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Old 06-29-2017, 01:08 PM
Keith Seymore's Avatar
Keith Seymore Keith Seymore is offline
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This one is Milford Proving Ground as well. That twisty section of road course is called the "Seven Sisters" (because there are seven turns). Naturally it is used for ride and handling work.

There are sections of (local) public roadways replicated on the Proving Ground. Pontiac Trail, Hyne Road, and 12 Mile Rd come to mind. 14 Mile between Mound and Dequindre used to be particularly rough (the sections of concrete had shifted, causing a repeatable predictable beating) and I know for sure that some shock tuning went on there mixed in with the civilian traffic. Mr Lutz famously replicated the Nurburgring course where the off road portion of the Truck Loop used to be.

Lastly - I wanted to comment on the little adhesive letters on the windshields of some of the cars. These may be specific to the Marketing groups as they administrated the photo sessions (or designations of vehicles during a Long Lead/Short Lead press show) but we also use them to designate vehicles during Engineering road trips. Powertrain Cooling, HVAC, Brake Test trips, etc usually have several test vehicles, plus a lead vehicle and a chase truck with technicians and tools. The location is chosen based on what you are trying to accomplish (ie, Death Valley for heating/cooling, Kapuskasing for cold weather, Pikes Peak for altitude and braking, Towns Pass/Davis Dam for trailering up long grades, etc). Participants, consisting of engineers, engineering managers, and guests (quality or marketing reps, or even secretaries participating as a "benefit") are rotated through the various seating positions usually in a prescribed manner, to make sure everybody gets a turn to drive and sit in the back seat. Relevant data is taken while the vehicles are driven and, ideally, reviewed that evening during a working dinner meeting.

One of my favorites was a Corvette test trip where, rather than stick the letters on the rear window of the vehicles, they used the Manufacturer's plates to designate the test vehicle from behind (ie, "12M-001", "12M-002", etc).

K
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Last edited by Keith Seymore; 06-29-2017 at 02:18 PM.
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