Keeping the cars on the road

IDW CAD/CAM and TopSolid celebrate a successful partnership with the Shell V-Power Racing Team.

The Repco Supercars Championship began its 2023 season with the Newcastle 500 in early March, after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic. Supercars is the premier touring car motorsport series in Australia and includes the famous Bathurst 1000 held in early October.

Dick Johnson Racing, racing under the Shell V-Power Racing Team name, was founded by Dick Johnson in 1980 and is Australia's oldest motor racing team competing in the Supercars Championship. Over the years, the team's drivers have won ten Australian Touring Car Championship titles and have taken four victories in the Bathurst 1000.

Behind the drivers and their success are not only the dedicated members within Dick Johnson Racing, but external partner businesses working closely with them. One such partner Is Ian Whitwood, from IDW CAD/CAM Solutions who, since 2009, has supported Dick Johnson Racing with TopSolid design and machining software. In that time, the team has won four drivers championships and three team championships. Ian and TopSolid have been an integral part of that winning/high-performance culture. Back in 2009, the team bucked the trend of implementing the more widely known software packages, instead opting for TopSolid CAD/CAM. Having tried other packages previously, they felt the combination of advanced 3D modelling and machining functionality in a single package was the best fit for their fast-moving environment. Along with the feature-packed software, it was Ian’s in-depth knowledge and experience that was a major factor in their decision.

In a highly competitive setting such as motorsport, every aspect of the car needs to perform at the highest possible level. The team at Dick Johnson Racing not only have the ability to seamlessly import third party designs into the software, a standard feature of most CAM products, but more importantly, they are able to design complex parts in-house, using the same software. They can modify and improve the designs time after time with full traceability. The CAM side of the software features 3/4/5 axis milling and lathe capabilities. Being an all-in-one software package removes the need to use two to three different packages to get the job done, making it a cost-effective way to have all the features required to operate an engineering business, large or small. It’s these features that make TopSolid an invaluable tool for the Shell V-Power Racing Team.

As well as supplying the software, Ian Whitwood provides substantial training and support. Being an engineer himself, Ian understands the particular needs of a design and machining environment, and is able to provide solutions for his clients, no matter how large or small their business is.

TopSolid is an integrated digital manufacturing system developed in France and has been available in Australia for more than 20 years, yet it’s still relatively unknown here. The Shell V-Power Racing Team is one of a select group of companies who recognise the benefit of this style of software for design and manufacturing.

The Shell V-Power Racing Team has been working very hard getting ready for the start of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship. There have been major changes to the cars for this season with the introduction of Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang vehicles. It’s claimed that Gen3 marks the biggest change to the Supercars since the introduction of V8-powered Commodores and Falcons in the ‘90s. The Gen3 cars are noticeably different from the previous Gen2 cars, as there is more of a similarity to their equivalent road vehicles.

The team at IDW CAD/CAM and TopSolid wish their partners, The Shell V-Power Racing Team, success in the forthcoming Repco Supercars Championship. idwcadcam.com.au