General Motors Proving Grounds
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General Motors operates several proving grounds
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[edit] North America
[edit] Mesa Proving Grounds
GM Desert Proving Grounds in Mesa, Arizona is a General Motors facility for the testing of HVAC, propulsion, and various automotive systems in a harsh climate. In late 2006, this facility was considered for sale.
[edit] Milford Proving Grounds
General Motors' Milford Proving Grounds was the industry's first dedicated automobile testing facility when it opened in 1924. It is located in Milford, Michigan and covers 4,000 acres. 4,800 staff work in its 107 buildings today. The proving ground includes the equivalent of 132 mi (212 km) of highway-quality roads for vehicle testing. Some roads are open only to drivers who have passed special performance driving training.
Facilities:
- The VDTA ("Vehicle Dynamics Test Area"), also known as "Black Lake", is a 67 acre pad of blacktop for vehicle dynamics testing. Waterfowl have been known to try to land on this "lake" of asphalt. At the ends of the VDTA are two semicircle tracks used for accelerating vehicles up to high speed before entering the pad. A controlled low-friction area made of ceramic tiles is on one side of the pad. Another area is coated with the asphalt sealant Jennite and can be watered down to produce a low friction surface.
- The Oval Track is a 3.8 mi (6.1 km) circuit
- The Circle Track encloses the VDTA and is a 4.5 mi(7.2 km) banked circle. It has five lanes posted with speed limits increasing towards the outermost lane. The speed limit for the outermost lane is 120 MPH (103 km/h). Due to the banking, each lane can be driven at its posted speed all the way around the circle without needing to touch the steering wheel, given proper wheel alignment and tire pressures. The track surface is extremely hard "dolomite" concrete for wear resistance.
- The North/South Straightaway is 6.225 mi (10 km) miles in total length and includes two 2.5 mi (4 km) straightaways
- The East/West Straightaway is 3.1 mi (5 km) miles around and includes two 1.2 mi (1.9 km) straightaways
- "Seven Sisters" is a short course featuring seven tight curves, some level, some banked. It is one lane that can be driven in both directions, so only one car is allowed on the course at a time. This is used for testing vehicles under transient lateral acceleration loads.
- 12 Mile Road is a straight section of pavement which duplicates the historical surface texture of a section of 12 Mile Road near Detroit.
- The Ride and Handling loop encloses the Circle Track and has varied surfaces and turns.
- The Vehicle Safety & Crashworthiness Lab includes a recently added rollover test facility.
[edit] South America
[edit] Cruz Alta Proving Grounds, Brazil
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[edit] Europe
[edit] Millbrook Proving Grounds
Millbrook Proving Ground is a vehicle testing centre located at Milbrook in Bedfordshire, England. One of the largest vehicle testing centres in Europe, it is near to the M1 and Milton Keynes.
[edit] History
Modelled on the Milford Proving Ground operated by General Motors in Michigan, USA, Millbrook was opened in the 1960s by the GM subsidiary Vauxhall. Due to the geographical needs of a full testing centre, including both hills and flat land, the traditional choice of a former RAF airfield was ruled out and many sites around the UK were surveyed before the location at Millbrook was decided upon, especially due to having the benefit of being close to Vauxhall's production site at Luton.
Construction began in 1968 and once opened acted as the testing site for many European GM models from, amongst others, the Vauxhall and Bedford companies. In 1988 the site was transferred to a new company, Millbrook Proving Ground Ltd as part of Group Lotus and began to offer its facilities as well to non-GM companies. With the sale of Lotus in 1993 Millbrook was transferred to GM Holdings UK Ltd as an independently managed company and began to diversify into all aspects of vehicle testing including emission control.
Facilities:
The centre provides vehicle test and development facilities including:
- Vehicle and system assessment
- Powertrain development
- Safety testing.
These are staffed by engineering teams who work with manufacturers on their test and development programmes.
Millbrook has a wide range of types of test tracks. The most prominent are the:
- Hill Route - divided into three sections or loops which contain progressively steeper gradients and tighter corners. Sometimes seen in motoring television programmes, for example Top Gear, particularly the "ski-jump" where it is very easy for vehicles to become airborne.
- Outer and Inner Handling (or City Course) circuits - extremely technical twisty circuits used for extreme testing of vehicle handling characteristics.
- High Speed Bowl - a two mile banked circuit used for higher speed testing.
The proving ground maintains a high standard of security and secrecy to protect the commercial interests of its customers. Public access is not generally permitted and the facility is hidden from view. Limited supervised access to the facilities is available through some driver training organizations.
[edit] Australiasia
[edit] Lang Lang Proving Grounds
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[edit] Proposed / Closed Proving Grounds Facilities
[edit] Mezcala Proving Grounds
GM's proposed facility at Mezcala, Mexico was terminated in the planning phase due to breakdown in land negotiations. The facility was to be taking over Mesa Proving Grounds tasks when GM announced the closing Mesa Proving grounds in 2000. MPG(GM) is still operating as of late 2006.
[edit] External links
[edit] Sources
Milford Proving Grounds
- GMTC - MPG Facts & Figures. GM.com. Retrieved on October 3, 2006.
