Nissan opens new test track

Posted Thu Oct 4 2007 11:25 AM by Viknesh Vijayenthiran

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.

Reader Comments

Thu Oct 4 2007 3:43 PM
Gus says

I love how the Japanese utilize space. Did you notice that there are still farm fields on the infield of this track!? Too cool.
Thu Oct 4 2007 3:48 PM
Adam says

I wasn't sure if those were farm fields, but seeing as someone else thought so I dont feel so crazy. Thats pretty cool.
Thu Oct 4 2007 5:06 PM
Gus says

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...
Thu Oct 4 2007 10:16 PM
biturbo says

Is that an oval?? What a waste of space...
Fri Oct 5 2007 1:26 PM
Gus says

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.
Wed Jan 14 2009 3:45 AM
Nissan?Interested! says

That's not the new test track in Japan, that's just a picture of the test track in Arizona...as I suspected, the author of this article got lazy and just posted a picture without clarifying, GREAT JOURNALISM!

If you want to look at the track pictured above:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=nissan+test,+arizona&jsv=141e&sll=36.202174,140.149841&sspn=0.30973,0.727844&ie=UTF8&latlng=32945625,-111989177,15291538013639302926&ei=T6RtSbO7D4fSM-qC4cMH&sig2=LccRCLXFY1RoEWorthM94g&cd=3

The new track in Oppama, Japan, looks like this:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=oppama,+Yokosuka&sll=35.294479,139.676228&sspn=0.004895,0.011373&ie=UTF8&ll=35.326173,139.647303&spn=0.009786,0.022745&t=h&z=16

I recognized this track from a new commercial with the 2008/2009 Nissan Altima - in which they said it was a NORTH AMERICAN test center (the largest one in the US, I believe Nissan has 2, another in MI) - so much for "compact farm fields" in Japan, huh? (that didn't make much sense, Japan is far too mountainous and compact to have all this space for farms like that...)

Shame on the author!
Wed Jan 14 2009 3:47 AM
Nissan?Interested! says

Ah, shoot!

Try this link for the North American (Arizona) Nissan Test Center:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=nissan+test,+arizona&sll=36.202174,140.149841&sspn=0.30973,0.727844&ie=UTF8&ei=T6RtSbO7D4fSM-qC4cMH&sig2=LccRCLXFY1RoEWorthM94g&cd=3&cid=32945625,-111989177,15291538013639302926&li=lmd&t=h&ll=32.943933,-111.982698&spn=0.040264,0.090981&z=14

Give me some props! (took me about an hour to sort it all out!)

MotorAuthority