Rodin Motorsport is using PTC’s Creo integrated CAD and simulation solution to find valuable fractions of a second on the racetrack, drawing on a relationship with PTC spanning almost 20 years.
The Surrey-based team, which employs 60 people at its Farnham headquarters, recently used Creo to optimise the aerodynamics of a previous-generation FIA Formula 3 car for the demanding Guia Circuit in Macau. The street circuit combines tight, technical corners requiring downforce with a 1.2 km straight where low drag is critical.
With Formula 3 regulations preventing Rodin from producing new rear-wing components, engineers created a detailed 3D model in Creo and used ‘Flow Analysis’ and ‘Creo Simulate’ to assess pressure distribution, downforce and drag in both DRS configurations.
The team evaluated 10 wing-flap angles in half-degree increments, with each scenario taking around 15 minutes to generate. The resulting aerodynamic data was fed into lap-time simulation to establish the optimum compromise between cornering performance and straight-line speed.
The analysis showed that increasing the flap angle by just half a degree slightly reduced grip but lowered drag sufficiently to improve straight-line performance. Combined with the lap simulation, this indicated a potential improvement of up to 0.25 seconds.
“Everything comes back to improving lap time,” states Benn Huntingford, sporting director at Rodin Motorsport. “Our lap simulation indicated a potential improvement of up to 0.25 seconds, which is significant when every fraction of a second counts.”
Technical director David Brown adds that without Creo, each variation would have required physical parts, wind-tunnel time and additional testing, turning 10 iterations into a process lasting days or weeks.
Rodin is now extending its use of Creo as it expands into Formula Regional and GT racing, giving more engineers access to integrated design and simulation while connecting digital designs with in-house additive manufacturing.
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