Well, here is where the first phase of the Kogi judging takes place. We are the 4300 acre Hyundai KIA Proving ground complex in California and this site has numerous vehicle testing tracks. We start at the 4300 acres VDA a giant skid pan where we do all our performance testing including the NOT to 60 runs, standing quarter mile, 60 to NOT breaking and of course Moto Trends unique finger 8.
With a performance testing out the way the judges get to drive each of the cars over variety of tracks here at the complex. So let's take a look. Every judge has a slightly different procedure that they follow, but the point of they are using the Hyundai KIA Proving ground is that every judge gets to drive every car over the same bits of roads following the same routine. I will run you through my routine and we start on the six mile high speed bowl.
I pull up next to this mile knot the zero mile marker make sure the cars you drive check the mirrors, and what I am looking for is basically how fast it will get to in a mile. So let's see how we go. The sort of things you can pick in this sort of test is how loud the engine is under full throttle, how smooth the transmission is under full load shifts and then as we go into the sweep here approaching 90 to a 100 miles an hour, just how stable the car is at this speed. The other thing you notice to is how much wind noise it starts to build up, basically around the 8 pillars here and in a lot of cars we have sun roofs across here as well.
So we are keeping the car full throttle all the way around this curve, speed building now the mile knocker is coming up and we composite now at a 118 miles an hour, now we just ease off let the car go down and head around on to the back straight of the circle. Well after the high speed loop I bring the car over to the winding track here at the Hyundai KIA Proving ground. It's kind of a like a driving handling circuit and this is what we use to test vehicle dynamics and behavior under extreme cornering conditions.
So okay checked in first gear and away we go, so hot on the gas, shift manually get sloppy there the car, third gear and we are testing the handling does the vehicle under steer lift off in the middle of the corner see whether the back comes around. So we are trying to test he limits of the vehicle, how stable it is through the corner, how stable it is under breaking, they are hard on the breaks down a gear, turn into the corner. The other thing we are looking for is stability control system, do they work and if they do work, do they interfere with the driving fun, not all stability controls systems are equal some just interfere and get in the way of good driving, others really help the driver get the most out of car.
The winding track is more extreme than anything we would do on the public road but it's a vital park of power testing, it really does help us evaluate a vehicles dynamic. The final part of the loop here at the Hyundai KIA Proving ground is the special surfaces track and these exactly as the name says a track full of special surfaces. You have got everything from bumps like this to starters corrugations, lumps, bumps everything to test noise, suspension inputs, and taking out the rattles and squeaks that sometimes appear when you put a car under stretch.
The special services is the final part of the car that you are testing here at the Hyundai KIA Proving ground. So after every judge has driven every car around the 30 and half miles of track here at the Hyundai Proving ground, it's time to now right down our field of 17 to just 10 contenders, these 10 cars will be taken out on the 25 mile road loop over the next two days. So we say good bye to the Dodge Challenger the Lincoln MKS, the Nissan Maxima, the Potiac G8 and Potiac 5 and the Toyota Corolla and Toyota Matrix. That leaves ten finalist to go into the final round of judging for the 2009 Motor Trend Car of the Year. Ahead lies and 25 mile road loop, two lane black top, free way city streets and after that the judges get together to discuss, debate and decide the 2009 Motor Trend Car of the Year.
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