The rear-mounted Corrsys-Datron professional optical sensor bracket on the Camry has minimal aerodynamic impact as it is in aerodynamic shadow. The distance between the device and the road is precisely calibrated.
By the summer, we acquired a Racelogic PerformanceBox measuring complex (known before a small modernization as VBOX Mini) in order to supplement the tests with objective data. Although testing on normal roads does not imply perfectly accurate measurements, it is useful to know how true the semi-professional Racelogic is. Taking both editorial cars, we went to the NAMI Test Center - simply to the legendary Dmitrovsky auto testing ground. Here, out of old friendship, we are received by the Auto Review (AR) technical center.
This well-equipped service station for a couple of cars, with a five-ton lift and office space, more like a laboratory, is a monument to the heyday of the printed automotive press in Russia. At the peak of the market, the owner of the AR, Mikhail Podorozhansky, invested in the reconstruction of the polygon fire station in order to gain a foothold in the territory of the then NIITSIAMT. As a result, today even some manufacturers (we were asked not to name them) use the services of the center.
But we thank Mikhail Iosifovich and the AR testers not only for expert support, but also for the opportunity to return to the past for a short time. Petrovsky and I are always glad to see former colleagues, and even more so - the opportunity to work together. And if we often contact journalists on test drives, then spending a whole day in the company of friendly testers is a rarity ...
To measure acceleration and braking dynamics, the car is literally hung with equipment. On the windshield is our PerformanceBox with an external antenna connected (GPS sampling rate 10 Hz). Next to it, for comparison, is the auto-revolving VBOX Sport (20 Hz). And behind the stern, the standard is a high-precision optical sensor Corrsys-Datron with an operating frequency of as much as 250 Hz.
Having secured the equipment, we set a course for a dynamometer road with a length of 4.7 km. This is a perfectly straight two-lane highway, repeating the radius of curvature of the Earth - in other words, it has no elevation difference up to the braking zone. At the wheel, in turn, AR tester Roman Cherny and your humble servant. On the right - Andrey Mokhov, an instrument engineer, who taught me the measurement technique back in 2003.
Ensuring the accuracy of the result begins in advance, in the boxes. The car is brought to the curb weight (full tank and washer reservoir, from the load - only the standard tool and a spare wheel). The prescribed tire pressure is set. The air conditioner turns off. All measurements according to global practice are carried out with a load of two people plus a couple of tens of kilograms for measuring equipment - remember this if you get optimistic results alone.
Testing one car takes about an hour. The first results are immediately visible on the instrument screens, but the main work is the subsequent analysis of the data. Indeed, the arithmetic mean of travels in different directions is taken into account in order to exclude the influence of the wind. For Toyota, measurements are given a bit hard, as if the lazybones were forced to run a cross. In the city, the Camry seems to be dynamic, but acceleration at the limit is noisy and subjectively sluggish, and when braking, the sedan falls on the front axle.
However, the results are good! Toyota is gaining 100 km / h almost half a second earlier than the announced time: 9.5 seconds after the start. And up to the maximum speed of 210 km / h indicated in the characteristics, it does not get only a couple of kilometers per hour. It should be noted that Toyota is slowly approaching the ceiling, as if with the last bit of strength. But exchange rate stability raises no questions.