CU-ICAR/Millennium Campus

[whitehourseview]

I'm with you. I'd settle for any type of decent transit between many of the Upstate cities.

This is probably better suited for the "light rail" thread, which for full disclosure, I am skeptical of for the Upstate of SC, but here goes....

My grandmother, who grew up near Newberry, SC, tells me often of riding the No. 6 train between Newberry, Laurens and Greenville in the 1920's when she was a girl.

Train service between South Carolina cities was the only way folks had to travel until the coming of the US Highway system. Afterwards, it was no longer financially viable to sustain and maintian train service. Most of the state's small towns grew because of proximity to the rail lines connnecting them to regular scheduled service to the rest of the state.

The state had two main passenger rail services, but ran on a hub and spoke system out of Columbia.

Today, for any sort of large scale mass transit to exist within or between South Carolina's mid-sized cities, they would have to rely on large scale government funding and could expect to consistently run at a loss. In an age when big yellow school buses are severly underfunded in this state and we're spending $100 million on Hunley restoration, that sort of rail service isn't happening again for another generation at least.

[g-man430]

10 ways Light rail is better.

1]speed

2]length of trains

3]running costs

4]turning circles

5]ease of expansion

6]multiple line interchangeabilty

7]reliability

8]line capacity

9]versitility x1,000,000

10]energy efficiency

Edited May 15, 2006 by g-man430

[gs3]

CU-ICAR fills the Michelin endowed chair:

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs....INESS/605170414

[gs3]

Here is another story about the Michelin endowed chair that goes into more detail:

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs..../605180319/1003

[g-man430]

ICAR may not get a wind tunnel: http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/.../606020339/1002

[btoy]

See this link for a information package on Collaboration at ICAR, has a handful of renderings.

Edited June 2, 2006 by btoy

[gs3]

See this link for a information package on Collaboration at ICAR, has a handful of renderings.

Thanks for the link! Those are the best renderings I've seen!

[goodbye]

ICAR may not get a wind tunnel: http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/.../606020339/1002

That is simply disgusting. And the "coverup" is beginning to sound silly. If you want to be the premiere automotive research and development collaboration in the World, you need a wind tunnel. If this has been planned, why on earth wasn't something done to ensure it was built before another nearby? Hopefully our leaders get working hard and fast on the ICAR wind tunnel.

[Greenville]

Just because we aren't the first at something doesn't mean we can't be the best. If we do the wind tunnel, I am sure it will be well done and successful. And if not, then that $40 million can be used for something else that brings people and business to ICAR.

[distortedlogic]

I am with skyliner. This article is very frustrating. The main point of ICAR was to make it (and the upastate) the national HQ to an automobile cluster that focused on research, development, and inguenuity. One of the biggest selling points to investors was the wind tunnel, and the possibilities such a tunnel would bring to the park and the automobile cluster. Without it, you lose much of the meat of the project. The article talks of attracting other buisinesses, (which is a good thing with investment, jobs, etc) but these businesses are not really going to make gville the auto cluster it was aiming for. This is one of the biggest frustrations I have about the upstate, and especially gville. They will get a great idea, and then take FOREVER to get it done. It wopuld not surprise me if CHarlotte/Concord leaders saw gville's idea, saw they were dragging their feet, and decided to try to beat them to the punch. This wind tunnel should have been one of the first investments in ICAR. And if Concord builds one, I do not see us trying to compete with it. People will have used that one first, and it would be very hard to convince them to move a few miles down the road when they can get the same thing where they are. There is a lot more money in Charlotte than in Gville, so we will not be able to outdo them, our hope was to beat themto the punch and set a unique benchmark. I hope this is a serious wakeup call to some folks around here.

Edited June 7, 2006 by distortedlogic

[GvilleSC]

I hardly think this has anything to do with Greenville. It's Clemson's Wind tunnel is it not?

