David Champion has the ideal job for a guy who grew up dreaming of cars.
“I get to drive the latest cars each year and put them through their paces to see what they’re all about,” said the senior director of the Consumer Reports Auto Test Department.
Champion supervises Consumer Report’s auto and tire-testing operations at a 327-acre site here.
On specially paved surfaces and using state-of-the-art instrumentation, Champion and his crew test close to 60 cars and trucks each year. Results of more than 45 tests, along with recommendations-and warnings about specific models-are published in Consumer Reports magazine throughout the year and in the Annual Auto Issue each April.
“It’s my passion, but it’s not just about fun,” says the 49-year-old mechanical engineer who has worked for Nissan and Land Rover. “It’s about which cars will be best and safest for the consumer.”
Consumer Reports provides safety ratings, including how a car fares in crash and rollover tests; reliability ratings; and “top picks” in various categories.
Engineers purchase vehicles from dealerships, just as consumers would. “They have no idea we work for Consumer Reports,” said Gabriel Shenhar, senior automotive test engineer, who supervises the purchasing. Cars are driven several thousand miles in daily use, then put through the test series.
Spend a day at the facility, and you’ll see how some of the tests work, and what they reveal about how a car should be equipped for safety and performance.
Here are some highlights:
Electronic Stability Control demonstration: ESC helps prevent loss of control in a turn, especially on slippery roads or when a driver swerves to avoid an obstacle. Champion calls it the best-kept secret in safety.
Sensors judge whether the rear or front wheels are losing grip and whether the car is skidding. They automatically brake the affected wheel to bring the car into line.
The benefits of ESC are illustrated when an Acura and a Kia accelerate down the test track, and thread through cones spaced 8 feet apart. They quickly turn left, right and left, simulating avoidance maneuvers.
Drivers start the test at about 45 m.p.h. and build speed until the car begins to hit cones.
“Our rule,” said Shenhar, ” is when there are three failures knocking cones at the same speed that’s the maximum we can achieve.” So if the car knocks down a cone on three successive runs at the same speed, that speed is the highest for the test.
With the ESC off, the cars swing from side to side. With ESC on, the cars make it through with cones intact.
According to Consumer Reports, ESC is standard on some cars but it’s on only 20 percent of new cars bought.
“[Automakers] bundle the ESC option with other accessories,” said Champion, “so it becomes expensive.”
Headlight testing: The static headlight test course demonstrates how far the low and high headlight beams project against a series of targets spaced down the track. “It has to be a clear moonlit night with no ambient lighting,” said Jennifer Stockburger, senior automotive and tire test engineer. Snow is cleared away because it will reflect light. The `ideal’ conditions might not translate to the real world, but they do allow lights to be compared with as few variables as possible.
“The average low beam projects 260 feet,” she says. “At 60 miles per hour, you need about 300-plus feet to react and to stop. So you see there is not a lot of margin in lighting.”
They also drive on a dark road course to see how headlights work on the road, what they illuminate, and a new headlight testing lab will measure brightness at various distances.
“The new high-intensity discharge [HID] lights show much brighter and put more light to the roadsides,” Stockburger said, “but they don’t project a beam any farther.”
Anti-lock brake demonstration: A test course is wet down, and a car enters at 45 m.p.h., straddling a yellow line. The pavement is three times as slick to the left of the line as to the right, simulating a partly icy or sandy road. The driver slams on the brakes. Most ABS-equipped cars stop fairly straight, with distances varying from 90 to 104 feet, according to Shenhar. With the ABS disconnected, the car skids and spins when the brakes are applied.
“More cars now have Electronic Brake Force Distribution [a system that feeds more braking force to the wheels when it senses the pedal is pushed harder] in combination with ABS,” said Champion. “No longer do you get those big pedal pulsings like years ago.” ABS is standard on many cars but also optional on others.
4×4 Rock Climb Wall: 4×4 vehicles are driven up a wall with a 13-degree angle. “Stones have been custom placed” said Shenhar. “The northern part is easier than the southern part. The rocks are cemented not to move. We’re looking for articulation and traction and also how civilized the vehicle is to traverse these kinds of boulders.”
Track handling demonstration: A Subaru WRX STi, Ford Mustang GT, BMW M3 and Pontiac GTO roar around the handling course as fast as they can be driven by test drivers. Down a smooth straightaway, and through tight, bumpy corners, it is a test of handling at the limits of cornering, acceleration, traction, steering and braking. It shows how stable a car will be at high speed and how well it will handle.
“Is the car forgiving enough, secure enough so someone entering an off ramp too quickly will be able to correct the car easily,” Shenhar said. Though sporty cars reach 50 m.p.h. on the curves and 105 on the straight, “it’s not a race,” said Shenhar, one of the drivers.
Tire trends: Performance tires are the fastest growing category, “and tires are getting larger,” said Eugene Petersen, program leader/tire test engineer. “In 2004 there were 249 different performance sizes, and almost half are 17 inches in diameter and above,” he said. “In 1984, 13, 14 and 15 inches were the most common sizes. Now 76 percent of tires are 16 inches and larger.”
Testers run tires on cars and measure wear, performance, handling in wet and dry conditions as well as road noise generated by them.
Higher horsepower cars need the larger, performance tires, Petersen said. But “there’s consumer shock because they wear out in 25,000 to 30,000 miles, and they’re very expensive, versus cheaper and longer-lasting but lower performance all-season tires. And you can’t use high-performance tires in the snow,” he said, “even with all-wheel-drive.”
He said some drivers try to switch to smaller wheels to mount all-season tires, but that reduces the vehicle’s speed and load-carrying capabilities. And states are starting to pay attention. He said Maine passed a law that prohibits replacing original equipment tires with others that have lower speed and load ratings.
