Hollywood: the wheel thing

The development of a production car can take years. But Audi put together a futuristic working model for the film I, Robot inside 10 weeks.

The car is the RSQ coupe, an example of what we might one day be driving. The film is set in 2035 and based loosely on the stories by Isaac Asimov.

Actor Will Smith plays a detective who believes the everyday robots people depend on are a threat to the human race. He gets around in the Audi RSQ, the first car the German company has designed for a movie.

The film's director Alex Proyas was attracted by the Nuvolari quattro study Audi unveiled at the Detroit motor show last year.

He liked the design language of the concept so much that he decided to contact Audi at its headquarters in Ingolstadt, north-west of Munich.

In April 2003, Tim Miksche, in charge of product placement for Audi, and Martin Ertl, head of Audi design management, flew from Munich to Vancouver, Canada, where preparations for shooting were under way.

"The director, producers, the set designer, the chief camera man and Twentieth Century Fox representatives showed us round to see the entire movie world of I, Robot everything from giant stage settings to a humble wrist watch," said Miksche.

"This was the world that the car had to fit into."

The next day an agreement was reached. Audi had won the contract to build a car for the film despite bids by other camakers.

Audi said its "convincing overall vehicle concept", rather than additional financing, clinched the deal.

"When we took off from Munich airport everything was open," said Miksche.

"But when we landed there again a day later, we had in our briefcases the biggest product placement project in Audi's corporate history and a lot of work on our plates."

Walter deSilva, head of design for the Audi group, told his creative team: "You have the freedom to use the craziest ideas, but don't forget the features that identify the Audi brand."

Audi threw itself into the project. Within two days the first quarter-scale model of the RSQ was completed. Days later one of the movie's set designers arrived in Ingolstadt to carry out fine tuning.

Soon most of the design and vehicle specifications were finalised. Then a second meeting was held to discuss technical details. Audi had 10 weeks left to build the concept car.

Said the RSQ's exterior design chief Julian Honig: "In this project we enjoyed the greatest possible freedom with regard to technical feasibility, ergonomics and customer requirements, factors that otherwise have high priority.

"First of all we had to familiarise ourselves with the special vehicle specifications called for by the story and the movie's environment.

"The main aim was to create a car that both plausibly fitted into the futuristic scenery of the film, but still represented an unmistakable, visionary statement from Audi."

At the beginning of July the Audi RSQ arrived on set in Vancouver, where it stayed for several months of shooting.

Audi also supplied an outer-skin model of the car to be used in a crash scene, as well as a separate interior mock-up to shoot interior scenes.

The project took to its wheels - or spheres - right on time. "Integrating these spheres into the car's design was one of the greatest challenges we had to solve," says Honig.

The result was a two-seat, mid-engined sports car with sphere-shaped wheels running in similarly shaped wheel arches.

Said Honig: "This even enhanced the car's sculptured character. It is a sculpture that appears very flat, broad and bullish on the road.

"The laminate glass fibre body of the RSQ is coated with lunar silver paint, which creates the so-called flop effect.

"That is to say, when exposed to intensive light the bluish sheen of the silver paint takes on a golden tone."

Altogether, 15 Audi designers and model engineers were involved in the project.

Said de Silva: "I believe that the Audi RSQ is a possible vision for the future, embedded in a fictional world.

"It is the consistent further development of brand values such as sportiness, progressiveness and sophisticated design, transferred to the film world. An Audi of the future could therefore look much the same."