Camaro Designer Leaving for Volkswagen

[TSTONE]

Camaro Designer Leaving for Volkswagen

Published Dec 28, 2009


SANTA MONICA, California — Sangyup Lee, the exterior design manager of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, is reportedly leaving General Motors for Volkswagen's California design studio. Lee is joining the Audi-Volkswagen advanced design studio in Santa Monica. He will be chief exterior designer there and starts in mid-January.
Lee had previously worked for Porsche but had been with General Motors for about a decade, responsible for such projects as the 50th-anniversary Corvette Stingray Concept and the 2004 Buick Velite concept. He is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design. His Camaro design won an internal competition and he worked with GM's Australian unit, Holden, to put it into final form.
Inside Line says: A source of fresh ideas leaves a GM that badly needs them. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent

[81DaytonaPaceCar]

Not good...

[bigjon88]

o boy...

[Derek]

oh no, how will GM be able to proceed?!?!

[ezcruisn71]

Maybe GM should bring back John DeLorean.

[meissen]

That kinda sucks - I have to say I like all of the cars that they listed.

We all know the Corvette Stingray concept and the Camaro obviously, but here's the Buick Velite. It's interesting - touch of Cadillac with the front lower bumper and the headlights, Buick with the grill and louvers in the fender, and then Pontiac G6 with the rear half.

[ktl711]

I don't think it's going to be that much of a loss. He was a design manager, meaning that he spent more time coordinating and blending the efforts of a bunch of designers beneath him than he did in sketching and sculpting his own ideas. The design concepts for the 5th Gen were pretty much already packaged and handed to him on a platter, and his job was to make sure that Holden didn't design the mechanicals in such a way as to threaten those lines and the vehicle packaging in a substantive way.

I'm not trying to knock the guy, I'm just trying to say that the managers like him aren't necessariy the fountainhead of all the great ideas, so this is not going to be a crippling blow to the design staff at GM. There's a great depth of talent over there, as you can see from all the new vehicles that have come out since the Lutz and Wellburn revolution.

[81DaytonaPaceCar]

I don't think it's going to be that much of a loss. He was a design manager, meaning that he spent more time coordinating and blending the efforts of a bunch of designers beneath him than he did in sketching and sculpting his own ideas. The design concepts for the 5th Gen were pretty much already packaged and handed to him on a platter, and his job was to make sure that Holden didn't design the mechanicals in such a way as to threaten those lines and the vehicle packaging in a substantive way.

I'm not trying to knock the guy, I'm just trying to say that the managers like him aren't necessariy the fountainhead of all the great ideas, so this is not going to be a crippling blow to the design staff at GM. There's a great depth of talent over there, as you can see from all the new vehicles that have come out since the Lutz and Wellburn revolution.

Not true...as a design manager, he APPROVED all of the design concepts his team put forward. And if he didn't "sculpt" and "form" the surface himself, he sat in design reviews and approved any released surface to management for review.

If they got approved by upper management, he got a (major) portion of the credit.

"Design Managers" like J Mays and Chris Bangle have taken their careers a long ways based on a single vehicle they've successfully released...

I really do see this as a significant loss to GM...

[nascarnate326]

The 5th gen was designed in the 60's. It was modernized in 2006+.

[TSTONE]

"His Camaro design won an internal competition"

What was his level of involvement here?

My understanding is that he is one of the leading pulse designers working hands on with up coming lines. The rumor is that 3 of the next 5 new bodies in the 11/12/13 pipeline have his finger prints on them.

This is a significant loss.

[98blackbeauty]

let us all hope and pray he takes the people that designed the Aztex with him. God forbid if that is what GM will have left.

[SSTODD]

Let's hope someone else gets to work on the interior and possibly a new butt for the Camaro mild updates. All the stories of them having to spend the money for the new V6 at the expense of the interior need to be addressed now that they are selling well.

[WMCCjames]

Maybe GM should bring back John DeLorean.

GM is powerful, but I don't think they are THAT powerful.

