TREAT 'EM ROUGH.

Treat 'em Rough A VISIT TO FORD MOTOR COMPANY'S DESERT PROVING GROUND

In February 1956, Ford Motor Company dedicated one of the most modern vehicle testing operations in the automotive industry, 25 miles south of Kingman, Arizona on Highway 66. Here on a 3,840 acre tract and surrounding area, a staff of mechanic test-drivers will put Fords, Thunderbirds, Mercurys, Lincolns, Continentals, Ford trucks and tractors through two and a quarter million punishing test miles a year to prove their mettle under extreme conditions. This latest addition to Ford Motor Co. proving grounds, in a variety of climates, offers high temperatures, low humidity and heavy abrasive dust as well as an up-to-the-minute speed track and a network of brutally torturous desert roads.

In a constant effort to improve performance, durability, economy, comfort and safety factors, prototypes of future models and current models, pulled at random from assembly lines, are given 20,000 to 60,000 miles of more grueling punishment than most cars would suffer in a dozen years. After such a test a car is often completely disassembled into its 16,000 or so parts so that each part may be adjudged on its ability to withstand wear and failure.

A main feature of the Arizona Proving Ground proper is the oval-shaped, asphaltic-concrete, high-speed test track, five miles around with one mile straight ways and 2,500 foot radius curves. Its construction presented so many headaches that the engineers nicknamed it "Aspirin Oval." This track was so efficiently engineered that vehicles at speeds up to and well over a hundred miles per hour can negotiate the curves without the driver touching the wheel.

The five-mile speedway constructed by Fisher Construction Co. of Phoenix, had a surface tolerance of oneeighth of an inch. Transitions and curves were built on a concave contour with a maximum grade of 60 percent. The big steel rollers on the 50 ton compacting machines were ground down to the shape of the concave track surface, then the equipment had to be held in operating position by tread-type tractors and counterbalancing weights.

It's a three shift, twenty-four hour job, treating 'em rough in Arizona, but it is well worth while, for a little heritage of the desert can go a long way to help produce a hardy strain of top grade motor cars.

ARIZONA PROVING GROUND FORD MOTOR COMPANY ENGINEERING STAFF