Go!SCAN SPARK helps BBI Autosport race to the clouds in the 2021 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb

Founded in 2005, BBI Autosport, located in Huntington Beach, California, offers a wide range of maintenance, performance and race development services in the exotic tuning market—and has carved an enviable reputation for its innovations in the Porsche industry.

An epic car race to the summit of Pikes Peak in June 2021

BBI Autosport recently took on the development of three Porsche race cars for the 99^th Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, fondly known as the “Race to the Clouds” and one of the most reputed and arduous car racing events in the world. The race will take place on Jun 27, 2021, in Colorado, USA. The first invitational race took place in 1916. It climbs 12.42 miles, with 156 turns, to reach the finish line at 14,115 ft at the summit of Pikes Peak.

Driven by esteemed drivers Raphael Astier, David Donohue and Tanner Foust, the race cars will feature BBI Autosport’s elevated aerodynamics on three different Porsche platforms for three race classes: Open Class, Time Attack 1 and The Porsche Pikes Peak Trophy class by Yokohama.

The need for R&D speed and independence

As BBI Autosport’s R&D team began working on the Porsches, they needed to acquire 3D measurements to collect accurate data about the performance and reliability of many diverse race car components.

Due to the tight development timelines, easy access to the data and efficiency were compromised due to BBI Autosport’s reliance on third-party services. In addition, the 3D measurements they did obtain was not accurate or thorough enough for the R&D team’s requirements.

According to Dmitriy Orlov, COO at BBI Autosport: “We were losing opportunities to collect data on freshly released cars and even pre-production platforms. This in turn meant that we were losing valuable development time to get a jump on rolling out product.”

As their needs for 3D measurements added up for such applications as 3D printing in metal, CAD modeling most components, and creating precision parts, it became clearer that an alternative solution for 3D scanning would help the team to speed development and gain a better competitive edge.

“3D scanning is a crucial element to help us in design and validation. We also lean heavily on it for our motorsport efforts, using mesh data of the race vehicles for CFD evaluation and further optimization with new parts. In general, 3D scanning means we can do more in virtual, saving time on cutting things up, saving on mistakes and accelerating the creation of needed parts,” Dmitriy added.

BBI Autosport chooses Go!SCAN SPARK for the race to the finish line

BBI Autosport decided to gain 3D scanning independence by acquiring Creaform’s Go!SCAN SPARK, the fastest metrology-grade 3D scanner that can be used throughout an entire PLM workflow. It quickly measures all types of complex geometries and surfaces—all while getting the highly accurate measurements right the first time around. The company matched the 3D scanner with Creaform’s VXelements 3D software platform and application suite.

The R&D team was impressed with the speed and versatility in which they could generate scan data that could be immediately workable to create new parts. “We are able to scan whenever we want to, wherever we want to,” said Dmitriy. “The hardware does it job and the VX software really accelerates and massively simplifies data processing. This saves a lot of valuable time and gets us through development faster.”

While currently being leveraged for the big race in June, Go!SCAN SPARK and VXelements, BBI Autosport is integrating both technologies within development workflows for other clients.

“Creaform has created a powerful package that not only gathers highly accurate data with unprecedented freedom and ease but also offers a robust software package that handles and processes that data for easy integration into almost any CAD design workflow.”

The entire Creaform team wishes BBI Autosport’s racers good luck for Pikes Peak!