The Windshear rolling-road wind tunnel in North Carolina will be one of the fastest and most advanced facilities in the world, and the only in America capable of 180mph (around 300kph) testing. The US$40 million complex will be a resource for Formula One, NASCAR and most other racing teams.

With his NASCAR team consistently running up to 180mph and beyond, team owner and CNC machine tool magnate Gene Haas decided to stump up US$40 million to build the only rolling-road wind tunnel in America capable of testing aerodynamics at simulated road speeds of up to 180mph.

The Windshear wind tunnel, still under construction in Concord, North Carolina, will join BMW’s Sauber facility and Audi’s system as the only rolling-road wind tunnels capable of testing at these speeds.

The ‘road’ in Windshear’s case is a 1mm-thick continuous steel belt. The horizontal surface is 10.5 feet wide by 29.5 feet long, allowing a wide range of vehicles, including Formula One cars, to be tested on it if necessary. This steel belt is designed to last up to 5,000 operational hours, or somewhere between 186,000 and 248,000 miles before it’s replaced. It will accelerate to top speed in a matter of around 10 seconds, and it can brake from 180 to 0 in a similar amount of time.

At top speed, the 22-foot diameter, 5100-horsepower main fan will force 2.85 million cubic feet past the car per minute, consuming around 7 megawatts of power in the process.

Article taken from Topix