Ford 'Behind the Scenes Tour'

[russellw]

Good afternoon

Have just got back from another interesting and enjoyable day at the Ford proving ground.

It's been a few years since I last visited the facility and since then it has continued to grow in size and capability with the addition of an Environmental Wind Tunnel and an anechoic chamber to go along with the already impressive list of capabilities which include an Emissions Lab; an Evaporative Emissions lab; a heat soak area, 4 post hydraulic rig and associated dyno and climate simulation facilities.

The wind tunnel and 4 post rig were of the most interest to me.

The wind tunnel:

- can produce a top wind speed of 250 km/h
- can vary temperature between -40 and +55 degrees
- can vary humidity from 10% to 95% relative humidity
- can simulate solar cycles between 600-1200W/square metre
- has a 48" 450kW 4WD dyno that can handle up to 300kW on the front and 600 kW on the rear rollers and 4500 kg per axle.

The four post rig (familiar equipment to Nascar enthusiasts) uses hydraulics to simulate a range of road conditions that allows accelerated suspension and damper testing. It simulates the torture tests that vehicles are subjected to on the test track with washboards, gutters, cobblestones and other tests designed to simulate the worst punishment we can dish out.

The second part of the day was dedicated to driving a range of current models around the ride and handling loop - a reasonably short track but with a good mix of sharp, dual apex and constant radius corners.

For me, there was a few surprises both good and bad.

On the good side:

..the Ranger Wildtrack was a much better performing and handling vehicle than I would have given it credit for being. Nice turn in, decent torque and it responded well to driver inputs. That it then went through the wading pond (600mm deep although it is capable of 800mm) without missing a beat was equally impressive;

.. likewise, the Focus diesel was an eye-opener. I expected it to handle really well (which it does) but I didn't expect it to have as much get up and go as it did as it is a really lively and enjoyable drive;

.. the Territory continued to remind me why it as good a vehicle as it is - the handling is impressive, the performance from the diesel better than I expected and it was the one that left me with the best impression as an all-rounder;

.. the Transit handled surprisingly well for what it is. Performance from the manual is reasonable but it is actually a solid handler despite the high centre of gravity and the fact that it isn't supposed to be a performance car;

.. all of the ecoboost equipped cars showed why this a great engine. In some of the cases today they weren't blessed with a transmission that allowed them to really shine (but maybe power-shift requires some familiarisation).

The real disappointment was the Kuga. It wallowed and floated around the circuit and didn't seem to have any real cohesion between the front and rear ends neither of which seemed connected to the steering. Performance was ok but it only meant that you were going to arrive at the limit of its dynamic capability that much quicker. In short, we should have waited for the new one.

The penultimate session for the day was a repeat of the Ecoboost challenge. Three Falcons powered by I6, EcoLPi and Ecoboost but with their identity masked so we didn't know which we were in. Each was run over a 0-100 km/h sprint and the times recorded using a vBox. Unfortunately, one of the v-Boxes had gone walkabout so the EcoLPi car had no times recorded but the fastest car on the day was the Ecoboost with a 7.00 flat.

The day concluded with rides around the high speed bowl (sorry constant radius circuit as it is apparently now called) in either a GT-P or Focus ST and rides around the ride and handling loop in another pair of the same vehicles.

All in all a nice way to spend the day. Thanks to all the team at Ford Media for making us feel we4lcome, Bob Graziano for taking the time out of a busy schedule to spend time with us and all the staff at the proving ground for taking the time to answer our silly question with a smile.

Cheers
Russ