We take a tour of Ford's 200-mph wind tunnel
road wind tunnel for cars that can do it. For that specific speed, there's one large belt the vehicle is placed on, which is spun up to match the wind speeds. This allows aerodynamicists to get more accurate data on how the car reacts at those speeds, since turning wheels and tires play a major role.
The belts themselves are neat, too. They're very thin at 0.8 mm thick, which is enough to be durable, but also light. And the belts are supported by a cushion of air, which makes them easy to rotate and keeps wear down. Those belts turn the wheels of the vehicle, too, rather than the vehicle being turned on and run to speeds. This avoids high temperatures, sound and exhaust.wind, and that's done by a massive fan.
Back to the platform with the belts, it's movable. It can be rotated up to 30 degrees left or right in order to test for cross winds or for aerodynamics when cornering. That's cool in and of itself, but what's also amazing is the tight gap between the turntable and the rest of the floor. There's just 1.5 mm of space in order to keep the gap tight enough that it won't have a major impact on testing.
That's one of a couple reasons that the air tunnel is very carefully temperature controlled, at 72 degrees Fahrenheit to be specific. The other reason is Toth and other aerodynamicists want to keep everything else about testing consistent. He mentioned that accuracy and repeatability with the tunnel are within 0.2 pounds of force.
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