Case Study: Newman/Haas Racing improves race car setup optimization with MSC Software ADAMS

Setting Up Race Cars in a Virtual Environment

Newman/Haas Racing, a motorsports team, needed a better way to understand and optimize racecar setup trade-offs for different racetracks, especially with limited on-track practice and testing time. To address this challenge, the team used MSC Software’s ADAMS/Motorsport toolkit and ADAMS/Insight for vehicle system modeling and design of experiments.

Using MSC Software’s virtual simulation tools, Newman/Haas Racing created macros to eliminate non-physical or irrelevant factor combinations, improved experiment design efficiency, and modeled setup changes such as spring rate, ride height, and roll stiffness more intuitively. The approach delivered significant gains in runtime and understanding, improved output and optimization, and helped the team merge simulation and test results to better correlate models with real-world performance.

Newman/Haas Racing

Marcel Staniak

Engineer