Producing elevator car and getting the world to buy them is a demanding and extremely competitive stage business . Manufacturers agonise over ways to make theircars , trucksand SUVs even marginally honorable than another ship’s company ’s vehicles .
Carmakers go to great extremes in attempt to keep a chapeau on those advancements before they ’re ready to be made public . You may have seen pictures in automobile fancier magazines of epitome elevator car garb in black vinyl and fitted with false prominence to colour the auto ’s lawful appearance and capability .
If they ’re so secret , why let the cars out in public at all ?
To ensure their elevator car live up to the consumer ' standards and one - up contender , car Maker test their cars in all types of environment . While much testing can be done on shut caterpillar tread , real - world car testing needs to take place in veridical - world weather condition . By combine data from the track with data harvest from driving on public roads , automakers apply examination to make fomite that they go for will satisfy the market .
This all-inclusive procedure cut across everything from performance and comfort to reliability and condom . It also encompasses timbre and appearance . The idea behind car testing is that it allows manufacturers to exercise out all the crick and potential problems of a model before it goes into full yield . It ’s much cheaper to eliminate a job with a product before you start mass bring forth it than it is to describe problem and attempt to fix them afterward .
In this article , we ’ll take a look at some aspects of car testing , and how it raises the legal profession on self-propelled design and manufacturing . Testing and tweaking makes it possible for motorcar to get well each class , while price stay stable or even decrease for the same set of feature article .
At the remnant of the sidereal day , though , car testing is all about blackguard a vehicle to get hold its limits .
Pre-Production Vehicles
If you own a railway car and calculate to keep yourrepair and maintenance billslow , chances are that you take highly good care of it . That is , you drive it moderately and modestly and have it serve regularly . You stave off drive it in extreme condition , like extremely blistering or numbinglycold weather condition , whenever potential . You might keep it in a service department . The stresses of hard driving , abrasive temperature and environmental exposure take their toll on a car . Anything an possessor can do to concentrate these condition increases the car ’s life expectancy .
In car testing , the idea is exactly the opposite . Manufacturers attempt to flog the pre - production vehicle they examine to flush out problems and fix them . They want to fix job themselves , before consumers have a opportunity to experience any job and complain . To do this , the car manufacturer seek out toughened environments such as Death Valley in the United States , private testing facilities have by third - party companies , or the far-famed Nurburgring race cartroad in Germany , to name some instance .
In plus , manufacturing business make their cars available to sealed media exit to get their test drive opinion and to create buzz around groundbreaking automobiles before they go on sale for consumer .
automobile testing tends to generate conversation around most new vehicle prototypes , but perhaps the most exciting examination look at place with gamy - execution vehicles . At Germany ’s infamously challenging Nurburgring trial run track , the existence ’s fastest output cars assail a twisting route course between 13 and 15 mile ( 21 and 24 kilometers ) in length , depending on the cart track configuration used .
Testing at Nurburgring and at other in high spirits - speed tracks helps automakers gather information about the trial railroad car ’s acceleration , brakingand handling capabilities . It has also become something of amarketingtool , as the top manufacturing business seek to tumble the incumbent criminal record bearer each year . These bragging right then make their way into a vehicle ’s merchandising materials , with the purpose of raise the prestigiousness of both the example and the brand .
With several dozen major machine brand around the world in universe , there ’s bind to be competition for examination resources . For the most part , the manufacturers have follow a insurance of passive coexistence at examination areas , having adopt " gentlemen ’s agreements " not to harass one another or record stipulation of competition ' vehicle .
This does not mean , however , that automakers let their precaution down when test their auto in public .
Go to the next page to read about the cat - and - black eye biz that auto engineers are forced to play with undercover agent .
Auto Spies on the Prowl
In Hollywood , celebrities find themselves perpetually hounded bypaparazzi , those intrusive photographer and videographers who shove one another and their subject field for the perfect stroke . These images sell for century or even thousands of dollars to magazines and yellow journalism , and Web sites worldwide .
The situation is interchangeable in the world of self-propelled picture taking , except that these undercover agent photographer are hunting for young and previously unobserved cars instead of overexposed starlets . With so many car magazine title out there , editors place great value on pose data to their readers before competitor have a chance to do so .
