Chelsea proving grounds

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Glen

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I've never been to Chrysler's famous proving grounds myself, but according to photos there is this very steep hill located there. OK it's a 32% grade according to the sign. Makes sense as they need to simulate stresses their products will face out in the real world. One photo is of the 1966 Hemi Coronet being tested by a magazine editor. An old Popular mechanics article from 1975 shows the "new"1976 Dodge Aspen reaching the top of the same hill. Also I found a picture of a Duster about to descend the same hill.
Anyways with Fiat running the show now, I hope they don't decide to sell off the Chelsea proving grounds to land developers. With computer modeling maybe the proving grounds will be obsolete and they would rather sell out. I would think its part of Chrysler's heritage, that's where a lot of milestone musclecars were tested and approved for production all those years ago.
 

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I wonder if they found out what a pos the Aspen was before or after they used it as a replacement for the Dart.

Save the ire. The F body (especially the 1976-77) was a pos next to the A bodies it replaced, whether we say so or not. Might as well say so.


...and yes. I understand that there are still a few around, and I wish their owners all the best with them.
 
I agree wholeheartedly.

Frankie said:
I wonder if they found out what a pos the Aspen was before or after they used it as a replacement for the Dart.

Save the ire. The F body (especially the 1976-77) was a pos next to the A bodies it replaced, whether we say so or not. Might as well say so.


...and yes. I understand that there are still a few around, and I wish their owners all the best with them.
Click to expand...
 
I live within a 1/2 hour drive of the Proving Grounds. It's a huge, busy place with over 600 workers and cars being driven around the clock on the track. I don't see it going anywhere.
 
I've been there, on that hill even.


We put the 'bird in neutral and were doing over 45 MPH at the bottom from just coasting.


That was after we had it doing a buck fifty on the high bank oval track!!!
 
It's alive and well, hill is still there, they use that mostly for testing the pulling power of the Ram trucks.

I live 15 - 20 minutes from there, and have several friends who work there.

Nice big junk yard right out by the road with a large berm around it from all of the cars they wreck, hitting deer, rolling them, what ever floats their boat at the time. If you look just right you can see them for just a second when driving past.
 
Glen said:
With computer modeling maybe the proving grounds will be obsolete and they would rather sell out. I would think its part of Chrysler's heritage, that's where a lot of milestone musclecars were tested and approved for production all those years ago.
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The proving grounds will never be obsolete.


You can't replace actual road testing with computer algorithms.


They have special road surfaces and hills to simulate road conditions and test suspensions. There is no way that they could do that testing on public roads, not to mention the high bank oval track. The "speed limit" in the outer lane is minimum of 80 MPH and no upper limit. You can do things on the proving grounds that you can't do on public roads.


They have a small test track at CTC, but it is not as good as the proving grounds tracks.


I don't see either the Chelsea or Phoenix proving grounds are going anywhere.
 
Frankie said:
I wonder if they found out what a pos the Aspen was before or after they used it as a replacement for the Dart.

Save the ire. The F body (especially the 1976-77) was a pos next to the A bodies it replaced, whether we say so or not. Might as well say so.


...and yes. I understand that there are still a few around, and I wish their owners all the best with them.
Click to expand...

I bought a 1977 Aspen new and really liked the car, it was good looking and run OK for the day with a 360 auto

Now for the proving grounds, got to drive around it about 11 years ago in my Prowler, 4.7 mile track and to stay I. The top groove was told needed to go at least 100 mph. Drove 115 pulling my matching Prowler Trailer. We got to do 4 laps and on one took it to the top at 85 mph and had to turn right to go left and stay in the lane, didn't stay up there long. Had I know we were going to be able to drive that fast would have unhooked the trailer and been able to run it harder around the track.

4 laps started with 1/4 tank of gas and before the end of the 3rd lap the fuel light came on.

They need real world testing so doubt the grounds are in trouble
 
GM opened the Proving Grounds to the Power Tour a few years back...it was really cool. :)
 
WildCat said:
I bought a 1977 Aspen new and really liked the car, it was good looking and run OK for the day with a 360 auto.
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I was wondering how long it would be before someone made an "except my car" post. lol

There are exceptions to every rule, and there were many decent F bodies made. I'm glad you were lucky enough to get one.

Salude' on your car. :thumbup:
 
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