Apr 17 2007Giant treadmill built for cars
Haas CNC Racing NASCAR team owner Gene Haas teamed up with Jacobs Engineering to create the first rolling road testing facility in the United States known as WindShear Inc. It's a one-millimeter thick continuous steel belt that rolls at over 180mph, and features sensors under the bed that can take readings at each wheel. It was created because wind tunnels get errors in readings at such high speeds. Although I'd much rather deal with reading errors than have a test car go shooting through the wall because the wheels and belt weren't exactly matched up.
One more shot after the jump.
Related Stories
1993 Lincoln Mark VIII Rolling Door Concept Car (07/10/2007)
Car Tent (06/25/2007)
LG develops super-thin e-paper (05/15/2007)
Chinese create e-cigarette (05/10/2007)
Race your bathtub (04/19/2007)
Reader Comments
1. hmm - April 25, 2007 9:30 AM
That doesn't exactly make sense. They test airplanes in wind tunnels, and they go faster than 180 - and even if car wind tunnels are different and aren't reliable at those speeds, running a car on a treadmill wouldn't be the same as putting it in a wind tunnel.
Wind tunnels test for aerodynamics... in this case the car isn't moving anywhere you'd just be testing engine, wheels and brakes maybe?
2. nick - April 26, 2007 12:03 AM
I think the concept is to add the treadmill to the wind tunnel to be closer to the real thing.
3. build weights muscle - April 29, 2007 3:16 AM
muscle chest build
4. Rob - April 29, 2007 3:48 PM
it's to test the tires... a wind tunnel isn't accurate for that. so mixing this with a wind tunnel would give them the best results for EVERYTHING. they're not testing aerodynamics on this, just tires.
5. gio - May 3, 2007 6:13 AM
here could be more accurate specially in other areas like heat transfer...
6. pinewood derby star cars - May 4, 2007 8:59 AM
cars pinewood derby of
7. Old Man Jack - May 4, 2007 8:35 PM
Look carefully at the top photo at the little fixtures in brass to the left of the car and then at in the second picture to the right. I think they're using tension wires to monitor relative speeds and centering. Ah. Good old fashioned reliable mechanical systems. The guy at the table is still brave though.
8. Greg - May 19, 2007 5:28 PM
oh, how hilarious will it be when the motor breaks on the treadmill and the belt line halts. Car is going a few blocks down the street.