Mako goes after Raptor
With Ford holding the reins of the ute market since about 2014, it was always going to be a case of when – not if – Toyota NZ would deliver a model to compete.
We all know it’s easy to make money selling cars: get a clever geek to design something using CAD, build it, sell lots, bank the money and live the life of Riley with a bevy of dusky maidens, or toy-boys, in the Cayman Islands. Yeah right!
In reality the lifespan of a car is seven-eleven years, so on the day you drive that new model out of a dealer’s showroom some clever geek is working on a new model that will take four-six years to develop.
As well as creating a new look, incorporating the latest engines and transmissions and paying homage to the newest audio visual technologies, designers are having to pay special attention to handling and comfort as customers become increasingly more critical of these areas.
Once a design has been engineered, pre-production vehicles are handed to test engineers for final refinement, and testing. The Ford test facility at Lommel in Belgium is a good example.
Here a 1.5km test track replicates 100 different potholes and surfaces from 50 countries – speed bumps that can wreck suspensions if taken too quickly, cobblestones from Paris streets, typical Asian monsoon-swept roads with deep ruts, un-made roads that wreck wheel rims and burst tyres….
The diary of a test driver at this facility must include regular visits to an osteopath during the development of a new vehicle. They typically cover 5000 laps of the 1.5km test track during a development cycle, and encounter potholes up to 14cm deep, and at speeds of up to 70km/h. In six months of testing at the Lommel facility they can replicate 10 years of hard driving, or abuse, while using $1.4 million dollars of hi-tech equipment to record their findings.
So next time you hit a pothole on the Desert Road and shake your bones, give a thought for the man from Ford who has probably driven through a replica of the same hole 5000 times – and does it for a living. – Mark Daniel
A vet is calling for all animals to be vaccinated against a new strain of leptospirosis (lepto) discovered on New Zealand dairy farms in recent years.
Two major red meat sector projects are getting up to a combined $1.7 million in funding from the New Zealand Meat Board (NZMB).
Angus Barr and Tara Dwyer of The Wandle, Lone Star Farms in Strath Taieri have been named the Regional Supreme Winners at the Otago Ballance Farm Environment Awards in Dunedin.
OPINION: The distress that the politicians and bureaucrats are causing to the people of Wairoa and the wider Tairāwhiti is unforgivable.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.
OPINION: Talking about plant-based food: “Chicken-free chicken” start-up Sunfed has had its valuation slashed to zero by major investor Blackbird…
OPINION: Synlait's financial woes won’t be going away anytime soon.