JORDAN GRAND PRIX - RACING AGAINST THE CLOCK WITH CADTEK AND HEWLETT-PACKARD SOFTWARE

Written by Allen Behrens in July 1994

Jordan Grand Prix is using Hewlett Packard (HP) 2D and 3D CAD software from Cadtek Systems Ltd to design its Formula One racing cars. With the HP Precision Engineering/ME10 and HP Precision Enginnering/SolidDesigner systems, Jordan is able to develop new cars and to modify existing ones within the rigorous time-scales of Grand Prix championship racing.

Jordan Grand Prix was set up in 1990 when ex-driver Eddie Jordan, after several years' experience in Formula Three and Formula 3000 racing, decided to field a team in the 1991 Formula One World Championship. Jordan Grand Prix, based at Silverstone, is now in its fourth year of Formula One racing and has recently unveiled its new car for the 1994 season, the Jordan-Hart 194.

With the help of CAD, Jordan Grand Prix is right on track for Formula One success

With the exception of the Hart engine, each Jordan car is designed in its entirety by the in-house design team. Formula One racing is now so competitive that most teams redesign their cars from one year to the next, incorporating into each new design the benefits of their experience in the previous season. This was the case with the Jordan-Hart 194, which looks quite different to its predecessor the Jordan-Hart 193, and incorporates several modifications dictated by the latest regulations from the governing body of motor sport, FISA.

At Jordan Grand Prix, designing a new car normally starts in August, well before the last World Championship race of the season. By about January the new car is on the track, although there is still time for extensive testing and fine-tuning before the first race of the new championship in March. With such a short development cycle, speed of design is an essential component.

Rapid design is equally vital during the racing season. So competitive is Formula One racing that the difference between success and failure may hinge on a minor modification, just sufficient - in conjunction with the driver's skill - to gain an extra mph of speed at a critical moment. Modifications are carried out between races, often with the aim of improving the car's aerodynamic performance.

Customer Success with PE/SolidDesigner: JORDAN GRAND PRIX, U.K.

"During the two-week period separating one championship race from the next, we are often working frantically," explains Robert Stubbings, design engineer with Jordan Grand Prix. "The car and engineers return from a Sunday race on the Monday, and if modifications are required they must be designed by Wednesday. The new parts then have to be made and put on the car by the following Tuesday, ready for testing before the weekend. In this process, every hour counts."

A day at the races: The Jordan Car at this year's Brazilian Grand Prix

The need for speed explains why Jordan Grand Prix's original team of three designers, hand-picked on the strength of their prior experience, stipulated beforehand that they could not work unless a CAD system was available.

On their arrival at Jordan, the designers were given free rein to choose a system that would allow them to meet their deadline of producing, from scratch, a fully testable prototype Formula One racing car within eight months. They chose HP Precision Enfineering (PE) CAD software from Cadtek, running on high-performance HP workstations and peripherals.

For 2D work, Jordan adopted Cadtek's HP PE/ME10, a 2D design and drafting system incorporating a design advisor capability, which provides a foundation for intelligent interaction between system and user. For 3D design, the original system, Cadtek's HP PE/ME30, has since been replaced by HP PE/SolidDesigner. PE/SolidDesigner is a 3D mechanical design system based on advanced solid modelling technology, fully integrated with the PE/ME10 system to facilitate the transfer of complete model layouts. The software now runs on a network of seven HP9000 Series 700 Model 715/50 workstations.

"Speed was the determining factor in the choice of system," says Stubbings. "Our designers were also impressed with the professional, fast response of Cadtek personnel. In the four years since then, we have come to depend more and more on our system."

"Without CAD, there is no way of achieving the precision engineering demanded by modern racing car design, or of meeting the deadlines we must meet if we want to compete effectively," he maintains. "Working out the effects of things like changes in the centre of gravity can be done quickly and accurately."

Jordan Grand Prix is experiencing the benefits of its CAD software at all stages in the design process, starting with the early schematic drawings.

"Rather than filling pieces of paper with one sketch after another, we now have a much more structured approach to the initial design work. Each design can be saved individually on the system, and we can produce overlays and assembly drawings. Any of the designs can then be called up later and worked on by a designer who is familiar with the system," explains Stubbings.

For its design work, Jordan Grand Prix has access to a wind tunnel facility at Southampton University. Here it tests the aerodynamics of new designs using a one-third-scale model. Only if the model gives satisfactory results at this stage is the design scaled up to full size and tested on the track. Using the CAD system, the scaling up of the design can be achieved at the touch of a button, saving a considerable amount of time.

Other significant savings are achieved by having details of every component stored on the system. Even a completely new car has much in common with its predecessor, and a new design will incorporate many components from the previous one. Again, these are accessible at the touch of a button.

Stubbings has been impressed by the user-friendliness of the PE/ME10 system. "ME10 is so intuitive that I was proficient after only two days of using it," he comments. "SolidDesigner, too, despite its advanced features, is something one can get useful results out of in days rather than weeks or months."

A major use of PE/SolidDesigner by Jordan Grand Prix is to optimize shapes, positions and volumes of oil tanks, petrol tanks and fire extinguishers within the overall vehicle design. These tanks have to be as small as regulations allow and conditions permit, in order to reduce weight, but there are additional complications. For example, the gradual emptying of a fuel tank during a race affects the car's centre of gravity. By altering the shape and position of the tank, disruption of the car's handling can be reduced. With PE/SolidDesigner, these processes can be modelled and the effects of changes in tank design on the car's performance and on other aspects of the design can be investigated.

PE/SolidDesigner is also used to test for potential clashes - for example, between the suspension system and the body work - at different stages in the design.

"We are very happy with the HP software from Cadtek. If we had to, we could use it to design a whole car, from start to finish, in three months," concludes Stubbings.

But he is not complacent about the future. "We are looking at several potential developments. Cadtek have helped us a lot in the past, and we hope to work with them to extend the functionality of the software even further."

One important development being investigated by Jordan Grand Prix and Cadtek is the direct machining of patterns and moulds from the CAD designs. This would speed up the process enormously compared to the present system of taking carbon moulds from handmade wooden models; it would also guarantee accuracy. The new approach has already been successfully used with the nose cone of the Jordan-Hart 194, and Stubbings would like to see its use extended.

With the 1994 Formula One World Championship now under way, Jordan Grand Prix is hoping for good results from the new car and its drivers. Behind the scenes, the design team and HP's software from Cadtek will be working hard to make their success a reality.

Every second counts in Formula One: which is why Jordan Grand Prix uses CAD to design its racing cars