NEWS BRIEFS

Paris, FRANCE — Oreca Groupe, a leader in automotive endurance racing, IBM and Dassault Systemes announced that Oreca Motorsport will use CATIA Solutions for its new LeMans prototype cars.

Oreca Motorsport engineers will apply CATIA to design, manufacture and manage modifications of all aspects of its LeMans prototype cars. The company will test its first CATIA-designed prototype car in January 2001. In addition to the purchase of CATIA licenses, the agreement includes Dassault Systemes and IBM services and support related to implementing the world’s leading CAD/CAM/CAE software.

As the exclusive supplier of DaimlerChrysler Viper GTS-R cars, Oreca engineering management was already familiar with the many benefits of CATIA: its ease of use, flexibility, scalability, and cost- and time-reduction benefits. Such capabilities are also requirements in the intense competitiveness of LeMans racing, where every part of the car is pushed to its limit. By simulating part behavior in CATIA, Oreca engineers can optimize the design for maximum performance. Moreover, CATIA enables Oreca to make changes rapidly throughout the season to accommodate different race configurations.

“We launched our `LeMans Challenge’ program earlier this year to move quickly to a competitive position in LeMans 24 Hours Race car racing,” said Oreca president, Hugues de Chaunac. “In CATIA Solutions, we have the best tool available to help us create a winning car. In Dassault Systemes and IBM, we have the most experienced technical partners in the industry.”

“Today, an essential component of success in automotive racing, where the cycle times are by far the shortest the industry has ever met, is the ability to design, build and maintain every part of a car the most efficient way possible,” said Philippe Forestier, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Dassault Systemes. “And, because every part of a race car, as well as every member of a racing team and every partner, must perform at the highest level, we are happy to join Oreca Motorsport in its new challenge.”

Said Carlo Ranfagni, IBM PLM global sales leader, small and medium enterprise geography sales leader, Europe Middle East Africa, “CATIA’s extensive capabilities and IBM’s longstanding expertise in the automotive industry will help Oreca Motorsport meet its challenge of winning the most difficult race in the world: the 24 Hours of LeMans.”

IBM’s PLM business unit and IBM Business Partners worldwide market, sell and support CATIA solutions.

Founded by Hugues de Chaunac almost 30 years ago, Oreca Groupe is a leader in automotive racing. Oreca Motorsport is the exclusive partner of DaimlerChrysler Motorsport to provide Viper GTS-R cars for the company’s team, with rights to sell them to other racing customers. Among the most successful competitors on the circuit, Vipers won the 24 Hours of LeMans in the GT2 category for the last three years, the 1998 and 1999 FIA GT Championship, and the outright victory in the 2000 24 Hours of Daytona. Oreca Motosport’s racing program also includes the American and European LeMans Series. Information about Oreca Groupe is available at http://www.oreca.fr .

IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Sales & Distribution, which supports more than a dozen key industries worldwide, works with companies of all sizes around the world to deploy the full range of IBM technologies. The fastest way to get more information about IBM is through the IBM home page at http://www.ibm.com

Dassault Systemes is a premier global software developer for the CAD/CAM/CAE/PLM market, providing companies with e-business solutions to implement their digital enterprise, thus creating and simulating the entire product life cycle from initial concept to product in service. CATIA, ENOVIA and DELMIA solutions support industry-specific business processes to help unleash creativity and innovation, reduce development cycle time, improve quality, competitiveness and shareholder value: CATIA supports the digital product definition and simulation, DELMIA provides solutions to define and simulate lean digital manufacturing processes and ENOVIA delivers enterprise solutions that manage a comprehensive, collaborative and distributed model of the digital product, processes and resources. Information about Dassault Systemes is available at http://www.dsweb.com .

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