Nighttime Training Sessions for Crews Braving sub-zero Degrees Cold
Shibetsu Proving Ground: A Winter Wonderland of Car Testing and Maintenance
Located in the chilly climes of Hokkaido, Japan, the Shibetsu Proving Ground is a hub of automotive innovation and testing. The 10 km First Circuit at the facility was built by NIPPO CORPORATION, a general contractor with decades of experience.
Since the completion of the circuit in 1987, Sato has been an integral part of the Shibetsu Proving Ground team. He started in course construction and later moved to winter course setup, snow removal, and maintenance. Today, he plays a key role in ensuring the facility runs smoothly, even in the harshest winter conditions.
Tetsuo Sawada, the Group Leader of the Shibetsu Vehicle Testing Section, oversees course maintenance. His team, including Sato, works tirelessly to maintain the incline sections, rutted roads, and compacted snow on the roads. The rutted roads are prepared each day by NIPPO's team, relying on skilled operators and custom-made attachments based on decades of experience.
The incline sections at the Shibetsu Proving Ground are maintained to ensure a constant friction factor of the road, a crucial aspect for testing cars under extreme conditions. Snow on the roads is compacted to a depth of 12 centimeters for testing purposes.
Sawada and most of the other course maintenance personnel at the Shibetsu Proving Ground are certified test drivers. Their expertise is invaluable in maintaining the course conditions as requested by the course manager.
The tire testing track at the Shibetsu Proving Ground assesses all-season tires for the North American market. Beyond car testing and snow clearance, the Shibetsu Proving Ground team also carries out late-night operations that play a vital backstage role in enhancing vehicle quality.
These operations include monitoring and maintaining the cold, harsh testing environment (around -30ºC), managing test track conditions, and ensuring safety and precision during testing under extreme cold. These activities are critical to the ongoing development and refinement of Toyota cars tested there.
The detailed late-night work involves more than just the obvious physical tasks of clearing snow; it includes key operational and maintenance roles required to sustain continuous testing in severe winter conditions, which ultimately supports the overall vehicle development process.
Kawamura leads the night crew of 18 people and 16 heavy vehicles, working from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. (with a one-hour break). One section of the area replicates snow-covered city streets with rutted roads created by graders. The key to course management at the Shibetsu Proving Ground is ensuring consistent conditions day by day, even in the face of constant snowfall and freezing temperatures.
Course maintenance in snowy Shibetsu is a race against time. Teams clear and level the snow-covered roads at night for testing the next day. This relentless work ethic ensures that the Shibetsu Proving Ground remains a vital testing ground for Toyota, contributing to the development of safer and more reliable vehicles for customers around the world.
Technology plays a significant role in maintaining the harsh testing conditions at the Shibetsu Proving Ground, with custom-made attachments based on decades of experience and detailed late-night operations involving the use of heavy vehicles.
Finance is essential to the ongoing operations of the Shibetsu Proving Ground, as it supports the development and refinement of Toyota cars, and its testing process contributes significantly to the automotive industry, ensuring safer and more reliable vehicles for customers worldwide.
