--- title: "How Porsche tuner BBI Autosport is using additive manufacturing" url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/how-porsche-tuner-bbi-autosport-is-using-additive-manufacturing/ date: 2026-05-05 modified: 2026-05-05 lang: en author: "Tess Boissonneault" description: "Known primarily as a surfing hotspot, Huntington Beach in California is also home to BBI Autosport, an automotive tuning shop that has established itself as one of the leading specialists..." categories: - "Automotive AM" - "Case Studies" - "Metal Additive Manufacturing" tags: - "top news" image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/bbi-autosport-1-640x480.jpeg word_count: 828 --- # How Porsche tuner BBI Autosport is using additive manufacturing Known primarily as a surfing hotspot, Huntington Beach in California is also home to BBI Autosport, an [automotive tuning shop](https://www.voxelmatters.com/category/additive-manufacturing/automotive/) that has established itself as one of the leading specialists in customizing Porsches. The company, founded in 2005, has been using 3D printing for years in a prototyping capacity but has more recently adopted metal AM for the production of custom components thanks to a partnership with [3D Systems'](https://www.voxelmatters.directory/company/3d-systems/) AIG team of advanced engineering consultants. This upgrade to its production capability has allowed BBI Autosport to make aerodynamic and thermal parts that are more lightweight and more efficient with overall faster lead times. BBI Autosport was founded by Betim Berisha, who had experience as a race car technician and worked for Porsche's racing division. “I could see that there was a big gap between what people were bolting on Porsches versus what I learned in the motorsport world,” Berisha explained. “So I started applying some of that knowledge and making a small name for BBI.” [![BBI Autosport 3D Systems AIG metal AM](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/bbi-autosport-3-255x340.jpeg)](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/bbi-autosport-3.jpeg) While the company started small, it did not take long for BBI Autosport to establish a reputation amongst Porsche enthusiasts as the place to get tune ups and modifications. Among its early achievements was building a Porsche 996 Turbo that reached 221 mph in the 2009 Texas Mile and a 1500 bhp Porsche 911 Turbo that made up to 205 mph in a half mile race in 2012. Within a decade of starting the company, BBI Autosport cars were regularly winning The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado. In 2017, Dmitriy Orlov joined BBI Autosport and helped take its operations and capacity to a new level with the help of innovative technologies. As Berisha states: “I've always had an eye for and a taste for technology, especially cutting-edge technology, so additive manufacturing was always huge on my radar. Dmitriy and I met, and he just opened up a whole world of possibilities for new, advanced innovations in our work, especially the opportunity that additive manufacturing could bring." As CTO at BBI Autosport, Orlov has helped integrate 3D printing into the company's operations, first bringing in a small system for rapid prototyping. “We have a small 3D printer in the shop, that we use religiously,” he said. “It’s such a crucial part of the design workflow—it’s like a concept drawn on a napkin except it’s a physical part, it’s 3D and then we can mess with it.” More recently though, the BBI team has wanted to leverage AM's benefits for larger automotive components. That's where 3D Systems' AIG team of advanced engineering experts has come in. This partnership has enabled BBI Autosport to come up with innovative new designs in CAD or reverse engineer parts using 3D scanning and then have those designs optimized for AM with AIG insights. [![How Porsche tuner BBI Autosport uses 3D Systems additive manufacturing](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/bbi-autosport-2.jpeg)](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/bbi-autosport-2.jpeg) While polymer AM is still commonly used for prototyping, BBI is increasingly using metal AM to manufacture end-use parts like exhaust and intake manifolds, which benefit from weight reduction, consolidation, and greater efficiency through optimized geometries. “These parts are where we can effect great improvements over the original parts and additive manufacturing magnifies that,” said Orlov. “Formula 1 has traditionally cut these and welded them together. But working with 3D printed Inconel, we can create tubes and bends that simply cannot be fabricated, are very lightweight and with a material that can get glowing, red hot, time and time again without failure." [![How Porsche tuner BBI Autosport uses 3D Systems additive manufacturing](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/bbi-autosport-4-255x340.jpeg)](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/bbi-autosport-4.jpeg)In addition to the exhaust manifolds, the auto tuner is also developing 3D printed suspension components, body parts and various other composite and metal structures that will both improve internal workflows and, ultimately, vehicle performance. In terms of its workflow, the dynamic with AIG has been hugely beneficial. That is, the BBI team can design a part then hand the data to AIG, which then optimizes the design for AM and handles printing. This means that the BBI specialists can, as Orlov puts it, "focus on other work without devoting weeks on creating a single part." “AIG has the deep expertise that has allowed us to create shapes and geometries that would otherwise be a nightmare to fabricate, and in materials like Inconel that are incredibly hard to machine,” added Orlov. “3D printing with the 3D Systems team has consolidated the amount of welds and joints, and they have repeatedly pushed the limits of the machines to enable virtually no welds, much lighter weights, for parts we could never have made otherwise.” Looking ahead, BBI Autosport sees AM as an integral part of its growth plans. Specifically, the company is aiming to move from one-off tuning projects to low-volume vehicle production. “Additive for creating these low volume vehicles will be a huge part of the effort for many reasons,” said Orlov. “It enables that Just-in-Time manufacturing mentality where we're not bound by tooling, we're not bound by minimum order quantities and we can get the best possible parts for high value cars using exotic materials, without having to make hundreds of them at a time.”