Posted on Thursday 4 October 2007
We’ve seen Nissan engineers testing cars at famous race tracks such as the Nurburgring and Laguna Seca but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped using their own private circuits. It seems testing behind the doors at Nissan has become so busy that a fifth test track was required. A new circuit at Oppama, Japan, has now been opened at a cost of €16.2 million.
The Oppama course stretches four kilometers in total and features several different roadway surfaces used for fine tuning a vehicle’s chassis. There’s also a high-speed test area as well as an off-road section and several office blocks.
Nissan’s other test tracks include the older Hokkaido, Tochigi and Motegi complexes plus a hot weather testing facility in Arizona. Completing the list is the recently opened driving dynamics center in Troisdorf, Germany, where Nissan’s more premium models including the Infiniti lineup are tested.
I love how the Japanese utilize space. Did you notice that there are still farm fields on the infield of this track!? Too cool.
I wasn’t sure if those were farm fields, but seeing as someone else thought so I dont feel so crazy. Thats pretty cool.
I’m guessing they will still be used for producing food. I don’t think Japan can afford to lose any farmland to something like a race/test track…
Is that an oval?? What a waste of space…
Why? It makes for a good high speed setup, and if you look closer you’ll see there are smaller curving tracks inside the oval.