Auto Research Center
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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Automotive Cycling Aerodynamics Wind Tunnel |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Number of locations | USA, England, China along with regional offices |
Key people | Mike Camosy - CEO |
| Services | Research and Development with 50% scale rolling road wind tunnel, 7-post shaker rig, driveline dyno, aerodynamic bicycle facility, CFD and more. |
| Website | www |
Auto Research Center, also known as ARC Indy, is a research and development company with headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana USA. It was founded as Reynard Motorsports' North American headquarters, and became its own company in 2002.
History
[edit]ARC was opened in 1998, as the North American headquarters for Reynard Motorsports. Reynard Motorsports was based at Reynard Park,[1] Brackley, England and at that time was the largest race car designer and manufacture in the world, producing cars for both open wheel and sportscar racing. In the USA, the primary effort was on open wheel in Indycar/CART.
ARC initially housed a scale model wind tunnel and 7-post test rig; the engineering design suite, scale modeling making/building and tech office were all in the same building. While ARC was a public test facility, in reality Reynard had enough customers that the facility was completely booked by Indycar/CART and the British American Racing F1 race team. Reynard Motorsports went into receivership in 2002, leaving ARC without a parent company.
With staff and a small budget but no customers, ARC built a NASCAR scale model to bring in new business. The first major customers were NASCAR OEM manufactures, who were impressed with the scale model that had been built. From there, Sportscar racing also became a large focus from other customers.
In the mid-2000s, ARC expanded its services with the addition of its driveline dynamometer test rig, rapid prototyping, and 3D laser scanning. Then, around the start of 2010s, ARC started to further expand its customer base with production OEM scale model testing and commercial semi-trailer truck industry. In 2008, ARC expanded upon its Indianapolis Headquarters, breaking ground for a large expansion. The engineering suite and scale model making services were all moved to the new addition to help handle the growing increase in customers and expansion from ongoing customers.
In 2015, ARC opened its Aerodynamic Bicycle Testing Facility (ABT).
Wind tunnel
[edit]The wind tunnel at ARC was designed for automotive testing. The tunnel is a 3/4 open plenum configuration with an optional rolling road and primary and secondary boundary layer control treatments. The tunnel nozzle has a cross-section that is 2.3 m wide by 2.1 m high. Force measurements are gathered utilizing a 6 degree of freedom balance mounted internally between the tested model, a vertical sting. The balance includes an integrated model motion system capable of automated pitch, roll, yaw, and vertical translation with laser measurement feedback. Additional capabilities can be included in the model for incorporation of automatically or dependently controlled motors (i.e. wheel steer). In addition to force measurements, the tunnel has capabilities for pressure tap measurements, anemometer measurements, and flow visualization including tufts and oil droplets. Beyond the standard test measurements, new capabilities have been added for measuring torque and rotation rate, as well as braking controls for wind turbine experiments.
References
[edit]- ^ "www.reynardracingcars.com". Archived from the original on 2015-04-30. Retrieved 2020-06-24.