Case Study: Pratt & Miller Engineering achieves rapid, cost-effective racecar suspension redesign to protect uprights with ANSYS DesignSpace

Pratt & Miller Engineering - Customer Case Study

Pratt & Miller Engineering, a leading racecar design and fabrication firm, needed a rapid redesign after a crash-damaged upright on a Cadillac CTS-V front suspension. To shift failure away from the expensive upright to a lower-cost, replaceable upper control arm without time-consuming physical tests, Pratt & Miller turned to ANSYS and used ANSYS DesignSpace for fast, assembly-level simulation.

Using ANSYS DesignSpace’s automatic contact element generation and direct CAD import, Pratt & Miller accurately simulated impact conditions, found the exact high-stress failure spot, and iterated design changes with their UGS CAD system. The ANSYS-driven redesign (pockets, ribs, cut profiles, fillets and reduced control-arm thickness) shifted failure to the replaceable arm, added less than three ounces while slightly reducing weight, was implemented in time for the next race series, and yielded a more robust, cost‑effective suspension without extensive physical prototyping.

Pratt & Miller Engineering

Gary Latham

Design Group Manager