The Dunton Campus (informally Ford Dunton or Dunton) is a major automotive research and development facility located in Dunton Wayletts, Laindon, Essex, United Kingdom, which is owned and operated by Ford Motor Company. Ford Dunton houses the main design team of Ford of Europe alongside its Merkenich Technical Centre in Cologne, Germany. With the closure of Ford's Warley site (located in Brentwood, Essex) in September 2019, the staff from the UK division of Ford Motor Credit Company and Ford's UK Sales and Marketing departments have moved to the Dunton site. As of November 2019, Dunton had around 4,000 staff working at the site.
Ford Dunton is situated at the junction of West Mayne (B148) and the A127 Southend Arterial Road, in Dunton Wayletts in the district of Basildon. An electricity pylon line straddles the site. In front of the building, to the north, is a vehicle test track. To the south is the Southfields Business Park. The site lies in the religious parish of Laindon with Dunton, formerly in Dunton and Bulphan before 1976. Dunton is a small hamlet to the west, with a former church near Dunton Hall. There is a Ford dealership on the B148 on the north-west corner of the site.
In order to promote health and well-being at the site, there are walking routes and outdoor natural areas preserved on the site. There is a picnic area and a pond surrounded by a copse of mixed deciduous trees. The pond is home to many large fish and you can see the protected snail species Helix pomatia.
Ford Dunton was constructed by George Wimpey for a contracted price of £6.5million. The total cost of the centre was around £10million. The centre originally had 45,000sqft (4,200m2) of space for design work, making it the largest engineering research centre in Europe. Another development site at Aveley had been opened in 1956 which made prototype cars and spare parts, and closed in 2004.[2] Ford's earlier UK design site was at Dagenham and it previously had seven engineering sites around the UK, with five in Essex; these all moved to Dunton.
Ford Dunton was opened by Harold Wilson, then the British prime minister, on 12 October 1967.[3]
1967 to 2000
At the time of its opening, Dunton was assigned responsibility within Ford of Europe for vehicle design, interior styling, chassis and body interior engineering, engine calibration and product planning. Ford's Merkenich Centre in Cologne, Germany was given principal responsibility for body and electrical engineering, base engine design, advanced engine development, exterior styling, homologation, vehicle development (ride, handling, NVH) and transmission engineering. This was a 'systems' approach to the engineering process intended to eliminate the duplication of engineering responsibility within Ford of Europe.
In the late 1960s Dunton worked on an experimental electric car, first shown on 7 June 1967, and called the Ford Comuta.[4]
On 10 May 1971 Peter Walker opened a £1million engine emissions laboratory at Dunton, the largest of its type in Europe. In November 1974 the world's first automated (computerised) multiple engine (six) test bed was constructed at Dunton, built in co-operation with the engineering department of Queen Mary, University of London. In 1974 a Honeywell 6050 computer was installed at Dunton at a cost of £820,000. The computer was linked to Merkenich and to the Ford test track at Lommel in Belgium. From 1978 Dunton had access to a CDC Cyber 176 computer at the USA base in Dearborn.
Special Vehicle Engineering developed the 4x4 system in the mid 1980s.[5] SVE vehicles had Garrett turbochargers. Many of the RS models had the bodywork made at Karmann in Osnabrück, Germany; the vehicles had Pirelli tyres.[6]
By 1984 staff at Dunton were conducting video-conferences with colleagues at Merkenich, using the ECS-1 satellite, and enabled by British Telecom International.
In the 1980s Ford spent £100m a year on British research.[7] In 1988 the site worked with Prof Paul Shayler of the University of Nottingham mechanical engineering department[8]
The Sierra Sapphire was launched in a £228m development in February 1987, with Clive Ennos and Andy Jacobson at Dunton.[9] A £10m 53,000 sq ft R&D Electronics Technical Centre was built from 1987, to open in early 1989, to develop spark plugs, fuel pumps, and engine management systems.[10][11]
In 1988 Dunton prepared the way for design of the Mondeo (codename CDW27) by pioneering, in collaboration with Merkenich, the Worldwide Engineering Release System (WERS). Dunton at this time was the most advanced automotive development centre in Europe.
New Zetec engines developed in 1991 under Ian MacPherson, in conjunction with Yamaha.[12]
From 1992 to 1996, 300 engineering jobs were moved to Merkenich. Engine development was largely at Dunton, not Germany.[13] A new four-storey £22m centre was built from 1995.[14]
In August 1997 the site developed the 145mph Mondeo ST24, with a 2.5 litre Duratec V6 engine.[15][16] On 16 December 1997 Alexander Trotman, Baron Trotman opened a £128million environmental engine testing facility at Dunton.[17]
In March 2010 Ford announced plans to develop a new generation of environmentally friendly engines and vehicle technologies at Dunton following an announcement by the UK government that it would underwrite £360million of a £450million loan to Ford from the European Investment Bank.[18] In July 2010 the new coalition government confirmed that it would honour the loan commitment, and the contract was signed in a ceremony at Dunton attended by the business minister Mark Prisk on 12 July.[19]
In recent years[when?] Dunton has been responsible for the development of the ECOnetic range of vehicles, and has contributed to development of the EcoBoost range of engines.
In 2020 during the medical ventilators crisis generated by COVID-19, a Dunton Manufacturing team participated in VentilatorUKChallenge consortium and had a major contribution to deliver over 10,000 units to the NHS in just 12 weeks.
