Michelin test facility in the sunlight

It’s been on my bucket list for a few years to take a photograph of this ancient tire test facility of the Michelin tire company, in Clermont-Ferrand. So you can imagine my happiness when I headed out to it with my camera in hand and was rewarded with wonderful sunlight at a perfect angle.

This snap has not been retouched in any way.

Now . . . this is the part when I then have a little think. I’ve seen some YouTube videos that show the insides of this place, essentially little buggies running back and forth up the hill 24×7. As a physicist myself I can’t really fathom why a test facility like this would be needed, because even with vacuum tubes it should be possible to build control circuitry that would mimic the loads on real tires. But . . . there you have it!