1989-2009 Design Develop Build Race
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Design Develop Build Race Win 1989-2009 contents With our successes come challenges, and 2009 was a hard year for the automotive industry. We as a company 3 20 Years of Pratt & Miller had to tighten our belts and work harder, not only to survive and grow, but also to position ourselves to thrive 16 20-Year Timeline when the auto industry does make a comeback. By diversifying, Pratt & Miller has been able to develop 20 Corvette Racing 2009 Season – GT1 new areas of business with cutting-edge technology. We are proud to offer our customers everything from racing 24 GT1 and GT2 Corvette C6.R to rocket science. It’s what helps us stand out from the crowd. Following our motto – Design, Develop, Build, Race, 26 Corvette Racing 2009 Season – GT2 Win – we are applying the lessons we have learned on the 30 2009 Corvette Racing Team and Accomplishments racetrack to help us continue growing in new areas. BUILt oUt oF PAssIon In this past season, the Corvette Racing program has 31 Thanks to Our Sponsors and Partners Looking back, it’s hard to believe that our company today presented new challenges, too, with the departure of the has grown from very humble beginnings. People make GT1 C6.R and introduction of the GT2 car. We did not 32 Pratt & Miller Engineering Today the company, though, and right from the start, everyone have much time to test, so we had to use the second half in this organization has been dedicated to achieving 35 Pratt & Miller in NASCAR of 2009 to prepare for 2010. It was a building year, and success, and passionate about their work. But who would a great way to stretch and test ourselves in ways we’ve 36 Corvid Technologies have thought that what was built out of passion would allow never experienced before. 39 Case Study: 2010 Cadillac us to become competitive world-wide in so many areas? This upcoming year will provide a new set of challenges, SRX Competitive Test Program Well, that’s what happened. It happened because, but we have survived and grown in these tough times. 40 Case Study: Tactical Wheeled Vehicles along with our passion and dedication, we’ve always The dedicated, hard-working people of Pratt & Miller have 41 Motus MST-01 Sport Touring Motorcycle been – and always will be – committed to satisfying our brought us to where we are today, and kept us on track for 42 Case Study: ArvinMeritor Megalodon customers. That’s the essential ingredient for success. a successful future. It’s exciting to think about what we’re Flow Bench We are fortunate to be surrounded by so many talented capable of doing in the next 20 years. and motivated people who share that commitment. 43 Case Study: TOMCAR Data Acquisition Everyone we work with here has the satisfaction of knowing Gary Pratt and Jim Miller and CAE Analysis they make an important contribution. The result has been 44 Case Study: Aptera 2e Composite a profitable company every year for the past 20 years. Structural Analysis 45 Case Study: Corvette C6RS Active Wing 46 Pratt & Miller Customer Teams 46 DKR Engineering 47 Luc Alphand Aventures 47 Selleslagh Racing Team 48 PK Carsport 48 AT Racing 49 Stevenson Motorsports 49 Banner Racing 50 From the Editor 51 Pratt & Miller Employees 2 pratt & MIller ENgineering OUT ONTO THE LEADING EDGE TWO COMPETITORS JOIN FORCES “While I was growing up messing with race cars Jim on the leading edge. The mix has been really good, and Gary Pratt and Jim Miller met at a race track. They was figuring out how to make money,” Pratt says. “So we’ve been fortunate to attract a lot of very good people.” couldn’t tell you which one, exactly, and it doesn’t matter. Jim also brought the financial backing that it takes to That also has always been one of the core ingredients They were competitors in the Trans-Am series in the mid- attract major sponsors – so they know you have the in Jim Miller’s recipe for success – the ability to attract 1980s. They both wanted and needed something to take resources to do what you say you’re going to do, even and keep good people, by creating an environment where their aspirations to the next level. And as they got to know if they’re not funding 100 percent of the program.” they enjoy working and know they have an opportunity one another and became friends, each recognized in the Gary credits Jim with being the visionary, but they both to grow and advance professionally. other that certain something that could make it happen. knew, even then, that the company needed to be more “We have to invest in our ability to do our jobs better, Jim saw in Gary the ability to not only build