After military service a career as war correspondent was on the cards. But then an exclusive bursar programme in automotive journalism came ‘a-knockin’ – and so a 26-year journey spanning newspapers, magazines and television kicked off.
As managing editor of a leading adventure magazine, Danie traveled the world in search of adventure. Between creating new TV shows, setting new motoring records and running an NPO for kids with cancer, Danie still finds time to write about cars, as often as he can.
Back in the day, some car companies spent up to a decade developing a new vehicle. During that time, the vehicle would be tested in extreme climates, around the world. It would be driven over rough tracks until something breaks, and then a new part would be developed that won’t break. Some car companies, like BMW, leave brand-new cars for literally years in the blistering sun in an extremely hot and dry climate… just to see how the paint and interior materials hold up.
Other car companies do much less. They build the vehicle, a few folks in white jackets and clipboards make notes, a test driver makes a few runs around the manufacturing plant, and the vehicle gets loaded on a ship, on its way to a showroom floor. This is the story of how car companies develop new cars. And how some companies just do it so much better than others.
Most car companies go through extraordinary measures to ensure their products conform to a set quality standard. Take Stellantis, for instance. Following the computer-aided design and engineering phase, with many aspects covered in modern laboratories and facilities, all the company’s vehicles have to endure a cycle of rigorous real-world driving tests. These tests are not completed on a test track in the company’s backyard… it’s a lot more intricate and extensive than just being driven around the block a couple of times (as some companies actually appear to do).
Stellantis sends all its products to some extreme locations for extreme weather testing. This includes a place called Arjeplog, located in the north of Sweden, which houses an extensive proving ground, run by the company. Similar in latitude to Iceland, and with temperatures that drop to as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. With many acres of frozen lakes to utilize as test tracks, the location is as safe as freezing weather testing can get.
On the other end of the scale, Stellantis uses a base in the town of Upington, in South Africa, for its extreme hot weather testing. In fact, many other companies have bases there too, including BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce, the Volkswagen Group of companies, and more. Located at the edge of the Kalahari Desert, the area combines extreme heat, often peaking at more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with low humidity. It is not only the heat that comes into play here, but also tests for dust intrusion into the cabin, longevity of paint and interior materials, as well as high speed performance in extreme heat.
Interestingly, there is also a stretch of 120 miles of the straightest blacktop road you’ll find anywhere in the world, running through a desert area, heading to the Botswana border. The R360 road hardly carries any traffic and is in excellent condition, and is used by most car companies to conduct high-speed performance tests. On any given weekday, especially in the hot summer months, you’ll find a convoy of new, camouflaged Porsche test cars or Rolls-Royce mules hurtling along this road at speeds of up to 155 mph (that’s the speed limit on this particular road).
2016 Toyota Hilux 2.8 GD-6
Engine
2.8-liter, turbocharged inline-4, diesel
Power
175 hp
Torque
332 lb-ft
0-60 mph
10.5 seconds (estimated)
Top speed
115 mph (estimated)
Selling trucks in Africa is big business. And no-one knows this better than Toyota, the leading pickup retailer on the continent (and many other territories too). So why is it so successful, even though it is relatively expensive compared to other pickups? It is because it is engineered to last the distance… and then some. When Toyota Japan introduces a new pickup model for the African market, for example, it is sent to a town in South Africa called Eston, mostly known for its sugarcane farming. Many decades ago, Toyota built a comprehensive vehicle proving ground here, featuring a number of tracks and challenges new vehicles are subjected to.
Most telling is the rough gravel track, a circular route covering several miles, with an on-site research and development facility, manned by folks in those white jackets and clipboards. It works like this. The test mule, a Hilux straight off the ship from Japan, is driven as hard as it will go on the extremely rough gravel tracks, covering, ruts, rocks, water, mud… you name it. This process continues 24/7, with a bunch of test drivers sharing the driving duties.
This goes on until something breaks. The vehicle is recovered to the research facility, where it is examined by the folks in white coats, and the source of the breakage is located. The engineers then set to work upgrading that part, or parts, using the data obtained from the first breakage. The upgraded parts are fitted, and the pickup heads back out onto the track… until the next part gives way. Wash, rinse and repeat, until nothing gives way.
The process not only takes days, but can run into many months, even years (especially in the days before computer simulations became a thing). But the end result is a pickup that can handle just about anything you can throw at it. And it can do it over and over again.
Truth be told, some trucks sold in Africa, especially ones that hail from the East and sell for half the price of the Toyota Hilux, may look cool and have even more gadgets in the cabin than the class-leading Toyota, but their development processes were far less involving and thorough. Time costs money, and for some companies the potential profit of a much shorter lead time, from a computer drawing to a dealer floor, is much more appealing than spending all their resources on developing an extremely tough truck. As Toyota does. In the long run, that ‘half-price’ truck may very well come back to haunt its owners, who thought they scored the bargain of the century.
Technology and innovation have had a major impact on car research and development. Simulation programs can test suspension systems, wipers, electrically operated seats, materials, you name it. In the ideal world, a combination of the simulated programs and a rigorous testing cycle, as Stellantis and Toyota indulge in, would provide us with the best products imaginable.
The most significant technology affecting our cars in the near future is artificial intelligence (AI). According to research conducted by Market and Markets, the automotive AI industry in the USA will reach $38.45 billion by 2030. With all the software and automated systems involved, car development and research will certainly take on some new twists and turns in the next decade or so. Engineers will also have to develop new procedures and test processes to iron out any potential glitches in future AI-driven automotive systems. Running a vehicle on a tough track until something gives way just won’t cut it here.
On a lighter note, a reminder that car research and development can be fun too, as Fiat demonstrates with this fictional commercial (well, we assume it is fictional!):
High performance vehicles are often fine-tuned on racing tracks, to specifically cater for premier on-track handling and performance. The infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife, especially, serves as a development base for high-end performance brands such as Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-AMG and many more. Korean brand Hyundai even based its “N” performance division at the track, and all its performance cars spend a lot of time on the The Ring, testing and fine-tuning suspension settings, electronic systems, and more.
Toyota has also used The Ring for the development of its new performance cars, using the data accumulated to compare the performance of its cars to its competitors. However, with Toyota’s headquarters in Japan located more than 6,000 miles from the famous German track, the company decided in 2019 to build its own version of the circuit in Japan, simulating many of The Ring’s famous corners and elevation changes. The 3.3-mile track is located on 1,600 acres of land, covering nearly 250 feet in elevation changes. So performance cars can be developed on this track, and then sent to the Nürburgring for some comparison data and detail tuning.
The days when companies like BMW left brand-new cars in the sun, literally for years, to measure paint and interior material degradation, are numbered. With new testing systems now in play that can do the same job in a controlled laboratory, saving costs and time, the quality of the products will, ultimately, also improve. And thank goodness for more recent developments, such as human-like crash test dummies, used in safety tests. Back in the day, human volunteers were used extensively in crash testing.
We’d expect HR managers would have some issue with such tests if they were conducted today. Watch here:
Sources: Toyota Europe, BMW M, Stellantis, Markets And Markets.
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