The worlds of Welsh design and engineering have collided at Swansea Metropolitan University as a small car company and the University’s School of Industrial Design get together.

The link can be found in the form of graduating automotive design student Rhodri Duffee, (above) from Lampeter. His father, Tim Duffee is owner of the Welsh automotive company Darrian, a small business who manufacture competition cars.

After the lamented demise of Davrian Developments Ltd., a sports car manufacturer that traced its roots back to Clapham in the 60s, Tim Duffee and two other colleagues started the supply of spare parts, conversions and rebuilds on the existing Davrian fleet.

In1984, the decision was made to build a new car for Tarmac Rallies, re-named the Darrian T9, and the company’s competition success has continued ever since.
Despite the engineering background, Rhodri’s interest has always been in design and he has used the family heritage as inspiration for his final year degree work.

He said, “My major project was to design a track and road car for Darrian. The concept was created to expand the Darrian brand into different markets. 

“The idea was to utilise the Ford Duratec 1.4 engine and gearbox to produce a more affordable car for the road without jeopardising the performance."

Rhodri has been an integral part of the company in recent years. In 2000 he was involved in the re-design of the Darrian T90, creating the Darrian T90 GTR, and this was further developed in 2002 with the design and production of shorter and narrower bodywork.

His drawings of the Darrian chassis were also used by the Turkish company, Onuk.

This is not the first link that Swansea Met has had with Darrian, as in the 1990s the University, then Swansea Institute, purchased a Darrian T90 to develop their Higher National Diploma in Automotive Engineering.

The aim was to build up the skills of the students by racing a car in the Welsh Drivers’ Championship. In 1996, the car and the team had developed to such a level that they won the extremely prestigious Privilege Insurance National GT Championship at their first attempt.

The credibility that the Darrian Team gained within motorsport enabled Swansea Met to develop the world’s first motorsport engineering and design degree in 1998, which is now held in high regard throughout the industry.

Rhodri’s design was recently a part of the Swansea Metropolitan University Automotive and Product Design Degree Exhibition at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.

Over the past twelve months students from Swansea Met’s School of Industrial Design have honed their skills by working on ‘live’ projects with big name companies such as Jaguar and Clinique.

The wide range of skills and experience gained in the School has helped its students win an unprecedented twenty national and international awards in the last ten years.

Graduates have forged successful careers across Europe working with companies such as Ford, Lego, Jaguar, Walls, LandRover, Ecophon, IBM, Britax and Aston Martin to name but a few.

The most recent accolades came for second year automotive design student, Gareth Rees, who won the prestigious International Targa Bonetto design award in Italy and second year product design student Nick Haimes, who won the 2008 Corus Award for Product Design.

For more information about Swansea Metropolitan University’s School of Industrial Design please call 01792 481117 or email design@smu.ac.uk