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Cayman Dynamics Principals
John Heider is a co-founder and Principal of Cayman Dynamics. Having previously spent 21 years at Ford in all areas of vehicle dynamics, John co-founded Cayman with the vision of making OEM-level vehicle dynamics capability available to traditional manufacturers as well as companies not aware of the rigor and discipline required to successfully develop the vehicle dynamics performance of their products. In addition to working at multiple proving grounds in the United States, South America, Europe and Asia, John was instrumental in the design and construction of major proving ground expansion projects in Michigan and Arizona. John has a thorough, hands-on understanding of what is required to develop vehicle dynamics performance to meet the grueling demands of mass production.
Bob Smith is a co-founder and Principal of Cayman Dynamics and previously was involved in all phases of vehicle dynamics development for Ford. Bob has worked in pure vehicle dynamics research creating one of the industry’s first four-wheel steer vehicles incorporating a yaw rate feedback algorithm and led the design and development of one of the industry’s first high bandwidth active suspension vehicles creating control algorithms enabling the vehicle to function with only a hydraulic actuator at each corner. Bob has extensive motorsports experience and has implemented CAE tools in Formula 1, CART, NASCAR, IMSA and NHRA. He is a highly trained certified driver and has developed and taught multiple classroom and on-road vehicle dynamics courses throughout his career.
Chris White is a co-owner and Principal of Cayman Dynamics and has spent over 20 years in vehicle dynamics development, CAE modeling and advanced vehicle attribute and architecture development. Prior to joining Cayman, Chris worked for Ford SVT on vehicle dynamics and advanced chassis projects including Ford GT, Raptor and GT500. Chris has full-cycle product development experience from pre-program attribute strategy through physical prototype development to product launch and assembly plant issue resolution. He is an expert in all aspects of vehicle dynamics attribute assessment including both subjective and objective testing on proving grounds and public roads. Chris is a highly trained certified driver and vehicle evaluator skilled in limit performance driving and complete customer driving dynamics assessments. His ability to mesh physical prototype development with simulation predictions is an extremely valuable asset for our customers.
