Professional racing teams need every bit of technology available to win races today and if what they need is not available, they build it. NASCAR team owner Gene Haas, also owns a company called WindShear, Inc. that decided they needed a rolling road wind tunnel for testing the aerodynamics of the their race cars. They hired Jacobs Engineering Group to build a wind tunnel with a 180 mph rolling road. Most wind tunnels have static surfaces which don’t reflect the reality of driving over the track at high speed, so what you need is something like you see here.
The car in the photo is no toy or scale model, that’s a full size race car! The “road” surface is a 1 millimeter thick steel belt, 11 feet wide and almost 30 feet long. The 40,000 square foot wind tunnel facility is being built in Concord, North Carolina at the Concord Regional Airport and is scheduled for completion later this year. Hopefully, there will be a floor around that belt when they’re done! Wow!
Larger photo for visual reference and links below:
Link: Haas Automation via Jalopnik
wow, driving your car off a regular dyno is scary enough, how do they secure the car?