BETTER PARTSAnniversary for the running-in line with banking and heathland range
Stuttgart, April 25, 2017
By storm-swept roads and slippery rain slopes up to the rural Jolt range: 1967 the roads of the world, Mercedes is concentrated. Because 50 years ago, the pilot plant in Untertürkheim in Stuttgart was completed after extensive extensions and it enabled the simulation of all imaginable and unimaginable Street types.
The running-in line on the neck of the bottle
Sedan or truck, Unimog or sports car, bus or race car: Mercedes had in the 1950s almost all types of cars in the portfolio. However, a test section was missing the developers. On proposal of the former Chief Development Officer Fritz Nallinger, the "bottle neck" as a location was chosen, a long elongated plot in the Untertürkheim plant. 1957 was the first stage of the development of "running-in railway". An irrigable slip plate with concentric rings of roadway from different coverings belonged to the facilities. After that, the plant was gradually extended.
In the banking, without direct
After the completion, Mercedes the media presented the facility on May 9, 1967. The total length of all lines is over 15 kilometers. Among the various steep sections with slopes between 5 and 70 percent, and the steep curve at angles of up to 90 degrees provided for amazement. She can only be used with up to 200 km/h, but this would bring the driver to the limit. The ability to navigate the steep curve at the top with 150 km/h is important for long-term experiments. Occur no lateral forces on the tire and the vehicle remains without a driving impulse in the curve. The driver is pressed while still with the 3,1-Fachen of his body weight in the seat.
Strenuous heathland range
Also the "Heath" is irreplaceable for the testing of duration of. This bad road course was built after a particularly nasty Street on the Lüneburg Heath in the early 1950s. Mercedes length of erprobungen goes here as well as on other washboard, Jolt and pothole routes. The tests are so stressful for the driver that they have to be replaced in the two-hour cycle. The courses are complemented by extreme torsional routes for commercial and off-road vehicles and jump hills to reach extreme spring positions. On the 34-metre cross-wind route 16 turbines are installed, producing lateral gusts with speeds of up to 100 km/h. Suspensions at high speeds driving stability and are tested on a track of Wedel. It laid measuring loops provide electronic data in the ground, in addition to radar measurements and the evaluation of a film.
Noise measurement, and more
Even after the completion of the comprehensive expansion, the 8.4-acre test site was adapted to new conditions. Thus is created a track with silent asphalt for noise measurement. The continuous update makes the running-in line in Untertürkheim until today an important development tool. (sl)