Millbrook Proving Ground is an English vehicle testing centre located at Millbrook, Bedfordshire. One of the largest vehicle testing centres in Europe, it is near to the M1 and Bedford.
Millbrook Proving Ground is an English vehicle testing centre located at Millbrook, Bedfordshire. One of the largest vehicle testing centres in Europe, it is near to the M1 and Bedford.
Modelled on the Milford Proving Ground operated by General Motors (GM) in Michigan, Millbrook was opened in the 1960s by the GM subsidiary Bedford before passing over to Vauxhall. Due to the geographical needs of a full testing centre, including both hills and flat land, the traditional choice of a former Royal Air Force 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. [1]
Construction of the Proving Ground began in 1968, and once the facility opened in 1970 it acted as the testing site for many European GM models from, among others, the Vauxhall and Bedford companies.
With Bedford withdrawing from the bus and truck markets in December 1986, Millbrook was put up for sale by GM. [2] In 1988 the site was transferred to a new company, Millbrook Proving Ground Limited as part of Lotus and offered its facilities to non-GM companies. With the sale of Lotus in 1993 Millbrook was transferred to GM Holdings UK Limited, as an independently managed company which diversified into all aspects of vehicle testing including emission control. [1] In October 2013, the proving ground was purchased by Rutland Partners. [3] In September 2016 it was sold to Spectris. [4] In December 2020 it was announced that Millbrook would be divested from the Spectris portfolio of companies and acquired by UTAC CERAM for £133 million. [5] The divestment was completed on the 2 February 2021. [6]
The centre provides vehicle test and development facilities including:
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:
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 organisations.
Millbrook has been used in the filming of many television programmes and films including: [8]
Opel Automobile GmbH, usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Group prior to its merger with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to form Stellantis in 2021. Most of the Opel lineup is marketed under the Vauxhall brand in the United Kingdom since the 1980s. Some Opel vehicles were badge-engineered in Australia under the Holden brand until 2020, in North America and China under the Buick, Saturn, and Cadillac brands, and in South America under the Chevrolet brand.
Vauxhall Motors Limited is a British car company headquartered in Chalton, Bedfordshire, England. Vauxhall became a subsidiary of Stellantis in January 2021, having previously been owned by General Motors since 1925.
The Vauxhall Chevette is a supermini car that was manufactured by Vauxhall in the United Kingdom from 1975 to 1984. It was Vauxhall's version of the "T-Car" small-car family from Vauxhall's parent General Motors (GM), and based primarily on the Opel Kadett C. The family also included the Isuzu Gemini in Japan, the Holden Gemini in Australia, the Chevrolet Chevette in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Argentina, and in the U.S. and Canada it was also rebadged as the Pontiac Acadian/Pontiac T1000.
The automotive industry in the United Kingdom is now best known for premium and sports car marques including: Aston Martin, McLaren, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, Range Rover, Mini and Lotus. Specialised sports car companies include: Ariel, BAC, Morgan, Caterham, AC Cars, Gordan Murray, TVR, Noble, Radical, Ginetta, Ultima Sports, Westfield, Lister, Arash and David Brown. Volume car manufacturers with a major presence in the UK include: Nissan, Toyota, Mini and Vauxhall. Commercial vehicle manufacturers active in the UK include Alexander Dennis, Dennis Eagle, IBC Vehicles, Leyland Trucks, TEVVA and the London Electric Vehicle Company.
Fifth Gear is a British motoring television magazine series which has been broadcast since 2002. Originally shown on Channel 5 from 2002 to 2011, it began as a continuation of the original version of the BBC show Top Gear, which ran from 1977 until being cancelled in 2001. It moved to the Discovery Channel in 2012, then in 2015 to History; since 2018 it has been broadcast on Quest. The show is currently presented by Vicki Butler-Henderson and Jason Plato, with Rory Reid, Grace Webb and Jimmy de Ville featuring in some episodes. Its former presenters include Quentin Willson, Adrian Simpson, Jonny Smith, former racing driver Tiff Needell and Car SOS host Tim Shaw.
Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a brand of vehicle manufactured by Vauxhall Motors, then a subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. Established in April 1931, Bedford Vehicles was set up to build commercial vehicles. The company was a leading international lorry brand, with substantial export sales of light, medium, and heavy lorries throughout the world.
Leyland DAF was a commercial vehicle manufacturing company based in Leyland, United Kingdom, and a subsidiary of DAF NV. In February 1993, Leyland DAF was placed into receivership.
The Lotus Europa S is a sports car built by the British company Lotus Cars from 2006 until 2010. It has a rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout and was designed to be a more comfortable variant of the driver-focused Lotus Elise and its derivative, the Exige. The Europa S revived the Europa nameplate previously used in the 1960s and 1970s.
General Motors Europe was the European subsidiary of the American automaker General Motors ("GM"). The subsidiary was established by GM in 1986 and operated 14 production and assembly facilities in 9 countries, and employed around 54,500 people. GM's core European brands were Vauxhall and Opel, which both sell much the same range of cars in different markets. GM also owned the Swedish brand Saab until early 2010 and sold Chevrolet models between 2005 and 2015. The U.S. brand Cadillac is imported into Europe in small quantities. In 2009, General Motors (GM) announced to move its European headquarters from Zürich, Switzerland to Rüsselsheim, Germany to strengthen its German subsidiary Opel.
The Sd.Kfz. 7 was a half-track military vehicle used by the German Army, Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS during the Second World War. Sd.Kfz. is an abbreviation of the German word Sonderkraftfahrzeug, "special purpose vehicle". A longer designation is mittlerer Zugkraftwagen 8t, Sd.Kfz. 7, "medium towing motor vehicle 8t".
A proving ground (US) is an installation or reservation in which technology such as weapons, military tactics and automobile prototypes are experimented with or tested. Proving grounds can be operated by government bodies or civilian industries. They are distinct from military training areas which are run by the military and intended for the routine training and exercising of troops across the terrain.
The Isuzu Fargo is a light commercial van manufactured between 1980 and 2001 by Japanese automaker Isuzu in Japan. The Fargo spanned two generations, the first of which was sold between 1980 and 1995 as both van and pickup body styles, with the second generation, introduced in 1995, confined to a single van body style. This second generation was a badge-engineered version of the Nissan Caravan (E24), as opposed to an Isuzu design.
HORIBA MIRA Ltd. is an automotive engineering and development consultancy company headquartered near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, United Kingdom. It provides product engineering, research, testing, information and certification services to the automotive sector. Its headquarters are in the MIRA Technology Park Enterprise Zone. On 14 July 2015 MIRA announced that it was being bought by the Japanese-owned testing equipment group Horiba.
General Motors New Zealand Limited, formerly Holden New Zealand Limited, is a subsidiary of General Motors that distributes GM' motor vehicles, engines, components and parts in New Zealand.
General Motors operates several proving grounds.
Over the centuries, due to technological and economic change, Luton's economy has changed and developed to keep pace with the rest of the UK. Major industries that are related to Luton include Brickmaking, Millinery or Hat making, Automobile production and its airport, London Luton Airport.
Spectris plc is a supplier of precision instrumentation and controls. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
The Bedford CF is a range of full-size panel vans produced by Bedford - the commercial vehicles division of Vauxhall. The van was introduced in 1969 to replace the CA model, and was sized to compete directly with the Ford Transit, which had entered production four years earlier. Its design was similar to its American counterpart, the Chevrolet Van (1971–1995).
Vauxhall Ellesmere Port is a motor vehicle assembly plant, located in the town of Ellesmere Port, in Cheshire West & Chester, United Kingdom. It has always built small/medium Vauxhall/Opel vehicles, including the Vauxhall Viva and Opel/Vauxhall Astra. It is owned by the global car manufacturer Stellantis.
The Bedford Dunstable plant was a truck and bus vehicle assembly plant, located in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England. Developed and opened by Vauxhall Motors in 1942 under instruction from the Ministry of Production as a shadow factory, it was transferred to the Bedford Vehicles unit in the 1950s. Closed after receivership in 1992, it was subsequently demolished and redeveloped as a retail park and associated industrial estate.
