Here’s something a little different. A promotional film produced by Vauxhall in 1972 for the then new proving ground at Millbrook, just 30 minutes from the Engineering Centre in Luton, as a European equivalent to the the Millford Proving Grounds in Michigan, and intended to support the development of Vauxhall and Bedford products.
Previously, Vauxhall had use of a smaller test facility, known as Chaul End, close to Luton and used this until Millbrook was completed in 1970, at a cost £3.5 million (£50 million adjusted). Other manufacturers in the UK were either using disused RAF airfields – good for testing on long straights and aprons, not so good good for hill and curve based test – or using the shared jointly funded MIRA (Motor Industry Research Association) facility south of Coventry and almost spot on the geographic centre of England.
Privacy, security and the full range of facilities were the key to Millbrook, as well its proximity to Luton, where GM built this rather splendid Engineering and Design Centre in 1964.
Highlights of Millbrook are the 2 mile banked circuit, the mile one straight and the full range of curved and hill routes, as well as the test track specials of Belgian pavé surface, water splashes and dust tunnels, and off-road tracks.
Vauxhall made a big play in the 1970s on quality and safety, promoting features like collapsible steering columns, decent ergonomics like recessed handles and crumple zones. This went along with a lot of advertising around body protection and corrosion resistance, to address an inevitable question for anyone who had an early F type Victor. Millbrook, as a dedicated facility was effectively unique in the UK, and was also used as part of this.
How much it worked, or was necessary, is debatable. The early 1970s Vauxhalls, such as Viva HC and Victor FE were not exactly roaring successes, technically or commercially, and by 1976 Vauxhall was openly paired with Opel, and preparing to build essentially German developed cars with an English accent. You didn’t need Millbrook to add a new front clip on an Opel Ascona or the put the Viva engine into the Opel Kadett to make a Vauxhall Chevette, and Vauxhall’s engineering capability was essentially permitted to wither and decline. Bedford Trucks was sold as a business in 1986 and failed six year later.
In 1988, Millbrook was transferred to Group Lotus, then owned by GM, and when Lotus was sold it remained with GM Europe. It is now owned by engineering consultant UTAC, a world wide business working as a consultant in vehicle testing certification and development. The site is still functional, and you don’t have to look very far in the UK press or TV to see evidence of it being used as a venue for tests and demonstrations, as well engineering development.
Hat tip to vaxuxpedia.net, one of the best single marque sites you’ll find
Any idea back then where and how Mercedes, VW, Big Three, Fiat, Toyota, Nissan and Peugeot tested their vehicles.
Here are some clips form the 1972 film “Piloto de pruebas” that were shot in the test track of the Ford Motor plant in Pacheco, Argentina.
Nowadays the track is split in half due between Ford and Volkswagen, one of the remnants of the Autolatina affair.
You know, over the years I have seen references, but I’d like to learn more: what was the Autolatina affair?
Autolatina was a joint venture between Ford and VW both in Brazil and Argentina started in 1987, probably anticipating the Mercosur free trade agreement. VW took control of the car lineup and Ford the truck division. It lasted until 1995.
In Argentina, the VW plants of Monte Chingolo and San Justo were shut down and both operations were focused in the Pacheco Ford plant. The main idea was to increase efficiency and scale integrating both operations sharing platforms and engines, but mantaining some independence. The final result was not as expected.
The lineup was quite interesting and was soon rationalized:
In Argentina the 60’s Falcon was on its final years along with the Ranchero, F-100 and the F-6000 truck. The Sierra was also available and the Escort/Orion was launched under the Autolatina umbrella. The replacement for the Falcon was a VW Santana re-badged as Ford Galaxy from 1991 on. VW Argentina was making the Type 2 (with the 2nd gen front and gen 1 rear as in Brazil), the Gacel/Senda (Gol derivated saloon known in US as Fox), the Carat (a rebadged Santana) and the 1500, a rebadged Hillman Hunter inherited from the take over of Chrysler’s operations. The 1500 received a Ford 5-speed gearbox for its final years.
In Brazil Ford was still making the Del Rey, Belina and Pampa based on the Corcel which itself was a Renault 12 spin-off that was also killed in 1991, the F-14000 truck and the F-1000 (a restyled 1967 F-150). VW Brazil made the same models as Argentina (except for the 1500 of course) adding the full line of Gol-based cars (Gol, Saveiro, Parati, Voyage), the Quantum (Santana SW) and were responsible for the resurrection of the good ol’ Beetle in 1993 (Fusca Itamar)
To sum up, this venture helped to rationalize the models available, start VW Gol production in Argentina and gave birth to unique cars that shared many parts such as the VW Pointer/Ford Escort, Ford Orion/VW Logus, Ford Verona/VW Apollo. But some were available in both markets and others were exclusive for Argentina or Brazil. This led to situations, in Argentina, my country such as the saloon Ford Galaxy being sold through Ford dealers and the station wagon VW Quantum through VW dealers, being both a Santana under a different name.
