The Underground Windtunnel....
Posted 10-30-2007 at 09:02 PM by Chris Clark
A few years ago..... when I REALLY paid attention to ALL things motorsports, I had heard rumors of an underground windtunnel constructed out of an old abandoned highway tunnel somewhere in the US. Just a rumor, I never really thought much of it, or heard anything about it afterward.
Fast-forward to a few days ago and I was at Barnes and Noble picking up a few mags and came across the October issue of Racecar Engineering. I used to read RE religiously a few years ago and eventually lost interest for whatever reason. So I picked up the new copy and started flipping through, and to my surprise, There IT was!!! The secret windtunnel!
I'm not going to steal RE's thunder, or risk time in the clink by posting the whole article here, but the basic gist of the thing is really cool.
The tunnel is actually an old tunnel cut through the mountains in Pennsylvania for the railroad back in the 1890's. Eventually it was converted to a roadway for the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but was deemed a bottleneck and abandoned in the 1960's where it laid dormant until an un-named race team leased the thing in 2004.
Rumor has it the tunnel is NOT a windtunnel, but actually a "coast-down tunnel". Initial testing was conducted with a NASCAR Cup car, and there are rumors of tests being conducted on an IRL car and a Toyota F1 car.
The article in RE is really pretty interesting and much more in depth than I wanted to get here, including photo's of the place taken by a hiker who heard "screaming burnouts and deep-tone V8's blasting through 4 gears" from the trails on top of the hill. If you have the opportunity, pick it up and read it.
-Chris
Fast-forward to a few days ago and I was at Barnes and Noble picking up a few mags and came across the October issue of Racecar Engineering. I used to read RE religiously a few years ago and eventually lost interest for whatever reason. So I picked up the new copy and started flipping through, and to my surprise, There IT was!!! The secret windtunnel!
I'm not going to steal RE's thunder, or risk time in the clink by posting the whole article here, but the basic gist of the thing is really cool.
The tunnel is actually an old tunnel cut through the mountains in Pennsylvania for the railroad back in the 1890's. Eventually it was converted to a roadway for the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but was deemed a bottleneck and abandoned in the 1960's where it laid dormant until an un-named race team leased the thing in 2004.
Rumor has it the tunnel is NOT a windtunnel, but actually a "coast-down tunnel". Initial testing was conducted with a NASCAR Cup car, and there are rumors of tests being conducted on an IRL car and a Toyota F1 car.
The article in RE is really pretty interesting and much more in depth than I wanted to get here, including photo's of the place taken by a hiker who heard "screaming burnouts and deep-tone V8's blasting through 4 gears" from the trails on top of the hill. If you have the opportunity, pick it up and read it.
-Chris
Total Comments 6
Comments
 |  Now, that's pretty cool!! Thanks, Chris. |
Posted 10-30-2007 at 09:11 PM by John Thawley  |
| |  Did a quick web search and found some additional stuff. Look here on 6/02/06: http://www.autoracing1.com/rumors.as...&dend=06/05/06 Some guys took a picture of this...probably not something you find around most abandon tunnels http://www.nrs2.org/albums/album178/DSC00042.sized.jpg |
| Posted 10-30-2007 at 09:45 PM by Nick Koske Updated 10-30-2007 at 09:48 PM by Nick Koske |
| | Nice find! The article mentioned photo's of empty cans of race gas lying around, but no pics. |
| Posted 10-30-2007 at 10:19 PM by Chris Clark |
| | Hmm.. This kind of has an "Area 51" feel to it.. Except the government isn't involved in it (I hope not!) lol |
| Posted 10-30-2007 at 10:45 PM by John Dagys |
| | Or similar to this: http://www.poopreport.com/BMnewswire/1154.html Well maybe not.. but someone did mention NASCAR  |
| Posted 10-30-2007 at 11:14 PM by John Thawley |
| | lol! That was big news here in Chicago when it happened.. People still talk about now and then... |
| Posted 10-30-2007 at 11:43 PM by John Dagys |
Recent Blog Entries by Chris Clark
- Mid-Ohio Photography Guide.... (06-07-2008)
- No good deed goes unpunished..... (03-26-2008)
- Off-Topic: "For All Mankind"... (02-15-2008)
- The Underground Windtunnel.... (10-30-2007)
- Diary of a Madman.... (10-28-2007)