Visits
In 1971 it was visited by the Secretary of State for the Environment
Dunton houses the main design team of Ford of Europe, alongside its Merkenich Technical Centre in Cologne. Currently Dunton has responsibility for the design of the Ford Fiesta, the Ford Ka, engines for Ford of Europe (powertrain), commercial vehicles and the interior of Ford of Europe cars. It has facilities to simultaneously test fifteen cars and around one hundred engines. Around 3,000 engineers currently work at Dunton.
Ford Dunton is also the home of Ford Team RS, and as part of the Special Vehicle Engineering section of Ford created by Rod Mansfield, developed the XR family of 'hot hatch' vehicles with the Ford Fiesta RS Turbo, more recently becoming the RS family of vehicles. Ford also notably worked in this area of design with Cosworth of Northampton.
Basildon is a town in the borough of the same name, in the county of Essex, England. It had a recorded population of 115,955 at the 2021 census. In 1931, the town had a population of 1,159.
The Ford Focus is a compact car manufactured by Ford Motor Company since 1999. It was created under Alexander Trotman's Ford 2000 plan, which aimed to globalize model development and sell one compact vehicle worldwide. The original Focus was primarily designed by Ford of Europe's German and British teams. Production of the fourth generation Focus began in 2018 in Germany and China.
The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car that was marketed by Ford from 1976 to 2023 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and had been positioned below the Escort.
The Ford CVH engine is a straight-four automobile engine produced by the Ford Motor Company. The engine's name is an acronym for either Compound Valve-angle Hemispherical or Canted Valve Hemispherical, where "Hemispherical" describes the shape of the combustion chamber. The CVH was introduced in 1980 in the third generation European Escort and in 1981 in the first generation North American Escort.
The Borough of Basildon is a local government district with borough status in Essex, England. It is named after its largest town, Basildon, where the council is based. The borough also includes the towns of Billericay and Wickford and surrounding rural areas.
Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited is the Australian subsidiary of United States-based automaker Ford Motor Company. It was founded in 1925 as an Australian outpost of Ford Motor Company of Canada. At that time, Ford Canada was a separate company from Ford in the US. Henry Ford had granted the manufacturing rights of Ford motor vehicles in the British Empire to Canadian investors.
The Ford Essex V6 engine is a 60° V6 engine built between 1966 and 1988 by the Ford Motor Company in the United Kingdom and until 2000 in South Africa although mostly in the Ford engine plant of Dagenham, Essex, which gave the engine its name. It is closely related to the Ford Essex V4 engine produced in displacements of 1.7 L and 2.0 L. Both engines share many parts since the Essex V6 was directly derived from the Essex V4; the 2.0 L Essex V4 and the 3.0 L Essex V6 in fact have exactly the same bore and stroke and share various components. In the same era, the Ford Cologne V6 engine was produced.
The A127, also known as the Southend Arterial Road, is a major road in Essex, England. It was constructed as a new arterial road project in the 1920s, linking Romford with Southend-on-Sea, replacing the older A13. Formerly classified as a trunk road, it was "de-trunked" in 1997. It is known as the Southend Arterial Road except for part of its length in Southend-on-Sea. It is also streetlit for its whole length despite its majority coverage through rural land.
The Ford Escort is a small family car that was manufactured by Ford of Europe from 1968 until 2000. In total there were six generations, spread across three basic platforms: the original, rear-wheel-drive Mk.1/Mk.2 (1968–1980), the "Erika" front-wheel-drive Mk.3/Mk.4 (1980–1992), and the final CE-14 Mk.5/Mk.6 (1990–2002) version. Its successor, the Ford Focus, was released in 1998, but the final generation of Escort was phased out gradually, with the panel van version ending production in 2002 in favour of the Ford Transit Connect.
Ford Motor Company Limited, trading as Ford of Britain, is a British wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Technologies Limited, itself a subsidiary of Ford International Capital LLC, which is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Its business started in 1909 and has its registered office in Laindon, Essex. It adopted the name of Ford of Britain in 1960.
Tickford is an automobile engineering and testing business in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, known for tuning and such products as the 140 mph Tickford Turbo Capri.
A development mule, also known as test mule or simply mule, in the automotive industry is a testbed vehicle equipped with prototype components requiring evaluation. They are often camouflaged to cover their designs.
Harley F. Copp, was an American car designer and automotive safety consultant.
Dunton Wayletts or Dunton is hamlet and former civil parish in the Borough of Basildon in Essex, England. It lies on the western outskirts of the borough's main town of Basildon, adjoining the suburb of Laindon.
Ford Dagenham is a major automotive factory located in Dagenham, London, operated by the Ford of Britain subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. The plant opened in 1931 and has produced 10,980,368 cars and more than 39,000,000 engines in its history. It covers around 475 acres and has received over £800 million of capital investment since 2000.
The Ford Fiesta Mk1 is the first generation of the Ford Fiesta supermini. It was introduced in 1976 as Ford Europe's first multi-national front-wheel-drive automobile, and was available in both 3-door hatchback and panel van derivatives. In 1983, the Fiesta was updated, and the Fiesta Mk2 was introduced.
The Ford Fiesta Mk3 was the third generation of the Ford Fiesta supermini built by Ford Europe. Originally introduced in 1989, the Mk3 represented the biggest change to the Fiesta since the original car was introduced in 1976. In addition to the 3-door hatchback and panel van versions that had formed the Fiesta range, a 5-door hatchback was also added. The Fiesta Mk3 was replaced by the Fiesta Mk4 in 1995, but remained on sale until early 1997. The Mk4 was a major restyle of the Mk3, but had the same chassis.
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