Pre-production Car
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Pre-production cars are
vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wa ...
s that allow the
automaker The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % such a ...
to find problems before a new model goes on sale to the public. Pre-production cars come after
prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
s, or
development mule A development mule (test mule, or simply mule) in the automotive industry is a testbed vehicle equipped with prototype components requiring evaluation. They are often camouflaged to cover their designs. Application Mules are necessary because a ...
s which themselves are preceded by
concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...
s. Pre-production vehicles are followed by
production vehicle Production vehicles or production cars are mass-produced identical models, offered for sale to the public, and able to be legally driven on public roads ( street legal). Legislation and other rules further define the production vehicle within part ...
s in the
mass production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...
of them for distribution through
car dealership A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and automotive maintena ...
s.


Application

Pre-production cars are typically built in small quantities on a pilot
production line A production line is a set of sequential operations established in a factory where components are assembled to make a finished article or where materials are put through a refining process to produce an end-product that is suitable for onward c ...
, or in some cases on the real production line alongside the current model. Typically the parts used will be off the production tooling, or at least are intended to represent the final part very closely. Sometimes the components used to make a pre-production car are a mix between the prototype models and the mass production versions to come later. An example was
Preston Tucker Preston Thomas Tucker (21 September 1903 – 26 December 1956) was an American automobile entrepreneur. He is most remembered for his Tucker 48 sedan, initially nicknamed the "Tucker Torpedo", an automobile which introduced many features ...
in the development the radically designed 1948 Tucker Sedan for the postwar car market and purchased a factory in Chicago for building the pre-production cars. Automakers may assemble pre-production cars in a specialized small facility, often by hand, to try out the new tooling, as well as test vehicle assembly fits and techniques. This is also an opportunity to train foremen and supervisors for volume production, sometimes ten months before pilot assembly of the new cars. In some cases, pre-production cars may be built before management has made final marketing decisions. Although the Nash and
Hudson Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Henry Hudson, English explorer * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudso ...
brands disappeared for 1958 in favor of a unified
Rambler Rambler or Ramble may refer to: Places * Rambler, Wyoming * Rambler Channel (藍巴勒海峽), separates Tsing Yi Island and the mainland New Territories in Hong Kong * The Ramble and Lake, Central Park, an area within New York City's Centr ...
line under AMC, pre-production cars included the Nash or Hudson emblems ahead of the
Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...
nameplates on the sides of the front fenders, and early factory literature has visible airbrushing to eliminate the emblems. Chevrolet built 43 pre-production, third-generation Corvettes, but none were released to the public as the automaker skipped over the 1983 model year and decided to introduce the new cars as 1984s with an extended production run. Manufacturers sometimes use pre-production cars to provide the automotive press a chance to experience and create
publicity In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization (company, charity, etc.). It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often (but not always) ...
and articles about the models that are yet to appear in
dealer Dealer may refer to: Film and TV * ''Dealers'' (film), a 1989 British film * ''Dealers'' (TV series), a reality television series where five art and antique dealers bid on items * ''The Dealer'' (film), filmed in 2008 and released in 2010 * ...
showrooms for public view. Some of these cars are exhibited at
auto show An auto show, also known as a motor show or car show, is a public exhibition of current automobile models, debuts, concept cars, or out-of-production classics. It is attended by automotive industry representatives, dealers, auto journalists a ...
s. They may also be destroyed during
crash test A crash test is a form of destructive testing usually performed in order to ensure safe design standards in crashworthiness and crash compatibility for various modes of transportation (see automobile safety) or related systems and comp ...
s. Most of the rest are scrapped, as some may not meet
automobile safety Automotive safety is the study and practice of design, construction, equipment and regulation to minimize the occurrence and consequences of traffic collisions involving motor vehicles. Road traffic safety more broadly includes roadway design. ...
regulations or
emission standard Emission standards are the legal requirements governing air pollutants released into the atmosphere. Emission standards set quantitative limits on the permissible amount of specific air pollutants that may be released from specific sources over ...
s. An example was the
Dodge Tomahawk The Dodge Tomahawk is a non- street legal vehicle introduced in 2003 by Dodge at the North American International Auto Show, initially as a one-off concept, and then later that year as a limited production vehicle when DaimlerChrysler announce ...
motorcycle, "that hundreds were projected to be built", but even the few that were sold "do not meet the legal requirements to be classified as a motorcycle by the U.S. government, or to be driven on the street". Pre-production prototypes are used for testing and evaluation of upcoming designs. These evaluation cars are built early on during a model year, but with some of changes that are going to be incorporated in the manufacture of the next model year models. In the case of
American Motors American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the ...
(AMC), these included appearance modifications such as grilles, tail lights, trims, or interiors that were fabricated in clay, fiberglass, wood, or plaster. These experimental vehicles were road tested in anticipation of consumer demand and regulatory changes. Designs were tested in these cars in response to customers and drive reports, as well as to include better solutions like making the ashtray and cigar lighter more user friendly. Automakers put new technologies in endurance or motor sport contests to test their use in extreme conditions before incorporating them in production cars. For example, the electronic fuel-injected (EFI)
Rambler Rebel The Rambler Rebel is an automobile that was produced by the American Motors Corporation (AMC) of Kenosha, Wisconsin for the 1957–1960 model years, as well as again for 1966 and 1967. Introduced as a stand-alone model in one body style, the 19 ...
s that participated in the 1957 NASCAR Daytona Speed Weeks (held on the Daytona Beach Road Course) were "pre-production pilot cars." However, AMC's supplier, Bendix, was not able to work out all the drivability problems from its "Electrojector" system. Although the EFI option was announced to AMC dealers and described in the Owner's Manual, no 1957 fuel injected Rebels were sold to retail customers. Automakers also design production prototypes to experiment and help develop new standards and regulations. Major safety improvements may be taken into account during the initial development stages of vehicles, but not removed from actual production cars even after the proposed stiffer regulations are rolled back. The
AMC Pacer The AMC Pacer is a two-door compact car produced in the United States by American Motors Corporation (AMC) from the 1975 through the 1980 model years. The Pacer was also made in Mexico by Vehículos Automotores Mexicanos (VAM) from 1976 until ...
was designed with shortened ends, but incorporated "new impact energy absorbing ideas" to perform at higher crash speeds than the final U.S. regulations that were mandated for the 1975 model year production.


Hardware Module Maturity

The maturity of the hardware components increases during the pre-production phase until the component reaches production quality ( PPAP). The maturity is typically indicated using alphabetic notation (i.e. A,B,C samples), sometimes appended with numerals to indicate the design iteration.


See also

*
Automotive design Automotive design is the process of developing the appearance (and to some extent the ergonomics) of motor vehicles - including automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, coaches, and vans. The functional design and development of a modern moto ...
*
Clay modeling Clay modeling (or clay model making) for automobile prototypes was first introduced in the 1930s by automobile designer Harley Earl, head of the General Motors styling studio (known initially as the Art and Color Section, and later as the Desig ...


Notes

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