Click to enlarge. Picture from Google Earth.
It is a piece of land that covers more than 700 hectares, hosts a 6.2 km long handling circuit, a 12.5 km long oval circuit, and facilities for simulating different road surfaces and changeable weather conditions. And it can be seen from space.
Welcome to the Nardo Technical Centre automotive proving ground in Apulia, southern Italy. What was once belongs to Prototipo SpA has now been bought by Porsche Engineering Group for an undisclosed amount. Porsche will officially open shop May 2012.
Click to enlarge. Picture from Google Earth.
The procurement of the test track will complement Porsche’s facilities in Weissach, especially in the areas of high-speed and handling. Porsche is also open to clients who want to make use of the test track for vehicle trials. The facilities also include dynamic surfaces, acoustics, workshops and off-road sections. The mild climate of the proving ground also enables Porsche to test vehicles throughout the year in three shifts around the clock, seven days a week.
Recently, the track was used to film TopGear TV’s shootout between the Lamborghini Aventador, Noble M600 and McLaren MP4-12C.
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means porsche is going to crate yet another supercar. sweet!
i wonder who owns the Nurburgring then…
Give the Nordschleife to Volkswagen. :)
and yea. hope tat 918 hybrid is going on sale tis year..
wow. sounds like porsche is on their final phase of the development of the 918 hybrid to me. yummy. :)
Great. Other manufacturers will be thrilled to test their prototypes at Porsche’s own facility.
Their problem. Then they should purchase their own track.
but u cannot get ur max on this track, its bumpy n u can jump from lane to lane..
If they perfected a car on that track.. it’ll be the best car for Malaysian road lol!
Manyak Wang…
price increase?
this is rather sad… other fast exotic used to go to nardo to crack their top speed (or at least near to it) because the only other place to do so with tarmac is vw’s own straight line facility… with porsche buying nardo, vw group coild prevent other company to lay claim on top speed… i see a little playing here…
Solution: Other exotic car manufacturers should build or buy their own track.
Audi, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Bentley and Volkswagen will soon start to harness the benefits from this facilities since all of them are in the same group with Porsche. A Veyron or Carrera GT successor coming out soon? Yes, please.
The VW Group already own the modern test track in Ehra-Lessien in Germany. It has a 9km section which is completely flat and straight which is better for top speed testing than Nardo.
Nardo is actually quite old. I remember in the early 1980s Mercedes ran a few of their 190E 2.3-16v Cosworth engined cars at Nardo for 24 hours straight at high speed to prove the engines durability. It went very well except for a broken distributor rotor arm which is a simple part which they did not expect to fail.
I’ve heard about the Ehra-Lessien track before. But, they must have a reason of why they are purchasing Nardo even though they already have Ehra-Lessien. Perhaps it will be used by Lamborghini since Lamborghini’s HQ and facilities are based in Italy.
This is an acquisition of a major asset. Nardo is more than just a large circular piece of tarmac. The land, the other complex facilities and circuits within it all hold value. This is a strategic business decision by Porsche management. Do remember that Lamborghini is owned by Audi, not Porsche although all are under a common umbrella, but operating as separate business units. So no reason to single out Lamborghini. It would just as well likely to be used by Bugatti, Bentley, Audi, Lambo or even the more bread and butter brands under the group VW, Skoda, Seat etc or even Ducati :)
Lambo’s location in Italy is irrelevant. All of them are in Europe anyway and a decision for test location is made on technical requirements more than distance from factory.
VW had own a test track where James May drove the Veyron Supersport
No wonder the track looks familiar. “It’s one endless bend.”
The acquisition of the Nardo facility by Porsche is nice and part of bolstering their engineering and testing facilities but lets not blow it out of proportions. Nardo is a very old track. It’s always been accesible to manufacturers anyway just owned by an independent company.
The VW Group already own the impressive test track facility in Ehra-Lessien in Germany.
Errr never knew the existant this kind of track..sooooo huge……