Intelligent design

Edag Australia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the German parent company Engineering and Design Ag based at Fulda, north of Frankfurt. The Victorian operation employs around 50 CAD operators, together with 70 engineers and designers.

Edag has assisted through the painstaking transition from manufacturers' clay models, drawings and images to gleaming, show-ready fruition.

At its Dingley workshop, Edag has a five-axis computerised milling machine capable of turning a giant lump of composite or plastic into an eye-catching sports car.

"It's all part of our capability," sales and marketing manager, Darren Will said. "We design interior, exterior, small parts can design complete vehicles, from drawings through to the bodyin- white prototype." On display by Edag in Sydney will be two interesting international projects.

One is a stylish little Kermit-green roadster unimaginatively named Show Car #8. Based on the Smart Roadster, this concept as a design study to extend the life of the engineering platform. It's a low-slung and dynamic niche-market concept in which there are echoes of Ferrari and Lotus design cues.

The second of the Edag exhibits is something very different, and shows the breadth of the company's expertise. It's an Audi A6 Quattro with special qualities. The undetectable ballistics protection pack on the Edag Audi will guard the occupants from firearms of up to 9mm, plus several other attributes the manufacturers would prefer not to openly discuss.

"We see ourselves as project partners for the OE industry, with the ability to handle overflow work or take a concept off the page and design it ready for manufacture," Will said.