Tunnel Time Across the Pond

Research and development missions never stop. They’re a clandestine bunch, the R&D guys, spending hour after hour on the seven-post shaker rig, at the wind tunnel or on the road at country short tracks like Caraway and Greenville-Pickens in the Carolinas.

Red Bull Racing is going to great lengths — even distances — to make sure its two Toyotas run fast. This month, Red Bull Racing is spending some time in Europe at a “full scale rolling road wind tunnel.”

If it sounds technical, it is.

Full scale means that a regular car is the test specimen — not a scale model. Rolling road means the tunnel’s floor actually moves at wind speed. Our technical director, John Probst, said that’s the key distinction. Most tunnels in the United States today do not have the rolling road feature. They typically have the wheels rotating but not simulation of the car traveling over the road.

Red Bull Racing shipped over one car, along with support equipment. Chief aerodynamicist Nick Ollila is overseeing the project that includes testing of superspeedway and intermediate configurations.

(Listen to Ollila talk about the recent Car of Tomorrow test at Talladega in our audio section at www.teamredbull.com.)