Case Study: Michigan Baja Racing achieves a lightweight, podium-winning off-road race car with Altair HyperWorks suite

Michigan Baja Racing - Customer Case Study

Michigan Baja Racing (MBR) is a collegiate Baja SAE team that must design, build, and race a new single‑seater off‑road car each year under a tight six‑month schedule. To balance the competing needs of extreme lightness for acceleration and maneuverability with durability for suspension, traction and endurance events—and with almost no time for physical prototyping—MBR partnered with Altair and used the Altair HyperWorks™ suite to validate designs virtually before manufacturing.

Altair implemented a simulation workflow using HyperMesh and HyperCrash for setup, HyperView for results, OptiStruct for linear and nonlinear analyses of components and suspension links, Radioss for full‑vehicle dynamic crash simulations, and AcuSolve for preliminary aerodynamic work. The Altair tools cut design time, enabled rapid virtual prototyping, and produced a vehicle behavior within 5% of predictions; MBR delivered a 270‑lb car in under a week of detailed design, achieved podium finishes in acceleration and hill climb events, and saw little to no structural failures in the 2019 season.

Michigan Baja Racing

Vishnu Rengaraj

Testing Director