To make the full-size model, modelers start with a framework of the vehicle, typically made of foam. Over that, they smooth thousands of pounds of clay over one half of the car.

For almost 100 years, car companies have been using clay models in the design process of automobile development, but with all the technology available to them now, why do they still employ the ...

To make the full-size model, modelers start with a framework of the vehicle, typically made of foam. Over that, they smooth thousands of pounds of clay over one half of the car.

For 80 years, clay modelers have used their hands and tools to make real the two-dimensional car designs sketched on paper. Clay is extremely malleable. It allows modelers to fair a line here, to ...

Students from the Humber College industrial design program — the only one in Canada to offer a vehicle design component — are getting down and dirty at the show, live-sculpting clay car ...

Despite advances in industrial-design software, executives at companies such as Ford, Chrysler and Toyota still want to see full-size physical models before committing to production.