CHALLENGING LAPLAND’S EXTREME CONDITIONS WITH CUPRA TAVASCAN INTERVIEW WITH... RICARD MIRANDA TEAM LEADER IN THE SPECIAL TESTING AND MARKET RELEASE DEPARTMENT What does your job here in Lapland involve? To ensure that the vehicles are suitable for all pos-sible conditions, especially extreme conditions. We therefore test in extreme conditions to make sure that nothing happens to the customer. How many people participate in the winter tests? About 120 internal and external people. We spend more than a thousand or so days per season here. How long does the winter test season last? The season begins towards the middle or end of No-vember until the end of March, beginning of April. And how long does a worker spend here? Two weeks per person on average, but some depart-ments stay for two weeks, take a break and then re-turn again. What tests do you do during the winter tests? All the R&D departments are here, and we all do our tests. The Complete Vehicle department, for example, do thousands of kilometres, about 30,000 kilometres per car, in various places to check its behaviour. The Chassis department, on the other hand, looks at the car’s dynamics and other teams study the behaviour of the batteries, checking that the control units don’t freeze and work at very low temperatures. What minimum temperatures do you work with? We can get down to temperatures of -35ºC or even -40ºC. Quite harsh working condition temperature for both the vehicles and the staff. Which cars have you worked with this season? Specifically with the Leon, the Formentor, the Terramar and the Born. But also some prototypes of the Raval and the Tavascan... with the last tests before their final release. And what do you do with all the data you collect? We use it to make adjustments. We’re working here not only to check what has been programmed, but also to make the necessary adjustments so that the cars are safe enough. All these extreme tests serve to ensure driver safety. We develop the cars here so that they’re as safe as possible and so that you don’t have to be a professional driver to drive them. You also cooperate with other Volkswagen Group brands... Yes, there are partnerships. Not all projects are exclu-sive to SEAT or CUPRA. There are collaborations be-tween brands. But this isn’t something that is done to lend a hand when we coincide in the winter tests, but rather it’s planned in advance and who does what is defined, who is responsible for what. And what do you think is the best thing about the experience of coming here to a place like Lapland? Being in touch with the cold, the snow... These are very different conditions to what we’re used to. The best thing is also being able to be isolated and dedicate yourself exclusively to experimentation. INTERVIEW WITH... RICARD MIRANDA