GM Testing: What, No Locusts?

Gary S. Vasilash –

June 11, 2012

Anyone who has had the opportunity to visit an auto assembly plant has probably seen something that looks like this:

(Photo by Jeffrey Sauger for Chevrolet)

But chances are, the system in the plant looks more akin to one of those truncated car washes that are attached to gas stations, and don’t have quite the robustness of this, the Universal Water Test Booth at the General Motors Milford Proving Ground.

Here a 2012 Chevy Cruze is being deluged by 825 gallons of water per minute that is coming out of 330 nozzles. It is estimated that an 8-minute test—6,600 gallons—equates to a lifetime of water exposure.

Clearly, the seals have to be awfully good to deal with that level of quenching, because if they aren’t. . . .

Here’s something that you don’t ordinarily see:

(Photo by Jeffrey Sauger for Chevrolet)

No, that is not the Cruze inside a woodshop. Rather, it is the Dust Booth, where the car is getting a heavy dose of dust, again to check the seals.

Other tests the car is put through include the Climatic Wind Tunnel, Flooded Road Lab, and Thermal Chamber. Almost sounds like venues in an amusement park, the seriousness with which GM takes these tests notwithstanding.