Local tuning program will continue following the death of the man who helped transform Hyundai’s fortunes in Australia
Hyundai Australia has paid tribute to the influence of the late British engineer David Potter on its innovative local chassis development program and the structures of its parent company’s R&D processes.
The Korean car-maker has also made clear its Australian chassis tuning regime will grow as it goes forward and evolve to include an earlier and deeper involvement in future model development.
Potter, who died of cancer in July, joined the Australian program as a consultant in 2013, two years after it was first established.
The program’s introduction and expansion to cover most of the Hyundai models imported for sale in Australia coincided with a rise in quality perception of the brand and its sales over the past decade.
Potter was also involved in the localisation of the Genesis luxury brand’s chassis tune, most recently the GV70 mid-size SUV.
Only a few other brands localise the chassis tune of their vehicle for Australia’s often sub-standard roads. Fellow Hyundai Motor Group member Kia kicked off its local program in 2009. Others include Ford, Mitsubishi, Toyota and, at least for its homegrown Warrior utes, Nissan.
Hyundai Australia head of future product and future business group Andrew Tuitahi formed a friendship as well as a business relationship with Potter.
“David was amazing. He was a mentor for me and he gave me a different way to look at cars, evaluate cars and truly understand what we were doing,” Tuitahi said
“He had this unique ability to combine the science and the numbers with the feel. He was equally good at both and I think he is that perfect demonstration of suspension tuning being a black art.
“In terms of what he delivered to us it was a discipline around telemetry and simulation and always trying to look for the cause of the issue in data.”
Potter contributed to the chassis design of the legendary BMW E36 3 Series before a long period in motorsport including the World Rally Championship.
Tuitahi said Potter’s skills were noted beyond Australia within Hyundai’s massive global research and development division.
“I can’t say it’s directly because of him but certainly there were discussions had at the R&D centre [in Korea] around the way we tune and utilise these kinds of systems and… very similar types of simulations are conducted at R&D centre by ride and handling engineers.
“His style exists at HMC now.”
Because of his illness, Potter stopped travelling to Australia some years ago. But Tuitahi said his legacy carries on.
“He definitely leaves us in a good position,” said Tuitahi. “I think the work we have done since he has been unable to join us has been excellent.”
Despite some interruptions through the COVID era Tuitahi said the chassis localisation program remains a core part of Hyundai Australia’s new model roll-out.
He cited recent discussions with new Hyundai Australia managing director Ted Lee as proof of that.
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://editorial.pxcrush.net/carsales/general/editorial/profile-bruce-newton.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Bruce Newton[/author_info] [/author]
