The Le Mans endurance
race is arguably the most demanding motor sport event ever created.
In a dynamic combination, man and machine are pitched against the clock
in the ultimate endurance test. Competing at this level and its pressure
on critical timescales is the ultimate product development challenge
for Taurus Sports.
Taurus Sports Managing Director is Ian Dawson, a 30-year veteran of
working with high performance racing cars. Ian's career spans positions
at Lotus and Ford and he has the passion to compete as a privately owned
company against the power and financial muscle of bigger teams. From
his base at Watton near Norwich in the UK, Ian has assembled a team
of highly talented individuals to compete successfully at Le Mans, amazingly
achieving 8th position with the only diesel powered car.
Ian saw the opportunity to develop the first diesel-powered engine
to be at the forefront of diesel engine technology. The engine is a
5 litre, V10 twin turbo based on a commonly available production engine
and has improved performance levels in conjunction with Caterpillar.
Taurus Sports selected SolidWorks as a design system that was suitable
for its multi tasking design engineers who could develop new concepts
to ultimately create and test designs in less time than ever before.
SolidWorks has proved to be an essential tool underpinning product
development and helping to win the constant battle against the clock.
"Our designers were able to learn and use SolidWorks very quickly
allowing us to concentrate on improving the car without battling with
a new CAD technology" commented Ian.
One major modification involved the total re-design of the standard
engine sump. SolidWorks enabled the team to react and design a new
dry sump system to finished cast parts in 8 weeks, reducing previous
timescales by over 50%. As well as reducing time, Taurus designers
were able to save weight and reduce manufacturing costs.
SolidWorks has enabled Taurus Sports to become a self-sufficient
design team but also encouraging the team to collaborate with other
design and manufacturing partners using SolidWorks. Taurus has also
exchanged data with other companies such as Engine management partners
using different CAD systems.
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