As the new BMW 3 Series Sedan prepares for its world premiere, it can already look back over a lifetime of hard work. The new generation of the sports sedan is entering the final phase of an extensive programme of testing that every new BMW model must go through as part of its pre-production development. Here, the full range of stresses and strains a car will encounter over many years of everyday driving are reproduced in concentrated form. From extended periods driving flat out to endless stop-start traffic, sub-zero temperatures to searing heat, twisty country roads and high-speed autobahns to pothole-infested tracks, ice and snow to gravel and desert sand – the prototypes sent through the test programme for the new BMW 3 Series Sedan have experienced everything their production equivalents will come across in everyday life. Only they have done so at a much higher level of intensity and with seasoned developed engineers on board to record in detail the pre-production model’s every response to the various weather and road conditions and countless other influencing factors. In short, the testers ensure there are no circumstances – however unusual – which might compromise driving pleasure in the final production car.
Welcome to Death Valley, in the US state of Nevada. Here, it is not only the automatic climate control system of the new BMW 3 Series Sedan that can expect a taxing work-out. The multi-day heat tests see the cars fried repeatedly in the sun for several hours, then cooled and thoroughly checked over. Everything has to work, there can be no squeaks or creaks – even when the temperature tops 50 degrees Celsius in the shade outside the car and 60 degrees inside, and the interior is then cooled again as quickly as possible.
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