Tire-testing facility seeks space in Charlotte region

Charlotte Business Journal

consortium of auto and motorsports companies has committed to finance a tire-testing facility in the Charlotte region that could require an investment of “tens of millions of dollars.”

The project, called Camber Ridge, will help drive research for the industry as it prepares for federal electronic stability control requirements. The new mandate hits the auto industry in 2011.

Carmakers and motorsports companies will have other needs for testing facilities such as Camber Ridge, says James Cuttino, director of the N.C. Motorsports and Automotive Research Center at UNC Charlotte.

“It’s driven specifically by the needs of industry,” he says. Cuttino is taking a leave of absence from UNCC to start the business.

Humpy Wheeler, chairman of Charlotte Regional Partnership, says the facility will become “another anchor for the development of the auto industry” in the Charlotte area.

Specifics of financing, location, size and employment were not disclosed. One source suggests Camber Ridge’s search in the region would be for a site that could accommodate a 50,000-square-foot building.

Cuttino says he expects the first tests will be run in the facility in two years.

Ronnie Bryant, partnership president and chief executive, says the building and site will need room for expansion. He also mentioned that Camber Ridge may need only about 5 acres to build the facility.

Cuttino says automaker and tire manufacturers need a test laboratory such as Camber Ridge because no single manufacturer could afford to develop it. Initial investment will involve “tens of millions of dollars,” he says.

Entities that Cuttino calls his affiliates will provide financing. He declines to name those financial partners.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that mandating stability controls on cars will save up to 9,600 lives annually and prevent as many as 323,000 crashes.

The controls take over braking and other automobile capabilities when a vehicle skids or tips on the highway.

Cuttino says he’s spent the past 18 months investigating the need for such a test facility. Wheeler says Camber Ridge’s computer-driven equipment will in some cases replace a need for auto test sites that cost up to $150 million to develop. Such automobile-research facilities include test tracks that can measure seven miles.