Simon Holt, previously Design Engineer for Triple Eight Race Engineering has joined KarelCAD as a manufacturing and digital prototyping specialist.
Simon’s experience within the industry started with British Aerospace Military Aircraft Design working on the Eurofighter, then moving to Reynard Racing Cars as a composite designer working on the Dodge Viper Le Mans Car and Range Rover active suspension project.
After getting a taste for motor racing Simon accepted an offer from Williams Formula 1 as composites design engineer, responsible for the detailing of the composites lay-up definition and machining details for the F1 chassis from 1996 until 2000, contributing to the Constructors and drivers championship in 1997. Simon then moved to Switzerland in late 2000 to work for Sauber Formula 1 as assistant head of composite design.
Simon moved to Melbourne in 2004 as Chief Designer for Ford Performance Racing and after a brief project with Aerostructures Melbourne (Creation of Australian C130 NDT Database) and Autoliv (Falcon FG curtain airbag systems) he accepted the position of Chief Engineer for Triple Eight Race Engineering, the team behind the highly successful Team Vodafone including drivers Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.
As the Chief Designer for Triple Eight Race Engineering, Simon redesigned the chassis ready for Bathurst 2007 which won on debut. Winning the constructors and drivers championship in 2008, Simon was responsible for overall layout and maintenance of race car design as well as developing and integrating Autodesk software to improve workflow and design standards.
Simon was also responsible for the Falcon FG chassis design used by Triple Eight, Paul Cruickshank Racing and Dick Johnson Racing and recently completed the chassis design for the Holden VE ready for 2010 season.
Simon believes to get the best result using Autodesk simulation and analysis software in engineering, it’s important to ensure that not only are you using the best software, but also making sure that the design team is using the best workflow and design practices.
Simon also believes that the continued future success of engineering and manufacturing design is based on using the right technology, and ensuring that your design team is constantly sourcing ways to analyse the performance of individual components and through this constant analysis design the best components for each possible outcome.
Simon will be available to work with clients on improving their design systems and integrations from October 2009.