Future Tire: Car designer to share vision

Crain News Service report

LONDON (Aug. 16, 2014) — The Future Tire Conference, scheduled for Oct. 28-29 in Brussels, will feature a presentation on “The Smart City” by David Hilton of Motorcity Europe, a United Kingdom-based company offering automotive design and styling services.

During the past 20 years, Mr. Hilton has designed a variety of vehicles for several international brands including Ford and Bentley. In 2000 he started Motorcity Europe, which has become one of Europe's leading design consultancies, with clients such as McLaren, Kia, Peugeot-Citroen S.A., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Mazda, Volkswagen A.G. and others.

Mr. Hilton's presentation, “The Smart City: How the city of the future impacts on the car of the future and the future tire,” is on the first day of the conference, according to conference organizer European Rubber Journal (ERJ), a U.K.-based sister publication of Tire Business.

Conference sponsor and Tire Business parent company Crain Communications Inc. rescheduled the two-day event on commercial and technical developments in the global tire industry earlier this year, choosing the Brussels venue after the original conference hotel's leaseholder filed for bankruptcy, forcing the hotel to shut.

In his presentation, Mr. Hilton will share his experiences as an automotive designer and why tires and wheels are critical to the visual appeal of vehicle makers' products. The main focus of his presentation will look at “proportion and style” and his belief that tires are an essential part of what makes a car “stand correctly.”

ERJ said Mr. Hilton “thinks these issues are important to the tire industry because it needs to understand why designers like himself make the choices they do.”

At the conference, Mr. Hilton is expected to address upcoming new tire technologies or concepts that may affect the visual appearances and functional attributes of future vehicles.

A full list of topics and speakers can be found at the Future Tire Conference website.