Lotsa camo'd test cars up in summit county?

[saltydecimator]

seems like everytime i take the journey up the hill i see a test car stopped overlookin the lake off 70 before you get to the first frisco exit, anyone know why that is? just the main route from detroit or wherever over to california?

https://www.motor1.com/news/251876/2019-kia-soul-caught-cruising/

[Wolfshoon]

High altitude testing, tuning and vetting. Former co-worker got a gig test driving cars for different manufactures in the mountains and around town. He'll have them anywhere from 3 days to a month. Depending on what is being done it will have diagnostic equipment installed or he just logs info. Usually he doesn't have all that platic armor crap draped all over, but has driven the weird black and white striped cars.

[MrPrena]

^said

Yes, high altitude tessting. There are more manufacturers who does testing at Summit county near Dillon Reservior.
Sometimes they hire security/motorcades.

[00tec]

I see camo cars unloaded or loaded almost every day off 40th and Airport way. Yesterday was a load of flatbed Ford Superdutys.

[ray1970]

I see them south of DIA all of the time.

[saltydecimator]

weeeeeeeeeiiiiiird, and its all makes and models? like ya said, high altitude, but it just doesnt seem like this is the closest place to do it?

whats deal with the motorcades, thats for models that are couple years out?

[Martinjmpr]

Makes sense. Summit County is the closest place to either Detroit or LA (where most of the Japanese imports come in) that has lots of 10,000'+ passes and lots of twisty roads.

Infrastructure (i.e. lots of hotels, restaurants, etc for support crews) is also important. I mean, they could go to Pinedale WY but where would the crews stay?

[Great-Kazoo]

Makes sense. Summit County is the closest place to either Detroit or LA (where most of the Japanese imports come in) that has lots of 10,000'+ passes and lots of twisty roads.

Infrastructure (i.e. lots of hotels, restaurants, etc for support crews) is also important. I mean, they could go to Pinedale WY but where would the crews stay?

Camp somewhere and shoot coyotes.

[TFOGGER]

https://jalopnik.com/ford-gt-test-drivers-caught-going-101-mph-in-a-50-mph-z-1786907323


Cops from three different law enforcement agencies came down on a crew of 2017 Ford GT prototypes Tuesday morning for doing more than double the speed limit on Interstate 70 in Colorado. The test drivers will have to come back to serve court summonses according to Avon, Colo.?s police chief.

We?ve put in a call to Ford about the incident and we will update if they get back to us.

Chief of Police Greg Daly explained to me over the phone that the vehicles were stopped in Glenwood Canyon about 37 miles west of Avon, which is about 100 miles west of Denver. I initially thought the area was still in Avon PD?s jurisdiction, but the chief has clarified that the stop was initiated outside. It?s Chief Daly?s understanding that the incident ?occurred in the Colorado State Patrol jurisdiction and we assisted the Eagle County Sheriff?s Office with their traffic stop on the reported violation. After the deputy initiated the traffic stop, the vehicles ultimately pulled over within our city limits,? he detailed via email.

The highway out there varies between wide-open straight shots with a 75 mph speed limit, slower spots with a 65 mph limit and tighter areas where the limit drops to 50 mph. Daly said that a state trooper saw the cars speeding in one of the latter areas but that the observing officer was ?not in a position to initiate a stop? so he radioed the call out.

An Eagle County sheriff?s deputy was able to assist the state police in actually pulling over the three Ford GT development mules, which were cited for going 101 mph in a 50 mph zone, police records said.

?Anything over 20 mph over the limit is a summons,? the chief said, so the actual penalty will be decided by a judge.

Eagle County spokeswoman Amber Barrett also said that ?a car clocked over 100 mph would definitely have a mandatory court date,? adding that out-of-state speeding offenders in the area are not an uncommon occurrence and would sometimes just be given a higher fine and more points on their license if they cannot attend court.

The charges were later dismissed.

https://www.vaildaily.com/news/regional/ford-gt-three-speeding-charges-dismissed/


AVON ? You cannot tell one test driver from other when they're hard at work performing high altitude testing on prototype Ford GT supercars.That's basically how the Ford GT Three managed to skate on charges of speeding and reckless driving.
A Colorado State Patrol trooper clocked two of the Ford GT Three at 101 mph, (https://www.vaildaily.com/news/even-ford-supercars-cant-outrun-the-fuzz/) headed east on Interstate 70 at the east end of Glenwood Canyon. The third was surrounded by fellow motorists traveling at the 50 mph speed limit.
Prosecutors found themselves in a conundrum over proving which two of the Ford GT Three were traveling at triple-figure speeds, and which one was behaving himself.

[Gman]

Test mules. They don't want to give away everything before product launch.

[wctriumph]

The motorcycle manufacturers have been using Colorado for high altitude testing for some time now. The Euro brands used to do it in Spain but it just was not the same.

[def90]

One of.the companies that does the testing has a test center here with a track out east on I70 as well as the testing they do in the mountains

[Irving]

One of.the companies that does the testing has a test center here with a track out east on I70 as well as the testing they do in the mountains

I can't remember the name of the company, but it's the same as one of the Ford tuner companies.

[MarkCO]

Colorado is one of the primary locations for High Altitude testing. Lots of tuning for emissions, output, confirmation of the theoretical fuel-air maps based on P and T. IF you happen to be able to get a photo of one of the cloaked cars...exposed...some of the car mags and websites will pay good money for the images. They are in public and the law is pretty interesting in relation to same, but I have a friend who made big $ on a few photos he took. Sometimes they take the cars to Bandimere for T&T as well. In 1989 I drove a Prototype Dodge Viper, a year later a Greenwood Corvette. Took a few passes in a few other pre-production cars and trucks. When I turned 25, I contacted an acquaintance in Detroit who got me in touch with the right people and I got to drive several R&D and test vehicles both in Detroit and in Colorado. Having several competition licenses and doing my graduate coursework in internal combustion engines opened a few doors. It was really cool, even if the money and hours were not great. I got to drive diesel-electric hybrids, all-electric, gas-turbine all in the early 1990s. Some of the cars I drove were absolute turds to drive in the mountains, others were awesome.

[.455_Hunter]

These crews frequently stay at the Dillon Comfort Suites. The parking lot there is well suited for one section to be "closed" to other guests, with uniformed security usually present to keep looky loos at bay.

[kidicarus13]

These crews frequently stay at the Dillon Comfort Suites. The parking lot there is well suited for one section to be "closed" to other guests, with uniformed security usually present to keep looky loos at bay....and often unload their cars from tractor trailers on the old, proposed Breck airstrip.