Starting from September 2006, a new Moving Ground System is in operation in the Pininfarina wind tunnel. This system has replaced the old one, in service since 1995, which was the first in the world with a narrow belt integrated into the balance/turntable.
The new Moving Ground System has a number of improvements, namely:
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- An increased top speed, up to 250 Km/h.
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- A much longer and slightly wider central belt, e.g. it is 6.7 m long and 1.1 m wide.
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- Two additional belts at the sides.
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- A number of innovative features that make this system well suited for testing racing cars.
In particular, this system has two additional belts at the sides of the central belt to cover the part of the ground that is under the car front end, for a width of 2.5 m and a length of 1.5 m.
This feature, patented by Pininfarina, greatly improves the simulation of the flow under the front wing of a Formula 1 car or under the front end of a racing car.
Details are shown in the paper.