ORECA Designs a Race Car from Scratch in One Year using CAE

STAR-CCM+ and other CAE tools used for top-bottom design of REBELLION R-One.

A year ago, ORECA Technologies and REBELLION teamed up to design, from scratch, the REBELLION R-One race car. A mere 363 days later, the team completed the building and testing of the forward-thinking car.

What made this feat possible was the fact that the car was designed completely using CAE software. Chief among them was CD-adapco’s STAR-CCM+. From hydrodynamics to thermal management to aerodynamics, STAR-CCM+ was used to improve the car’s design across the board.

Unlike previous ORECA cars, REBELLION R-One was designed from the ground up with a fresh start. This wasn’t an incremental design change, this was a return to the drawing board from concept to track. This gave the team the freedom to make decisions that improve performance without the limitation of “it has always been done that way” thinking.

David Floury, ORECA Technology Director, said, “The design bureau started working on the study of this prototype from scratch and completed the project in record time. Only twelve months separate the first initial sketch from the first roll-out!”

He added, “Using STAR-CCM+ was key in the process. We needed a reliable tool, with high precision, allowing a fine work on details and enabling innovation. Also, it is important to rely on previous experiences when conducting such a project; that is why the long-term partnership with CD-adapco has been particularly appreciated. The engineers were aware that the correlation between the CAD and the track would be excellent. We had to be efficient just like the technical rules and regulations written by the FIA and the ACO.”

This past June, at the 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans, the REBELLION R-One car placed fourth overall. Additionally, the car beat many factory teams and placed first in its class. The car was driven by Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Mathias Beche. Its next race is in Bahrain for the World Endurance Championship against Audi, Toyota and Porsche.

Source CD-adapco.

Written by

Shawn Wasserman

For over 10 years, Shawn Wasserman has informed, inspired and engaged the engineering community through online content. As a senior writer at WTWH media, he produces branded content to help engineers streamline their operations via new tools, technologies and software. While a senior editor at Engineering.com, Shawn wrote stories about CAE, simulation, PLM, CAD, IoT, AI and more. During his time as the blog manager at Ansys, Shawn produced content featuring stories, tips, tricks and interesting use cases for CAE technologies. Shawn holds a master’s degree in Bioengineering from the University of Guelph and an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.