Ford Spends $43 Million on New Test Track
The Big Three aren’t doing all that well. Losing ground to the other Big Three (Toyota, Honda and Nissan - not to mention Hyundai and Kia), they’re all trying to find their own ways to rebuild sales. Most have chosen to go with more extensive component sharing to decrease costs (Ford Five Hundred and Freestyle, Chrysler 300, Dodge Magnum and Dodge Charger or Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky, Pontiac GTO and a potential Chevy Camaro, etc etc) and all three have adopted huge incentive programs to try and entice new buyers; eventually culminating in the infamous employee pricing programs that will, according to analysts, either make or break Chrysler Group, GM and Ford. However, Ford’s trying something different: building better cars.
But that’s a subjective statement, right? After all, how does one quantify “better?” Well, if your definition involves excessive testing and subsequent reengineering, well then Ford is building better cars.
Originally serving as the U.S.’ first modern airport, featuring two (count ‘em) grass runaways fitted with floodlights for night landings, the facility was renovated in 1938 with test tracks built around the airport runways, and Ford’s Dearborn Proving Ground was officially born. Finally, in 1947, the Ford Air Transportation Service relocated, and the proving ground became strictly an automotive testing facility. Over the years the Dearborn facility gave birth to such icons as the ‘49 Ford and the ‘64.5 Mustang.
However, in today’s modern world the archaic facility simply couldn’t keep up. For example, testers examining the suspension and handling of a car needed to traverse a full loop of the extensive test course, taking literally hours. To say that was a waste of time would be an understatement. So, in an effort to decrease development time Ford recently renovated the entire 365 acre facility. $43 million USD later, the Dearborn Proving Ground is reportedly one of the world’s best vehicle development facilities.
Aiming to reduce the existing product life span from 4.4 years to 3.2 years by 2008, Ford hopes that simply bringing more new models to the table faster will net them some much needed respect from the car buying public.
“In today’s crowded auto market, the newest product often wins. We are committed at Ford to having the freshest lineup of new cars, crossovers, trucks and SUVs in the industry as part of our Way Forward plan,” says Mark Fields, Ford’s President of the Americas. “The new Dearborn Development Center is one tool we’re using to help speed more products to market.”
Focused around an aptly-named Product Review Center, the new testing facility is better in every way. With surfaces designed to emulate road surfaces everywhere from England to Arizona, the new development area boasts some impressive figures: a 43-acre “vehicle dynamics area” (think skidpad, or giant Wal Mart parking lot minus the lines, people, lights, stray shopping carts, and anything else) 12-acre wet skidpad, a 2.5 mile high speed track (where such things as stability and wind noise are evaluated), and a 2.1 mile steering and handling course. Designed to both test new cars more fully as well as make better use of the testing time, the Dearborn facility now allows Ford to truly test their cars in everything from a grueling simulated race to everyday commuting conditions. Will it help?
Well seeing as the place only opened mere months ago the blue oval engineers haven’t had a chance to develop a new car on it, so it’s impossible to tell; however, after experiencing the proving grounds at the wheel of Ford’s various cars and trucks, it only makes sense that having this new tool at their disposal will enhance every aspect of their new vehicle development process, so we can expect even better things from Dearborn on the road ahead.