Pretty comprehensive looking test tracks .
-Nate
Impressive facility, but I’d think a British test track would want some tight city alleys and mews with fake buildings. Maybe they just used the city streets of Luton for those tests.
One of the diagrams shows an “Isotope test facility”. Were they developing a nuclear Vauxhall space rocket with column shift and bench seats? More likely they were taking X-rays of castings and such.
A few years ago being local to Milbrook I knew one or two people that worked there. One watch Clarkson demonstrating his driving skills for Top Gear. The over had to keep sounding his horn to try and wake a sleeping drive at the wheel on the oval!.
Car ” 406″ ,in the top photo, is prototype Freinza for the Canadian market. The model later proved to be “testing ” times for GM.
Indeed, it is still there, according to Google maps.
It seems to be missing something. Maybe some trees spelling out “Vauxhall”.
Ive driven some of the finished products like the TK Bedford trucks and HC vivas, The trucks were rugged and basic they did the job year in and out but over here some of our highways make the test track look quite mild and Vauxhall didnt put any thought into what our secondary roads looked like, Bedford trucks withstood constant use on such terrain Vauxhall Vivas not so much, Australianised Victors badged Torana or Sunbird held up better but GMH had a similar facility for proving cars and featured more gravel sections and washboard road sections to simulate Aussie back roads of the era.
I’ve enjoyed some fleet industry ‘drive days’ at Millbrook, where you could drive yourself on the hill route and speedbowl. And get rides with pro drivers around the handling circuit, and the speedbowl where a Honda NSX cruised around, rock steady, in the top lane at an indicated 150-ish mph.
A big, and impressive setup. Surprising, one might think, that a frankly second league outfit like Vauxhall could spend what it must have cost, to acquire the land and build this. As Roger mentions, now that it’s independently owned and operated, lots of industry players make use of it. So, it’s probably a lot more productive now, than under its original ownership.
Owned partly by UTAC a French outfit and GM Automotive.UK. Would any one class Vauxhall ,the UK arm of GM a ” second league outfit”?.
Its one of the areas major employers with test driving contracted ,mainly, out to employment agencies.
The RAC Rally had a short stage at Millbrook in 1997 and returned in 2005.
Owned wholly by just UTAC, who’re in turn owned by a mob called Eurazeo, and they – you’ll never guess it in 2022 – are a huge private equity firm. That’s the collected money of the rich, who are never seeking sustainable returns or useful businesses, just quick doublings or treblings, so I wonder if Millbrook will become a packaged-up property development to be on-sold for vast markup in about two or three years….
Even if that doesn’t happen directly, UTAC already owns a number of test facilities around the world and especially Europe, and given the “death” of Vauxhall and Opel, why would they really want another facility in a country where (perhaps) only Ford is left designing much (AND they’ve the hassle of them not being part of EU any more)? They can, for example, do any Stellantis testing stuff in what they have. I suspect on that basis alone it will be snaffle the expertise, and sell the land.
Gotta love the modern world.
Fascinatingly nostalgic vid, complete with pumped-up fuzzy-base-sound, semi-frantic semi-Bond type music, and that same boomy-posh presenter voice used in every cinema ad of the ’70’s. I nearly reached for my popcorn.
Those Bedford 4wd trucks shown were used by the Oz army for years, so the work at Millbrook must’ve had some worth. Cheeky claim for Millbrook to be one of the biggest in the world, though: GM’s own proving round at Lang Lang, about 60 miles from here, was three times the size, and built in 1957! (In true GM style, they spent many millions on it in 2016-17, and withdrew from Australia by 2020). Why Vauxhall would spend that sort of money when there was an Opel proving ground from 1964 just 500 miles away is anybody’s guess.
Very nostalgic. One wonders if anyone in manufacturing paid a lot of attention to the results because Vauxhall have propped up reliability tables for decades. I owned two in Eighties which were German built, but even their quality went down the pan later on. Be interesting to see if Peugeot can improve them. I wouldn’t touch one second-hand.
Millbrook very much remains at the front of vehicle innovation and development much of which of course is top secret.
My Company obtained planning permission in 2016 for the first of a series of new buildings and the development, expansion and redevelopment has been ongoing with further permissions since then.
That’s good to hear, and hope that is a secure for the future for folk like yourself and those who work there.
It’s also the case that the private equity firm Eurozeo who’ve just bought most of it have used a very expensive (and higher-risk) financing means with Barings to buy UTAC and then combine it with Millbrook. This means big returns to shareholders from the investment, but given the higher risk, they want their money back sooner, and that often means stripping assets, or, more euphemistically, “restructuring”. Given that UTAC now controls (it seems) a swathe of European testing/certification assets, there’ll be double-ups and therefore cutbacks – in any merger, there always is – but even moreso when the debt taken on to do it is expensive.
I should add I don’t approve of these deals, which are always about quick-return high-yield for the pooled money of the rich, and nothing to do with the sort of hard-working, slow, honest, painstaking growth (for owners and employees) that a properly productive business has to do.