competitive engineering driven, and lead the motorsports industry in satisfy our customers, grow in the future, and ensure that race cars but also to organize and operate an efficient technology application, instead of just building race cars. we stay on the leading edge of our industry,” says Miller. and successful racing operation – to make things work “We’d been a cut-and-weld kind of shop,” says Pratt, They founded Pratt & Miller Engineering & Fabrication and get things done. speaking of his previous partnership in Protofab Racing. in the later part of 1989. On the race track, Miller was In Jim, Gary saw the good business head – the ability “We had a lot of experience and had been successful, but already out there on the leading edge, racing in a series for and savvy to operate at a profit. In fact right from the we were just going by historical things that had worked some of the most exotic, expensive, highly sophisticated beginning, one of Miller’s core requirements was to have well for us – not really leading edge. When you bring lots race cars on the planet. a profitable company – never take on a project that didn’t of experience and then add some good engineering and have good profit potential. young ideas and new technology – that puts you out there 3 pratt & MIller ENgineering 989-2009 BEGINNING: SpIcE GT prototypE 1 , rs a E 20 Y UP agaINST THE HEaVYWEIgHTS Undaunted, Pratt & Miller challenged themselves against Wayne Taylor took over as Miller’s driving partner in When Pratt & Miller opened its doors, Jim Miller wanted an these heavyweights, armed with Miller’s Chevrolet-powered 1990. They continued to log decent performances – four organization that could field a competitive operation in the (but not sponsored) MTI Vacations Spice SE89P. in the top five – and once came oh so close to victory. International Motor Sports Association’s GTP (Grand Touring Jim drove it in 1989 with Bob Earl, and they notched a That was at Lime Rock Park, where they finished less than Prototype) class – no small undertaking. GTP represented respectable nine top-10 and five top-five finishes, including a second behind the winning Jaguar XJR-10. the pinnacle of prototype sports car racing in America. a second-place showing at the 500-km Camel Continental In mid-season, Miller decided to step out of the driver’s The period from 1981 to 1993 was an era of unrelenting at Watkins Glen, and another runner-up finish on the streets seat and concentrate on the business side of the operation. development as manufacturers, engineers, and race teams of Tampa, where they finished just three-tenths of a second They already had attracted the attention of Chevrolet, continually raised the bar in technology. The series was behind the winning Jaguar XJR-9. and soon brought the GM division on board as a sponsor, being dominated by factory-backed efforts from the likes backing Pratt & Miller’s first start-to-finish race car develop- of Porsche, Nissan, Jaguar and Toyota. ment project, to be launched early in 1991.… 4 pratt & MIller ENgineering 20 Y E a rs INTrEpID GTp , 1 989-2009 BREakINg THE MOld downforce – and it made nearly 10,000 pounds of third at Mid-Ohio, and Taylor won on the New Orleans street IMSA GTP was a showcase for advanced aerodynamics, downforce at 150 mph! The Intrepid’s steep nose angle, circuit. A high-speed crash at Watkins Glen injured Kendall exotic materials, and sophisticated suspensions. The extended front splitter, and an underbody shaped like a and prompted a redesign of the rear uprights to withstand arrival of the Pratt & Miller Intrepid in 1991 abruptly wing really worked well. The rear wheel covers were worth the car’s incredible downforce. Changes in racing’s changed the rules in road racing’s premier class. nearly two seconds a lap on the Sebring short course.” rules and the economic environment curtailed the GTP The GTP category had been dominated by The Intrepid GTP’s competition debut, at West Palm enterprise, and a lightning strike destroyed Pratt & Miller’s turbocharged engines from Europe and Asia, but Pratt Beach in March 1991, was remarkable. Wayne Taylor manufacturing facility. The GTP program concluded in & Miller’s MTI Racing Intrepid GTP was an American- drove the brand-new car to a second-place finish, and 1993 after four Intrepids had been constructed. made contender for the GTP crown. It was powered by along the way recorded the fastest race lap. “GTP racing is absolutely top level, and I want to excel,” a naturally aspirated 6.0-liter Chevrolet small-block Tommy Kendall unveiled the second Intrepid GTP at said Jim Miller at the Intrepid’s press introduction.