From Scandinavia to dubai, the '03
Corvette and Porsche Cayenne have been put through their
paces.
The list of tests reads like a newly licensed adolescent's fantasy:
Total Vehicle Durabiity. High Performance Validation. Mountain
Driving. Autocross Simulation. Of course, to turn a 16-year-old
loose behind the wheel of the Corvette Z06, with its 405-horsepower
powerplant, would be foolish at best, and possibly dangerous. And
in fact, Dave Wickman, Corvette's lead development engineer and the
man charged with ensuring that the Vette maintains its
half-century-old position as
America's premium
sports car, has held
a driver's license for more than 30 years. But that doesn't mean
he's forgotten the thrill of driving one of the world's most
powerful
sports cars. And it's his job to make sure the public
doesn't, either.
To continually improve upon a car is difficult enough; to
continually improve on what is widely regarded as the best car in
its class is truly Herculean. And that's exactly why Wickman and
his team of engineers spend every working day putting the Vette
through its paces, and dreaming up new ways to torture the car.
"Because this is such a high perform- ance car, there's a high
potential for abuse," explains Wickman. "There's a lot of stuff we
can do analytically, with computers and mathematics. But there's
still no substitute to submitting the car to the environment."
Make that "environments." If a car could qualify for frequent-flier
miles, the Corvette would never fly coach again. "You can pretty
much name a place, and we've been there," says Wickman. That
includes
Australia, to test engine and brake temperatures in
extremely hot weather; northern
Ontario, to make sure the car will
start at 30 degrees below; and the infamous Nürburgring, a 14-mile
closed road course in
Germany, where the car is subjected to speeds
in excess of 160 mph for hours on end. "As manufacturers come under
increasing pressure to develop new models faster, you have to go
where the weather is," says Wickman. "It's gotten to the point
where we're shipping the cars all over the world."