[ktl711]

Losing Sangyup is a loss, for sure, but I think it's being blown out of proportion. After 10 years with GM he has two concept cars, one of which (Velite) was a complete non-starter, and one production vehicle that was practically dictated to him by his director and the Vice President of Design. He was not responsible for the Malibu, the Traverse, the CTS, the LaCrosse, the Corvette, etc. Yes, VW saw talent in him that they wanted for their US advanced studios, but this is not the end of GM's design Renaissance by any means. The talent pool at GM is deep, and losing one guy is not going to cripple them. Sangyup is just doing what J Mays did when the VW Concept One was a big hit -- he wisely used it to advance his career. But even Mays would not have had the success he did with The Concept One (the show car that became the New Beetle) without an extremely talented team working with him.

Sangyup is gone, but the sky is far from falling.

[WMCC Doug]

OK, I'm a little confused here.

I have had a keen interest in the "new" Camaro since it was first brought to our attention back in late 2005 that the possibility of a new Camaro was first leaked. I was fortunate enough to be among the few lucky Camaro enthusiasts present at Cobo Hall on January 9, 2006 when the Camaro Concept was unveiled to the public. That was a day I will never forget.

We had the red fiberglass Camaro Concept on display at Camaro Superfest in July of 2006, along with two members of the Camaro Design team. One was Bob Boniface (now lead designer on the Volt) and the other was Tom Peters (Design Director, GM rear drive platforms). My memory is that Sangyup Lee was barely mentioned. If I recall, he penned a rendering that set the basic look of the new Camaro, so was an imprtant part of the team, but not the only important member.

Anyway, They both told the story of working many long hours, tucked away in a couple of basement studios at the GM Design building at the Tech Center. I think they called it Studio X, or something like that. They were working "under the radar" as the project didn't really have the full approval of the upper management. Bob had one team of designers and Tom had another. Each was workiing on their own design, trying to make a real car out of Lee's rendering. Ultimately, there was a head to head showdown between the two designs. Bob's was more retro, and Tom's was pretty much exactly what was to become the Camaro Concept that we all know and was picked as the "winner" by Ed Welburn (GM Vice President of Global Design).

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is that Sangyup Lee basically had a rough idea for the basic look of the 5th Gen Camaro, but, as it turned out, Tom Peters team (which included Lee) actually took that idea and designed the car we know now as the 2010 Camaro. I have always thought of Tom Peters as the designer of the new Camaro, not Lee. But, maybe that's just because of my exposure to both Boniface and Peters (I hve not met Lee). (I have met Peters on several occations)

In the end, GM's designs are a team effort. Even with Lee leaving, there are still a pool of talented designers still with GM. I think GM will be OK.

Here is something I found on-line about the Camaro design process:

Friday, May 05, 2006

Camaro concept chief designer, Sangyup Lee

Rex Roy of Edmunds.com interviews Sangyup Lee in February 2006

As an automotive stylist, designing a Chevrolet Camaro, even a concept Camaro, defines your career. You will either be hailed as the genius who advanced the legend, or blamed as the idiot who screwed up an icon. There's no middle ground.

"I was kind of glad I didn't know how strong of an icon the Camaro was when I was first working on the project," admits Camaro concept chief designer Sangyup Lee. He then scowls at the thought of choking under the pressure of Camaro crazies criticizing his work.

Korean-born Lee needn't worry. The Camaro concept was easily one of the most popular sights at January's Detroit auto show. Overwhelmingly positive reactions have come from all quarters, surprising some inside GM. Lee admits that he now understands the Camaro's importance to America, and is even more proud to be a part of the project.

Positioning the concept
Born in 1967 as a competitor to the 1964.5 Ford Mustang, the original Chevy Camaro proved to be a superstar, with sales approaching 700,000 from 1967-'69. The 2006 Camaro concept is arguably in the same position as its forefather — in hot pursuit of the latest-generation Mustang, introduced in 2005. Good thing Lee's design has the chops to do battle.

Concept development
According to Bob Boniface, director of GM's Warren (Michigan) Advanced Design Studio, "There were those of us inside GM who never forgot about the Camaro, even though it's been out of production since 2002. Every now and then, we would surface the idea for a Camaro concept. In early 2005, we got the go-ahead, but Ed Welburn told us not to let anybody else know what we were working on." Ed Welburn is GM's vice president of global design.

