Catch wind of our quality.
At the Audi wind tunnel centre, the focus is on dynamics. As well as numerous top sport cars, Audi Genuine Accessories also benefit from this advanced facility.
If you want to be certain of your products and quality, you must not be afraid of the headwind. Audi has defined this guiding principle for its wind tunnel centre in Ingolstadt. The 47-metre tunnel is currently the most powerful wind tunnel in the world, while also generating the least noise. The technology certainly looks impressive – the fan rotor alone has a diameter of 5 metres. The fan is driven by an electric motor located within the enclosure. The accelerated air follows a pipe with four bends to prevent turbulence and interfering noise. Before entering the measuring tunnel, the flow passes through three sieves and a nozzle. Practically turbulence-free, even and in a constant direction, the air accelerates to 300 km/h – replicating even the high performance conditions of an Audi R8. Every small detail has an impact on the driving experience – even a proportion of one hundredth in the drag coefficient cW represents around one gram of CO₂ emissions per kilometre. The scale cannot be small enough.
The sporting ambition of Audi Genuine Accessories is second to none. For example, add-on parts such as the exterior mirror housing, rear spoiler or the side sills are always developed with maximum aerodynamics in mind. All products are also tested for stability and their behaviour is analysed under the most diverse weather conditions. In the wind tunnels, Audi engineers are not only driven by a hunt for precious additional seconds but also a desire to add the final polish to every detail.
A facility where this level of measurement accuracy can be achieved is not just of interest to car manufacturers. Top sportsmen and women are also attracted by the huge range of testing opportunities in the wind tunnel. For example, the Audi Sailing Team Germany used the tunnel in its preparations for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Ski jumpers from the German ski federation use data from the wind tunnel to find the perfect posture. And multiple world record holder and Olympic champion swimmer Ian Thorpe also used this wind tunnel to optimise his swimsuit.
