Let me start by saying that NTCE in Barcelona is one of Nissan's four European centers, considered the largest and most important for Europe. It is here that they develop and prepare cars for production – from design creation to improvement of already produced models. And it is also in Barcelona that cars (light commercial vehicles, crossovers, and passenger cars) are adapted for Eastern Europe, including Russia and Ukraine. I will tell you in detail how they are prepared for our harsh realities.
Engine workshop
The Nissan center has a separate workshop where engineers and development specialists deal exclusively with engines (in this case, with a displacement of no more than 3.0 liters). Personally, one of the most interesting and complex types of research seemed to me to be the selection of optimal characteristics of the units. I don't know how much patience and concentration is needed, but on average, to choose the best parameters for one engine modification, 350 thousand calibration options are studied! This implies the most suitable characteristics in terms of economy, dynamics, and environmental friendliness. Do I need to explain to chip-tuning enthusiasts why in "homemade" conditions it is unlikely to be effective?
In addition to calibration, engines are tested in the engine workshop for "omnivorousness". For this, fuel of different quality and origin is used. Yes, yes, before approving a particular engine for Ukraine, for example, the research center carefully studies the possible consequences of its operation in specific conditions.
Actually, that's why in this center you can see dozens of engines disassembled down to the last screw. They are disassembled, changes are made, then reassembled, tested, and disassembled again and checked. This happens daily, and some test benches operate 24 hours a day.
By the way, this selection explains the situation when, for example, a diesel Juke is available in Europe, but not in Ukraine. Developers and the manufacturer, in particular, do not want to spoil the brand's reputation and "burn out" on warranty cases when consumers suffer from breakdowns. And it must be admitted that the quality of Ukrainian fuel is far from European, so for myself I made a simple conclusion – if a brand does not allow a certain type of engine into our market, then it is not worth tempting fate by buying a car from "gray" dealers or importing European modifications into Ukraine.
In addition to purely operational characteristics, engines are tuned for sound at the Nissan European Technical Center. In everyday life, we practically do not pay attention to how the engine works and how the sound of its operation changes with increasing RPM. However, this happens only in cases where the engine is properly tuned – that's why it doesn't irritate. It can also be the opposite – for high-performance cars, when specialists have to emphasize certain "traits" of the engine to give pleasure to the owner. This is also a considerable amount of work carried out in a special acoustic chamber. There, engines are also tested for vibrations.
By the way, I was able to feel firsthand how vibrations are transmitted to the controls and the body as a whole. Depending on the frequency of oscillations, the sensations from inside change dramatically. For example, at certain frequencies, the car barely vibrates from the outside, but from the driver's seat it seems that the car has entered resonance and is about to flip over. Such experiments on a vibration stand are needed to check, build, and dampen the amplitudes of oscillations caused by road conditions and more.
Gearbox tuning
Each of us has repeatedly been convinced that a manual transmission is not just a manual transmission. I mean the clarity and pleasantness of gear shifting. Yes, today many prefer automatic transmissions, but there are still plenty of fans of the manual gearbox. By the way, in Europe there are more than half of them, but in Japan – on the contrary.
At the Nissan center, robots and separate stands are used to refine the manual transmission, where a person and electronics study and adjust the gearshift algorithm.
Robots are mainly needed for building gear ratios and "winding up" hours (to assess transmission reliability), while human labor and experience are needed for obtaining objective and real impressions. The clarity and travel of the lever, smoothness of starting and shifting – all this, as with engines, is checked and adjusted thousands of times. Moreover, with each type of engine separately.
Honestly, to understand the difference between a prototype gearbox and its experimental sample, you need to be quite a "jeweler". For example, when a gearbox specialist let me shift gears on one gearbox, but with different settings, I didn't immediately understand that they differed. Whereas he, showing a graph and shifting gears, proudly demonstrated what complex work he had done and that he had achieved the desired result. However, that's why he does this, not me... by the way, he has been doing this for almost 7 years!
As for automatic and robotic transmissions, the test program, of course, is somewhat different. However, in general, the essence is the same – tuning the smoothness and algorithm of shifting, as well as endurance tests in critical modes.
For bad roads
Nissan in Barcelona also has a unique stand on which specialists evaluate the "survivability" of the suspension. With the help of many operating programs, it allows simulating roads of different quality. Someone might object, saying it's easier to arrange a ride on Ukrainian roads – it would be more realistic. But I will object. Firstly, the stand recreates roads that are even worse than ours. Secondly, it allows significantly speeding up the test program.
To make it clearer, in just 1 month of round-the-clock testing, developers get a real picture identical to 10 years of driving on ordinary roads! When launching a model on the market, this is a very important factor in favor of bench tests.
With the help of such a device, Nissan specialists check not only the reliability of the chassis, but also the endurance of body elements and various fasteners under excessive loads. To make the tests as objective and comprehensive as possible, after all stages of testing, it is forbidden not only to touch the car, but even to approach it. At the end of the tests, it is removed from the stand with a special crane, and only then does the inspection of the vehicle's components and assemblies begin.
By the way, one of the latest models that underwent a "baptism of fire" here was the new version of the Nissan Navara NP300 pickup truck.
The developers were tasked with testing it in the most extreme off-road conditions. Therefore, watching from the side at the shaking, sometimes it was a pity for the car to tears – they shook it very hard and cruelly. I note that these were demonstration "performances", because this model has already passed tests and, according to their results, was recognized as particularly durable. This is emphasized by the unprecedented warranty on the new Navara, which in Europe is 5 years or 160,000 km of mileage!
Such an impressive warranty period was achieved not least thanks to the mentioned stand. But the Navara NP300 is a global model, designed for sales both in Canada and, say, in the Emirates. And this is an additional amount of work, since, depending on the sales market, the car must be able to withstand 40-degree heat and/or 30-degree frost.
Climate chambers
At the Barcelona Technical Center, Nissan has several separate "rooms" where cars are tested for operability in different climatic conditions (from -50C to +90C). They allow you to find out how the air conditioner works under the scorching sun of the desert, or whether the engine will start correctly beyond the Arctic Circle. But this is if we talk about more or less real conditions.
After all, center specialists also arrange unlikely situations that 1% of buyers might encounter, and that's not a fact. But that's the point – developers want to be sure that customer cars will not let them down in any situation. Let me give a concrete example.
During our visit, the guide showed us a car with a trailer, its front end pressed against a wall. After asking a rhetorical question about the essence of the experiment, he stated that this is an imitation of a car being in the highlands of the Alps, when the engine compartment was covered with snow. Oh yes, the air is rarefied, and the trailer is supposedly a trailer. That's how it is...
Real tests
After bench tests and testing, the test cars are sent to the proving ground. There they are checked in real conditions, "polishing" handling and characteristics. Moreover, they consist not only and not so much of fun driving on the track, but of tedious and long daily runs.
We will tell you about the intricacies of testing at the proving ground in the next publication about the visit to the Nissan European Technical Center. Follow the publications, and in the meantime, read the exclusive test drive of the 600-horsepower Nissan Juke R 2.0 at the price of two Ferraris!
