Dearborn Proving Grounds is located on the former site of the Ford Airfield. The main enterance to the proving grounds is directly across the street from Ford's 1953 Research Park and borders Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

It has 17 miles of test roadways, providing a multi-faceted test track, and is ideal for many types of performance, general development, and durability tests. The facility includes:

• High speed track (2 lanes, 2.6 miles)

• Low speed track

• Drive road

• Engineering straighway

• Handling course

• Special ride road and special ride ramps

• Hill ramp

• Sound wall and sound test pad

• Water, mud and salt spray baths

• Gravel and European cobble stone roads

• Skid pad

But the Dearborn Proving grounds house many other Ford special testing operation facilities. These include:

• Two environmental wind tunnels

• Weather station

• Fuel station

• Experimental vehicle and experimental engineering buildings

• Three vehicle cold test rooms

• Product review center building

There are over 100 standard performance test procedures, many of which can be modified to a requestor's specifications. Some of the more common tests include: acceleration testing; steering response/handling characteristics; braking and ABS; performance/fuel economy; driveability; tire evaluation; systems reliability check; durability evaluation; transmission tests; ground clearance test; and vehicle sign off tests.

Test design consulting services are available, as well as special mechanical, electrical and electronic design services to develop unique test systems and fixtures. Computer programming services are also available for specialized data acquisition, processing, and presentation programs. Fabrication of both mechanical and electrical experimental and development components is supported; special fabrication services are available for mechanical fixtures, electrical systems, and electrical instrumentation needed for tests. DPG uses a universal data acquisition system that can handle different test concurrently o a vehicle without having to change instrumentation, thus saving set up time.

DPG is constantly upgrades and improves facilities and training of personnel. Examples include a compressed natural gas training program; recent upgrades to the cold test rooms: and plans for construction of European Ride Rodes to support world car development by testing vehicles for the European market.

WWW.BlueOvalNews.COM