Boniface continues, "There was early consensus that the first-generation Camaro was to be our inspiration. Some campaigned for a design based on the gen-two cars (1970-'81), but those ideas didn't last long…the first Camaros define the brand better than any other." As Boniface's early sketches show, the team's first direction was quite literal, and their initial work established a modern proportion for the car.
As winter turned to spring, Welburn and company let GM brass in on their secret project and received the corporation's blessing to create the concept. In April, the proportions of the Camaro were fixed and a friendly design competition ensued.

Concept competition
Boniface's competition was none other than his personal design hero, Tom Peters, the man responsible for such notables as the Corvette Indy. Peters is director of GM's rear-wheel-drive production studio in Warren. He quickly assembled a team of designers — led by Lee — capable of creating a viable concept within a highly compressed schedule.

Certain decisions were made prior to the teams racing back to their lumps of clay with sculpting tools in hand. Welburn, Boniface and Peters all felt the 1969 Camaro had to be their focused source of inspiration. Enthusiasts consider that year to be the strongest design of first-generation Camaros. The designers agreed, liking the 1969's more aggressive edge.

Additionally, the design was to have appeal that reached beyond hard-core Camaro enthusiasts to the general market. This thrust recognized that the Camaro's original success came from the car's broad appeal and affordability. Understanding this truth affected many future design choices, such as not using a specific model designation such as Z28 or SS, and steering clear of obvious Camaro styling cues. These included using Z28 stripes or a color like Hugger Orange. Lee further weighs in on the color issue by stating, "Designers always like neutral metallics because they show the surfacing of the design better." In other words, when you look at a silver car, you truly see what the car looks like, not just its color.

Judging of the concepts took place in July. The team from Advanced Design presented their more literal design, while the Peters production studio team took the wraps off their more futuristic interpretation. The result was — drum roll, please — a tie. Mostly. The Peters design got the nod, but all agreed that the strongest elements from the literal team's work should be somehow unified into the final product. Following GM protocol, Peters' production studio ran the project toward the end zone.

It came from Studio X
Wanting to keep the concept a secret, the production studio team worked in the subterranean Studio X. "Not a lot of people know of Studio X, and even fewer know where it is. What a wild ride we had," Peters remembers with a smile. According to Peters, the stereo was always cranked up and the atmosphere was creatively intense. "To get this thing done, there were times when we'd have two or three milling machines working on major surfaces [of the full-size clay model] while modelers and sculptors were caressing details."

Peters and Lee were quick to point out that the new Camaro's strongest features link it to the first-generation car, especially the 1969 model. Both designers point to the sail panel (where the roof meets the rear-quarter panel) and grille as areas where Camaro lineage is most clearly visible. Other details include the ribs forward of the rear wheels, the taillights and the cowl-induction-style hood. Lee proudly points out his favorite design feature: "I just love the Coke bottle shape from the plan view, the way the rear fenders swell out. It's so aggressive, what a muscle car should be."

Peters says, "The Camaro needed to go forward. We needed to take the most salient features and bring them into the future."

The final stage
The exterior and interior design teams toiled through the summer so their project could be handed off to those who would actually build the showcar. These teams worked feverishly from August until January. Thousands of hours went into transforming clay models into a running, rolling work of art in steel, aluminum and fiberglass.

Will they build it?
As we inquire about production plans, each GM designer responds optimistically, and with slightly different information. Tom Peters' answer is, "It's producible just the way you see it, even with 21- and 22-inch wheels." Peters noted that they could have gone even larger, but the bigger wheels made the concept look cartoonish.

Lee echoes Peters' optimism for the concept's future. "When we designed it, we wanted it to be producible, so if it went into production, it wouldn't need many changes."

It's no secret that the 2006 Camaro concept struck a chord — loudly. The corporation is investigating the car's business case, but GM is offering no more details. As it stands, the Camaro could be built on GM's new rear-drive platform (called Zeta in an earlier iteration). This new platform uses a fully independent suspension with struts in front. Introduction as soon as 2008 as a 2009 model is said to be the target.

Bob Boniface sums up the Camaro's development process by concluding that, "The passion won out. The car people won. The car guys in design and engineering demanded that this car happen, and that it be a truly modern interpretation of a Camaro. Some marketing people asked for more rear legroom and a larger trunk, and we said 'No.' We couldn't allow the idea to die on the vine or become something other than a true Camaro."

Fine words. Excellent sentiments. Now comes the hard part.
Posted by Joe at 7:33 PM