Developing a new Mercedes model can sometimes be a turbulent experience. Despite the availability of increasingly high-performance computers, wind tunnel tests remain a necessity.
There hasn’t been a hint of a breeze all day, but all of a sudden a hurricane starts rampaging at 200 km/h. For Armin Michelbach this sort of weather adventure is all in a day’s work. The graduate engineer is in charge of one of the most modern wind tunnels in the world at the Institute for Combustion Engines and Motoring in Stuttgart. Under a cloak of discretion, Mercedes‑Benz specialists work here to perfect the vehicle models of tomorrow.
They guard their development work on the premises of the University of Stuttgart like a secret. Behind the large rolling gate of the unassuming building at Number 12 there is a hidden hall which Michelbach calls the "Secret Room". Large enough to drive a closed truck into, this small room has only one function: to hold prototypes which are not designated for public consumption. While test candidates are brought upstairs in a lift, the engineers walk up using the stairs.
Reams of pipes and cables bound into bundles as thick as arms line the narrow staircase. Hermetically sealed off from the outside world, the first floor houses the heart of the 40 million euro facility. "We often refer to vehicles at minus four years," says Michelbach in describing the sensibility of this area, making it clear that behind these wind tunnel doors, which are more than 30 centimetres thick, is where the future begins.
