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Car testing to the limit! Vikram Gour takes a tour of Fiat's winter testing facility located near the Arctic Circle in Sweden.
It's a far of place, this town called Arjeplog (pronounced: Arjya-plog). Located about 100km south of the Arctic circle that passes through the northern part of Sweden, this small town with a population of just 2000 inhabitants is a virtual car guy hot zone during the winters
The reason for this you might ask? Well, this sleepy town gets a solid wake up call from just about every manufacturer in the world as they all have testing facilities located out by a mammoth lake that freezes over in winter. This is the place where ABS, ASR, ESP, TC and other acronyms really have a purpose, and therefore it is ideal for testing. On a mission to drive Fiat's offerings, namely the Linea and Grande Punto, both of which happen to be India bound, is what got me to get all bundled up and combat minus 17 degree Celsius weather for this extreme adventure.
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The Fiat Group Automobiles P.G. winter test center is located in an area of 500 hectars. Apart from that, the company has the disposal of more than 600 hectars of land and lake area in order to conduct their testing. A total of 17 tracks located on both land and lake comprise of the entire test bed for the winter program.
Fiat officials inform me that the winter tests are possibly some of the most grueling tests that can be conducted on an automobile. The sheer extremity of the weather has an adverse effect on the performance of a vehicle's components, from starter motors to heaters to overall engine output.Further to this, the terrain and the abundance of snow and ice make it very difficult to drive. By putting a car through its paces in such a zone not only provides valuable feedback to the manufacturer, but also allows for future development of more relevant technologies that can go on to save lives in everyday conditions.
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It is under such conditions that Fiat concentrates on furthering their vehicle's performance by checking the brakes (ABS, ESP, ASR, TC), four wheel drive, power train, climate system, handling ride and comfort on low adherence terrain (read as: icy surfaces). The company also checks to see how the body and interiors hold up under such conditions. Each vehicle is put through a rigorous test cycle, and the data collated is then deciphered in order to help fine tune the performance of the vehicle even further.
The tracks for testing are divided into two zones, namely the land tracks and the lake tracks. The land tracks incorporate tests for gradeability of 10%, 15% and 20%; there is a handling course through the woods and a series of brake tests such as the polished ice and heated asphalt track.
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