Anyway, I agree it's disapointing. But who says that 40 million dollars can't go to something else that would attract the same target companies? Or something totally different that would attract another sector? I don't know, but it's not going to DOOM CU-ICAR or Greenville for that matter.

Plans start out as something, but they evolve over time. They NEED to evolve. They "live", they grow, they learn and they produce a great product in the end. I think this is just a speed bump jolting the car on the ride. We're not stopped, we're not slowing down. It just coming together a little differently then planned.

[Greenville]

As I said before, not being first doesn't mean you can't be the best. If we decide to do it, I am sure it will be first class. Remember, we might not be as close to NASCAR country as a Charlotte suburb is, but ICAR does have the financial backing of BMW, Michelin, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, etc. No other automotive research facility in the world has that! So if we choose to spend the $40 million in another way, I am confident it will be wonderful.

[gs3]

Prep work / site work for the 5th building at CU-ICAR is underway. Pics below. So now we have 1 building open, 3 buildings under construction and 1 buildings site work started. Good progress.

[GvilleSC]

I was surprised by Collaboration 3's progress when I drove by the other day. It looks great!

[krazeeboi]

Wow, look at the progress. My only regret is that this didn't transpire 10 years ago.

[EDPro]

Quick comment on the wind tunnel:

When the leaders of the Wind Tunnel Task Force approached BMW 4 years ago about building a wind tunnel in Greenville, BMW was unimpressed. After a few attempts to convince BMW of the need for a wind tunnel, BMW countered with their need for talented automotive engineers (not specialized equipment) hence the Campbell Graduate Automotive Engineering School.

With Timken, Society of Automotive Engineers, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Michelin, and IBM as corporate partners, CU-ICAR is light years ahead of most university research parks at this stage of maturity.

As mentioned above, a wind tunnel would be great, but I believe the idea is to now actually widen the scope of CU-ICAR from automotive to transportation systems, as opposed to narrowing from automotive to motorsports.

[goodbye]

I'll buy that! I reacted because of the assumption that NASCAR and other major racing orgaizations could be wealthy partners at CU-ICAR.

[gs3]

As mentioned above, a wind tunnel would be great, but I believe the idea is to now actually widen the scope of CU-ICAR from automotive to transportation systems, as opposed to narrowing from automotive to motorsports.

Excellent!

[btoy]

I'll buy that! I reacted because of the assumption that NASCAR and other major racing orgaizations could be wealthy partners at CU-ICAR.

I think we need to remember to that NASCAR was not their target for their wind tunnel. I seem to remeber they were designing it more for open wheel testing like F1 and IRL.

[goodbye]

I think we need to remember to that NASCAR was not their target for their wind tunnel. I seem to remeber they were designing it more for open wheel testing like F1 and IRL.

Although something was mentioned more than once about eventually gaining reputation among the broader racing world - including NASCAR. I am all for CU-ICAR becoming the global transportation research center, if that is at all possible. I believe the opportunity is attainable.

[EDPro]

There are some existing connections between Panoz Racing (American Le Mans) and Clemson as well as some NASCAR connections, though many of those were cultivated by the late Don Rice.

Formula One is definitely the target. The average R&D budget for a Formula One car is roughly ten times the size of the R&D budget for a NASCAR team (think $250M/year vs. $25M/year)...which sort of makes sense considering they are called "stock" cars.

Edited June 9, 2006 by EDPro

[btoy]

Thats right he did, when I was in the Clemson Sports Car Club he had gotten us either reduced or free tickets to the Petit Lemans. That was when Panoz was racing Prototype I cars. And they were very good at it.

I hear the Panoz IRL chasis isn't doing so well.

Edited June 9, 2006 by btoy

[g-man430]

Website has new homepage look: http://www.cu-icar.com/

Edited June 15, 2006 by g-man430

[gs3]

Website has new homepage look: http://www.cu-icar.com/

Nice!

[g-man430]

There is now a tower crane up at the ICAR site for the parking garage. It kind of resembles the one at Riverplace. I'll try to get a pic of it either today or tomorrow.