This photo records a little piece of history. CTS-V was the first production car we know of to utilize a process called "moving ground plane aerodynamics testing." Traditional automotive wind tunnels (of which we have several) send large amounts of air at a static car (or prototype of a car, such as a clay or fiberglass model.) A moving ground plane takes it to another level, as it “moves” the floor underneath the car, rolling the tires and replicating the conditions of actual driving. It’s sort of like a wind tunnel combined with a very high-tech treadmill, so to speak. This is a technique previously reserved for testing of advanced race cars.

This was done at a state-of-the-art facility called the Auto Research Center in Indianapolis that is affiliated with racing and engineering leader Adrian Reynard of Reynard Racing (famed for open wheel racing chassis development.) And that is the overwhelming emphasis of this type of testing, Indy cars and other race engineering activities (not surprising that this happens in Indiana!)

Anyway, this required us to create a 40 percent scale CTS-V prototype made mostly of carbon fiber, which is what you see in the photo. This scale model is different from any other we’ve every used, as it had real operating tires and suspension, all built to scale, enabling it to run through the moving ground plane test. More later this week on what we did there, and why we did it.