Donkervoort Automobielen BV

The Challenge

Donkervoort Automobielen BV is a sports car manufacturer known for combining appealing styling, ultralight weight, high-power output, and fantastic road-tracking agility to produce sports cars that behave like racecars. To advance the performance of its cars—such as increasing the horsepower of its D8 GTO model while maintaining light vehicle weight—and to keep up with the quickening pace of sports car development, the company needed its own computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and nonlinear structural analysis tools.

The Solution

After evaluating CFD analysis packages, including SolidWorks Flow Simulation and FLUENT®, and nonlinear structural simulation systems, including SolidWorks Simulation Premium and ANSYS®, Donkervoort selected SolidWorks Simulation tools. The car manufacturer chose SolidWorks Simulation software because CAD integration makes its advanced analysis capabilities easier and more practical to use. By implementing SolidWorks Simulation software, Donkervoort cut the number of prototypes required by 50 percent, increased the sophistication of its products, improved vehicle aerodynamics and performance, and introduced a structural innovation in sports car design.