LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, a NASCAR Cup Series team competing with Toyota Camry XSE race cars, has introduced large-format 3D printing to manufacture prototypes, tooling, and some functional components inside its race shop. The organisation installed two STUDIO 3D printers from BigRep after delays caused by outsourcing parts slowed testing and development during the racing season.
Speed of iteration drove the shift. “I can’t afford to outsource and wait two to three weeks to develop a part. Being able to 3D print different designs, put them in the car, and redo if it’s not right, is priceless,” said Tony Cardamone, shop foreman at the NASCAR team. One of the first components moved in-house was a gear cooler plenum designed to improve cooling of the transaxle, the system that transfers power from the engine to the wheels. The component’s size and geometry made it difficult to produce on smaller printers, which previously forced the team to rely on external suppliers.
According to Steven Sander, director of aerodynamics, adoption expanded once the machines entered daily use. “We started off printing one specific component, but once you realise the capability, you start applying this solution to anything you can find. We use Big Rep materials and the STUDIOs for anything between prototypes to production parts,” Sander said. Designs created early in the week can be printed overnight and evaluated on the vehicle soon afterwards.
Repeatable vehicle builds represent another reason the Cup Series organisation prints tooling. LEGACY MOTOR CLUB fields the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE driven by Erik Jones, the No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE piloted by John Hunter Nemechek, and the No. 84 entry driven part-time by team owner Jimmie Johnson. Engineers produce custom fixtures and alignment templates that help crews assemble each car to identical specifications. One example is a printed guide used by the graphics crew to position a gold stripe on the front of the vehicle.
Full-scale prototyping also forms part of the workflow. Life-size printed components allow engineers to check geometry directly on the car before committing to metal manufacturing. The racing operation reported that between 10 and 20 parts on its vehicles each week are either prototyped or produced using the BigRep STUDIO systems. Cost reductions followed. The team said it uses roughly 30 grille bezels per season. Each unit costs about $1,900 when sourced from external suppliers in 2024. Producing a grille buck internally reduced the cost per bezel to $471.
Engineers have also introduced printed parts used during vehicle assembly. Flexible materials such as TPU are used to create covers that protect dashboards, digital displays, and onboard screens as cars are repeatedly disassembled and rebuilt during race preparation. “We’re printing parts that go on the car and perform under very high heat and heavy load conditions. With BigRep’s material catalogue and open material system, we have the flexibility to create just about anything we need,” said Curtis Neumann, an aero engineer at the team.
High-temperature materials enabled the team to manufacture the gear cooler plenum internally. Twenty versions of the component were used across the 2024 season as track configurations changed. Outsourced production averaged about $2,000 per unit and required about a week of lead time, totalling roughly $40,000 for the season. Producing the component on the BigRep STUDIO requires about 1.5 kilograms of material priced at $37.95 per kilogram, placing the material cost at $56.93 per unit. Based on 20 parts, the projected material cost for a season is about $1,139.50.
NASCAR regulations also drove new printed components. Officials introduced a rule in late 2024 requiring rocker extension skirts designed to help keep cars on the ground during high-speed incidents and reduce the likelihood of becoming airborne. Engineers at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB said they designed and 3D printed the part using PA6/66.
Developments inside the race shop reflect a broader shift across motorsport engineering, where teams increasingly rely on in-house additive manufacturing to shorten development cycles and test parts during the racing season.
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Featured image shows BigRep x LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. Image via BigRep.
