Experts on Tour - David McLellan

Can We As Engineers Learn From Ferrari's Winning Ways in Formula One?
Remarks are based on a recent "narrow aisle" tour of the Ferrari F-1 operation in Maranello, Italy. The "clock speed" for major engineering innovation in F-1 is the yearly design cycle. The minor cycle is the time between races. In these cycles, design innovations have to be conceived, executed, and tested. The presentation includes examples of the virtual engineering technology that goes into world class, race winning, car design.

These designs are better optimized and produced in a much shorter design cycle than we're used to in automotive. It is now possible to optimize and speed up the design cycle in automotive (and other areas as well) using computer modeling (Virtual engineering) in engineering and manufacturing, and by the choice of computer manages testing regimens. We have much to learn from the best practices of race car engineering about processes to better optimize (leaner) designs and speed them to production.

Designing the Corvette as a Race Car
The Virtual Design Process offers the possibility of better optimized design, while at the same time achieving much faster design throughput and finishing with an inherently reliable product. This approach has been used in aircraft and is now being applied to the design of automobiles. Some of the first and best applications have been in racing, F-1 (Ferrari) and now in places like Pratt & Miller where this approach has been applied to the Corvette C6R Le Mans winning race car.

Virtual Design is just that, designing in the virtual world of the computer. The steps of concept, subsystem allocation, detailed design and the manufacturing process can all now be done virtually. The first physical build is the production vehicle.

To be successful, Virtual Design requires detailed measurements that we've never gathered before, a real world understanding of the digital engineering models being used and a final physical validation.

I expect to see Virtual Design being used to design the next generation production Corvette.

Speaker's Bio
Dave joined General Motors Proving Ground Noise and Vibration Lab after graduating from Wayne State University as a mechanical engineer. His assignments had him working on the dynamics of cars, trucks and military tanks, then as manager of the newly-completed Vehicle Dynamics Test Area (Black Lake).

Dave's career next took him to Chevrolet where he led the team that finished the 70 1/2 Camaro development, then to the GM Technical Center to manage John Delorean's unsuccessful attempt to marry the Camaro and the Corvette platforms. In 1973 he was picked to attend MIT as a Sloan Fellow.

On his return he was assigned to work with Zora Arkus-Duntov and on Zora's retirement in 1975, appointed Corvette Chief Engineer. Dave would be indelibly linked with the Corvette for the next 17 years. The all-new 1984 Corvette continued to be developed with advanced electronics, and culminated in the 405 hp ZR-1.

In what turned out to be his last development of the Corvette, Dave challenged an R&D team to design a next generation Corvette capable of ZR-1 performance but at standard Corvette prices. Charged with the impossible task of making the Corvette faster, lighter, roomier and more rigid as a convertible, the team adopted the backbone architecture that would be the hallmark of the C5. Dave retired from General Motors in the fall of 1992.

His recent consultant activity includes: Intermap Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Mosler Automotive, Stewart & Stevenson (BAE), TACOM, ERIM, Rosen Motors, Tel Tech, Bose, Intermag Technologies, Technologies M4 and Porsche Engineering Services.

He is the author of a recent book, "Corvette from the Inside, the 50 Year Development History" which includes the 17 years during which he and his team made history.

Dave is a recipient of the SAE Edward N. Cole Award for Automotive Engineering Innovation and an SAE Fellow.

Restrictions:
None

Equipment needs:
Computer reading PowerPoint and a digital projector