May 2008: The tyre tester
|
How does one actually become a tyre tester? For the past nine years, Angelo Pérez Riemer has worked as a specialist in ‘subjective tyre testing’ at Continental, a career in which finely honed sensory perception in particular is essential to the job. Here, he gives the lowdown on everything his job entails, and explains why a visit to a rock concert in his spare time is best avoided. |
|
Mr Pérez Riemer, how does one become a tyre tester? It isn’t something you can study at university or take an apprenticeship in after leaving school, is it? No, that’s true. You certainly have to be a petrol-head, that’s for sure. And have an analytical nature. During the road tests, the main question that concerns us is how the vehicle or tyre can best be optimised to enhance the driving experience. To be considered for the job, it helps to have a degree in a discipline such as mechanical engineering and also to have trained as a car mechanic. I myself completed an economics degree and a number of postgraduate courses in automotive engineering whilst at the same time taking an apprenticeship at a vehicle repair shop. I first became involved in road tests during a work placement at Ford, where I was also given the opportunity, quite by chance, to participate in a vehicle evaluation. There are very few specialists (test drivers) involved in the subjective assessment of handling characteristics. At this particular evaluation, Jackie Stewart and Nigel Mansell had even brought in as experts. My own responses pretty much reflected those of the specialists, which gave me an in-road into the career. What do you enjoy about the job? Is it not simply a case of driving as fast as you can around the track, but without the champagne shower at the end? It’s not really about that. A colleague once said to me; “Anyone can drive fast – not everyone can drive well”. There’s a lot of truth in that. Pounding around the track to achieve a fast lap time is not all it comes down to. If that’s all it required, and I exaggerate a little here, any racing driver could do it for less. As a tester, however, it is essential that you remain completely cool, calm and alert whilst putting the vehicle through its paces and taking it to its limit, and not allow yourself to be distracted for a moment. Tyre testing in particular is a highly interesting variant of road testing because, as a tester – at Conti at least – you have the opportunity to drive a wide range of different models. If you work for a vehicle manufacturer, you generally work with only one model, and later with the new version of that model. At Continental, you might for instance start the day by testing a Polo and be driving a Porsche before you go home. Incidentally, since you brought up champagne showers, I have never been particularly interested in getting into motor sport. When did you first realise you were a petrol-head? Was drilling holes in your moped a pastime of your youth? (laughs) I’ve always had a weakness for old cars – and I’ve certainly done the odd bit of tuning in my time. Although I was never overly enthusiastic about it – and certainly didn’t spend every weekend tinkering around beneath an old Ford Taunus. It was in quite another environment, taxis to be precise, that I first became aware of my talent for assessing a vehicle’s handling. For instance, I always immediately notice a broken wheel bearing or if the suspension is sagging to the front on the right. However, if ever I ask the taxi drivers if they can hear it too, they usually can’t. This was how I came to realise that I seem to perceive things that others do not. So a level of raw talent is certainly important – like with footballers; a lot of it can also be learnt, however, although it takes many years of practice. How do you train your ear outside of the job? Do you still take taxis? No – I have my own car, an old Porsche. As a tyre tester, it is certainly not advisable to spend hours at the disco every weekend in front of a speaker blasting out at 110 decibels. Comfort tests in particular, where we focus on the shock absorbency of the tyres in combination with the vehicle’s chassis for instance, are very important for our customers and depend on our acoustic perception. Any change to the tread pattern, with a new generation of tyres for instance, may result in major noise differences that can only be discerned by means of subjective testing – in other words, tests where the decision is based primarily on the tester’s acoustic perception. How do you communicate what you have heard? How do you describe the tyre noise? The skill lies in describing the noise you heard in the most precise manner possible, using the most appropriate term. For this reason, we introduced a standardised vocabulary a long time ago. To do this, we used a binaural dummy head (which emulates the sound-transmitting characteristics of a real human head) to measure all the phenomena that can possibly occur and allocated a suitable, measurable term for every significant noise. We now have a noise database containing every possible noise. What kind of terms do you use - singing, smacking? No, we no longer use ‘singing’. We use terms such as ‘tread noise’ or ‘turbine noise’; in other words, terms that reflect the origin of the noise. However, we do still use terms such as buzzing, rumbling and humming – these refer to very specific frequency ranges which we testers of course know by heart. As soon as our development engineers see these terms, they immediately know what changes to make to optimise the tyres. You clearly need excellent hearing for the job; would you say you were also a sensitive person in other respects? Sensitive? I’m not sure about that (laughs). I’m certainly not a block of wood though. Do you have a good ear in your everyday life too? Certainly. At concerts, I notice immediately if the drums are even slightly off-beat or any flaw in the timbre of the singer’s voice. Other people are perhaps not quite so perceptive. Is that the downside of the job? Do you still get any enjoyment out of concerts? It depends. I listen to all sorts of music – classical, electronic, German hip hop. If the music is of a technically high standard, then I certainly do enjoy it. When watching thrillers or action films, do you find that you pay close attention to the car chases and screeching tyres? Well, since you mention car chases - I haven’t seen a good car chase in a new film for ten or fifteen years now. It seems that the filmmakers have forgotten how to do it or perhaps nobody notices, doesn’t have a clue. The chase in ‘Bullitt’, featuring Steve McQueen, is a classic example of a great car chase – every camera angle is perfect. You stay with the action – you can see exactly what the car is doing. The ‘Bandit’ films featuring Burt Reynolds also involve excellent car chases, with long shots showing the entire chase. Today, film chases simply flit quickly from one view to the next, with close-ups of a finger pressing the nitro injection button for instance - it really is total nonsense. Apart from excellent hearing, what other skills does the job require? The main requirement is an interest in really getting to grips with the nuts and bolts of driving. You have to be able to analyse in detail every aspect of feedback from the car. Your senses need to be in tune with the car (in German, we say that your ‘Popometer’ (‘bumometer’) has to be in excellent working order). For instance, if I depress the brakes in a certain way below the control range, I know what the potential responses will be and how to evaluate these. You then have to report your findings in a standardised manner so that everyone is able to understand them. Before embarking on a test drive on a morning, do you have to meditate to get focussed? No. You just have to be able to give your entire focus to each individual task in turn. If you have 15 assessment items to work through, the very next one is always the most important. Tick each one off as you do it and then move on to the next. But make sure you remember your findings. How much time do you spend in the car on a daily basis? I’d say between four and five hours on average. About 60 per cent of our day-to-day work in subjective testing is spent behind the wheel. We are more than simply testers; we are also advisers for the development departments. Almost all of us are engineers who have to think analytically. Our perceptions are highly important because there is no real way of verifying our findings. People have to be able to rely on our judgment completely. In addition to the driving, the communication of results is also of extreme importance. And before we start driving, we have to understand precisely what we are going to be testing. For instance, if a 14-inch tyre is being tested for the UK market, a product has market-specific requirements with which we testers are familiar and which we then translate into an appropriate test programme. Where does your interest in driving stem from? Did you play with toy cars as a little boy? I always had an interest in cars – and of course I played with toy cars. My first word was car. And it’ll probably be my last too (laughs). Contact: Alexander Lührs Head of PR – PLT Tyres Continental AG Büttnerstraße 25 , 30165 Hanover, Germany Phone: +49 511 938 2615 Fax: +49 511 938 2455 E-mail: alexander.luehrs@conti.de Internet: www.conti-online.com Image database: http://mediacenter.conti-online.com |
|