THE FOUR POSTER BED
The 508 jiggles and bounces on four hydraulic jacks, one hammering away under each wheel, to simulate the car speeding along a bumpy road. Welcome to Belchamp’s climatic chamber where intense lights above the car simulate the ageing eect of sun on paintwork.
Cars can be pounded around the clock, in temperatures from –40˚ to +50˚, with variable loads on board. The climatic chamber is a powerful tool early in the prototype process: six weeks can rack up the equivalent of 240,000km of driving on test tracks, before the car is dismantled and parts analysed.