Some pics of Chrysler's old proving grounds

[mhurlbutjr]

I didn't know if anyone would be interested but here heres a few.

[RedHoodRidah]

Thats area 51

[mhurlbutjr]

bump

[Raxe]

That's a pretty big hill they have there.

[JasonC]

I would of loved to work there (1950's-mid1990's) And see experimental cars like the turbine powered ones up to Hemis into their turbo charged years in the 80's. And some of their stuff they was messing around with in the early and mid 90's.

[AWDE30]

The least you could of done was sneak in and get some money shots.

[BlackSpeed66]

Mmmmm... Love old Mopars. The guys on moparts.com would probably like that. 'Course they probably already know about it anyway.

Makes me miss my old Chrysler....

[Bimmerista]

Why would they need a new proving ground?

[Mtriple]

Why would they need a new proving ground?

I'm guessing that most of it is real world now with no need for a track.

I grew up in Michigan not far from Detroit in the mid 70's. We had a Ford proving ground right down the street. Its gone now too...

**edit** I just found it on Google. There is now a neighborhood in the middle of it, lol. You can clearly see the outline of the old track though... Utica, MI. for anyone interested.

[kroberts]

Blackspeed, that's a '66 right?

Nice old sled, I'll bet you do miss it.

[Z3Jonathan]

Why would they need a new proving ground?

My understanding is that Chrysler has retired their original proving grounds, and purchased one from Ford:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Proving_Grounds#Arizona_Proving_Ground_-_Wittmann.2C_Arizona

[der affe]

bump

so do you live near Wittmann?

[Mtriple]

Did some poking around on the internet and found that what I posted above as the Ford proving grounds, was actually the Packard proving grounds before it was sold to Ford.

What I posted earlier:


Picture that I found:



Some more:







The garages where they worked on the test cars:



As a kid, I remember my Dad taking me to car shows on these front lawns:

[Mtriple]

so do you live near Wittmann?

Did some more searching and it looks like it was purchased by Chrysler in 2007 from Volvo.

Wittmann proving grounds:

[JasonC]

Well damn, after seeing it was Fords test gounds all of those years. I'm going to have to take back what i said about working there. And it's pretty cool what Bob's posting up too.