Automotive testing for all - at Autosport
Windshear, the world’s first commercially available full-scale, single belt, rolling road wind tunnel - the most advanced wind tunnel of its kind - will be open for business in North Carolina in early 2008.
Windshear Inc. will operate the facility 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a staff of 25.
Built by Haas Automation, the facility will be available for hire to all motor sports teams and auto manufacturers, providing services previously available only to top Formula 1 teams. Although two similar rolling-road facilities exist in Europe, and numerous scale-model tunnels operate worldwide, most other facilities found around the world are proprietary operations, owned and operated by manufacturers, or race teams, for their own use.
Windshear’s wind tunnel and 180mph rolling road promise to provide verifiable and repeatable motor sports testing – in a highly secure and private working environment. Windshear was designed to accommodate 100 per cent full-scale vehicles, and provide constant airspeeds up to 180 mph, with temperatures controlled to within plus or minus 0.55 Celsius (1ºF). The high-tech rolling road will be 3.2 meters (10.5 feet) wide by 9 meters (29.5 feet) long, and be able to accelerate from zero to 180 mph (290kmh) in less than one minute.
The “road” is actually a continuous stainless steel belt just one millimetre thick, and it is designed to last up to 5000 operational hours. During testing, “through-the-belt” sensors measure the aerodynamic down force under each tyre while a sophisticated on-board data acquisition system collects other test-critical data.
Windshear has announced that it will be particpating in Autosport International 2008 at the NEC, Birmingham - booth E404/E406.
