End of winter testing season
WITH the onset of spring, the 2018 winter testing season at the Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground (SHPG) has come to a close. I was lucky enough to be up at the SHPG on the Pisa during its final week of 2018 operations, taking a range of Mazda cars, SUVs, and even a ute for a spin (sometimes quite literally) on the snow and ice.
Late season conditions added to the fun, especially when it came time to try some drifting on snow in the dinky little MX5 roadster.
I’d expected the MX5 to be a lot easier to drift than the various Mseries BMW models I’d driven up there a couple of months before. That didn’t prove to be the case: thanks to a combination of snow tyres rather than studded ice tyres, its shorter wheelbase and lightness, and variable conditions around the drift circle, the MX5 was a challenging proposition.
Great fun though, especially once I took the lead by insisting on drifting with the MX5’s roof down, and promptly collected a load of snow in the cabin thrown up by the other MX5 out on the drift circle with me.
On a personal note, it was also a delight to find myself in the company of Mazda brand ambassador Riley Elliot during the trip. A keen surfer and University of Otago graduate, Elliot is internationally known for his research into sharks and, in particular, the Great White Shark. I’m fascinated by these beautiful creatures too, and — with his fiancee Amber — spent as much time chatting about sharks as cars.
Returning to motoring, SHPG’s Steve Gould told us that there have been around 250 engineers from a range of global automotive companies on site over the season.
One of the changes he has noticed over this season (and probably the last couple too) has been the increased prominence of electric vehicles (EVs) at the proving ground. What was once the exception is now becoming the norm, with pretty much every manufacturer that comes to the facility having one or more electric vehicles on test.
That’s a nice little lead in to a pretty obvious EV theme of this edition of Drivesouth.
That’s because today marks the start of International Drive Electric week. Amid quite a hive of EV activity nationally, Otago is one of the leading players.