Spy lensman are normally independent contractor . They stalk their quarry by driving to locations where they await engineer to be examine prototype vehicles . Then , they set up their equipment – expensive tv camera with monumental telephotograph lenses .
gondola magazines pay off decent reward to photographer that wreak back compelling photograph of new and orphic automobiles . Compensation can range from $ 500 to $ 900 for a salutary spy shot [ reservoir : Woodyard ] .
While photographer often obtain their icon covertly , they can get up close and personal with the vehicles to examine to capture more detail . Sometimes , the state of affairs can turn tense , as the engineers who do the examination are tasked with continue the cars as underground as possible . Sometimes they will crowd around a test car to shield it with their bodies . Sometimes they will cover the cable car with a mainsheet .
Frequently , manufacturer will attempt to camouflage the design of their mental test vehicle by implement black vinyl to their surfaces . To further confound photographer and competitors , auto maker might add foam consistency inserts to conceal the car ’s true shape . Another trick is to cover the gondola in complex patterns that confuse the heart ( and the tv camera ) . manufacturing business will even go so far as to cover up any marker , medallions or other logotype , both inside and outside the car , that might indicate who made it .
Go to the next page to find out out exactly how the exam procedures themselves work , who contain them out , what they value and what they accomplish .
Testing a Car
Testing a car in the United States is a long , expensive and often deadening operation . The manufacturers ' destination is to make a fomite that meets install government safety standards , that will stand up to normal consumer habit while incurring minimum warrantee claims and will hit that sweet dapple between customer need and profitability .
One of the more well - known tests iscrash examination . You may know the slow - motion films of elevator car being clangoring tested with dope inside " take on " car passengers . Depending on the purpose of the cinema , the mannequin either fit flying through the windshield , or is protected by a carseatbeltandairbag . Manufacturers care to sound the proverbial cornet when one of their vehicles , specially a category - orient vehicle , scores well in authorities and independent crash - safety tests .
In the United States , the two main bodies that conduct crash safety examination are the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration . Both operate severally of the automobile industry .
In gain to clash examination , car maker must cross a overplus of timber measurements . These psychometric test are conducted by the manufacturers themselves to refine their vehicles as much as potential . Here are a few questions that manufacturing business may tackle :
If that seems like a lot to keep track of , that ’s because it is . However , automakers typically assign specialized squad to address each one of these head so that they can come up with the best solutions in curt order .
count on what ’s being measure or tested , engineers can make changes on the speckle . In other cases , test findings may require an extensive rethinking of how a part or set of part function . To verify the full testing appendage stays fairly on agenda , manufacturers make multiple " mental testing mules , " or pre - production railroad car , for testing . This way , multiple system can be design and experiment with at once .
Not all manufacturers trace the precise same test procedures for all their cars , motortruck and sport utility vehicle . regain out how these procedures take issue on the next page .
Car Testing Criteria
examination machine is expensive . The automobile prototypes , or test mules , can cost several hundred thousand dollars , even for so - call economy cars . Furthermore , it requires paying the remuneration of teams of engineers , paying for the cost of special measurement equipment , and blast out for meals and accommodations for these small armies when they must direct their experiment away from their main office .
Therefore , an entry - level commuter train machine would not be subject to the same examination criterion as a Corvette , which GM want to market as a " world course of instruction " car . And that Corvette , likewise , would not be subject to the same off - route rigors as a ruggedHummer .
Sometimes maker get valuable design and engineering data point from sources outside of their official test programs for preproduction vehicle . Some of these sources admit :
For all their contribution to self-propelling forward motion , trial run automobile almost always suffer an unpleasant fate . Since they ’re typically unfinished works that ca n’t be sold and put under warranty , most test mule are simply sent to thecrusheronce their work is done . This fate was made controversially manifest in the documentary " Who obliterate the Electric Car ? " After General Motors decided to abandon the EV1 electric car program against the wishes of EV1 friend , the company faced a storm of contestation as they haul the vehicles away to be destroy .
Fordfaced similar outrage in 2004 , when it decided to take out the male plug on itselectric carexperiment with its Think mannequin , which it had leased to customers uncoerced to test it . Apublic relationsnightmare for Ford ensued when word leaked that the society planned to put down the railcar after the three - year mental test period . The party eventually relented by harmonise to ship the elevator car back to Norway where they were produced [ source : Associated Press ] .
While those special determination were socially and politically charged because of their environmental overtones , the fact is that trial cars are routinely destroy once manufacturing business no longer involve them .
For more information on how cars are test , go to the next page .
