Automobile test-landscapes
"This fall," Engineering News-Record reports, "what is believed to be the nation’s first public performance track" will open in Naperville, Illinois, a town outside Chicago. "If the concept is successful," we're told, this new, depopulated, entirely automobile-based landscape "may launch a niche for civil engineers."
It is a "one-third-mile track" – a "public proving ground" – and it was created by an "architect who designs racetracks." On it, "SUV enthusiasts will go 'off-roading' by climbing up a miniature hill and bouncing down a short boulder run." Indeed, there will be "three concrete pads designed to simulate off-road scenarios without the constant maintenance. The first is a banked pavement with an 8% cross slope. It progresses into a 12-ft-tall hill paved with exposed aggregate. The final touch is a 150-ft-long 'rough road' peppered with boulders that protrude 3 to 6 in."
Finally, proving that some weird and unexpected combination of J.G. Ballard, Andy Warhol, and the private security industry have a conceptual lock on today's world: "Video cameras with a live Internet feed will keep a close watch..."
You can gaze upon absolutely nothing happening in an abstract, simulated landscape designed for nothing but cars.
"The track is generating 'a lot of excitement,'” we read.
It is a "one-third-mile track" – a "public proving ground" – and it was created by an "architect who designs racetracks." On it, "SUV enthusiasts will go 'off-roading' by climbing up a miniature hill and bouncing down a short boulder run." Indeed, there will be "three concrete pads designed to simulate off-road scenarios without the constant maintenance. The first is a banked pavement with an 8% cross slope. It progresses into a 12-ft-tall hill paved with exposed aggregate. The final touch is a 150-ft-long 'rough road' peppered with boulders that protrude 3 to 6 in."Finally, proving that some weird and unexpected combination of J.G. Ballard, Andy Warhol, and the private security industry have a conceptual lock on today's world: "Video cameras with a live Internet feed will keep a close watch..."
You can gaze upon absolutely nothing happening in an abstract, simulated landscape designed for nothing but cars.
"The track is generating 'a lot of excitement,'” we read.
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2 Comments:
Land Rover has been making these things for years. They design them into the car dealership, so you can have a real test drive of the off-road features. For instance: Here's one in Santa fe.
There are also automotive test tracks for off-road vehicles, built by car companies. I remember read a 'blog about some guys sneaking their 4x4 Vanagons onto one of them, but I can't seem to find it now.
This isn't really a new idea - just a modern re-interpretation. I drove (well, steered) my dad's car around the "autodrome" in Hornchurch, UK in about 1980. The idea of the autodrome was to allow learner drivers to experience all the fun of hill starts and mini-roundabouts without the menace of being on a public road. Come to think of it, watching a track full of nervous learners could be an entertaining way to spend a wet evening...
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