Mille Pattes

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mille Pattes in the Michelin factory museum L'Aventure Michelin
Mille Pattes as a model car in 1:43 scale

The Michelin PLR or Mille Pattes ([ mil.pat ]; French for millipede ) is a test vehicle built in 1972 by the French tire manufacturer Michelin . The individual car based on a Citroën DS was used by the company to carry out test drives in which the driving physics of new tires were tested, and was created when Michelin was a shareholder in the car manufacturer Citroën . The Milles Pattes was used on the test site in Ladoux, north of Clermont-Ferrand . The vehicle is no longer used for test drives, but is used by Michelin as an advertising vehicle at trade fairs and exhibitions. It can be seen today in the Michelin Museum in Clermont-Ferrand.

Description and technology

The tire test vehicle Mille Pattes with the internal designation Citroën DS PLR Break (French: P oids L ourd R apide, in English: "fast truck") is a five-axle conversion based on the station wagon version of the Citroën DS, from which the chassis and basic design have been adopted were. Both front axles are steerable and, like the three rear axles, are hydropneumatically suspended. The tires and wheel hubs were taken from the Citroën Type H van .

The vehicle has two 5.7 liter displacement (350 cubic inches) V-engines with eight cylinders and 290 hp each, made by Chevrolet and some of which were used in the US Corvette sports car . The two engines were installed side by side in the rear of the Mille Pattes. One motor is used to propel the test vehicle, the second motor serves as an additional drive for the test tire attached in the middle. The engines are cooled via barred rear windows, which were installed in the rear front instead of conventional windows. The body is painted orange and yellow, the roof in black.

The automobile is 2.45 meters wide by 7.2 meters long and has an increased weight of 9.5 tons due to additional lead plates. The stretched vehicle has a device in the middle in which the tires to be tested are mounted on a swing arm. This could be lowered hydraulically for the test drive and set at different angles. With the Mille Pattes, Michelin was able to test truck and bus tires itself. It reached top speeds of up to 180 km / h and has two fuel tanks with a volume of 90 liters each.

literature

  • Björn Marek, Immo Mikloweit: Citroën DS. The life of a goddess. Komet Verlag, Cologne, ISBN 978-3-86941-202-3 , pp. 82-85.

Web links

Commons : Mille Pattes  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Citroen DS Break PLR Michelin: Essai , (French) accessed on September 4, 2013
  2. ^ Citroën DS. The Life of a Goddess , p. 82
  3. ↑ A quick look at the Michelin PLR , accessed September 5, 2013
  4. ^ Citroën DS. The life of a goddess. P. 85
  5. ^ PRL Michelin Mille - Pattes 1972 , (Spanish) accessed on September 5, 2013