. His men have done their preparatory works well, in and out of Honda. A reviewed rating by System Technology Inc., in Hawthorn, California, was extremely good. On the other hand, they did not claim this is the ultimate in the automotive instrumentation, but rather like it interpreted as a significant and ambitious step to that direction. One thing is certain. the prelude as a car is more personal and individualistic than the suave and likable Accord. A touch of love or hate wouldn't hurt it's character.

History is a fascinating repeater. Yesterday's advanced concept is suddenly a stereotype of today. Take the fashionable hatchback/fastback configuration. Suddenly a classical 3-box coupe looks fresh. "It will stay fresh into the 80's, as long as it succeeds to say classical and avoid being antiquated," concludes Iwakura.