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Layout, facilities and activities relating to making road-tests of motor vehicles at the 1125-acre proving grounds of the General Motors Corporation near Detroit, this tract being designed to provide a place where road conditions are suitable for obtaining data that can be interpreted accurately, compared with similar data and used constructively, are outlined and illustrated. Adequate facilities are provided and ideal road-conditions have been established so that motor-vehicle tests involving endurance, speed, acceleration, hill climbing, riding-quality and other comparative tests can be made. Conditions are such that tests can be repeated from day to day, thus compensating for the variations of the weather and other factors. Complete and conclusive tests can be carried out readily and promptly, and the results are free from guesses and personal opinions. The speed track is 20 ft. wide and nearly 4 miles long. Traffic is in one direction, clockwise.

To furnish each year better, prompter and less costly service compels the development of field service-branches that operate on a sound business basis such that all the capital involved is applied toward operating all of the floor-space to its maximum capacity, turning-over the stock with the maximum frequency, justifying the existence of the tool equipment and having the right men all pull together. Data are necessary in the conduct of any business on an efficient basis, and the field experience provides a definite channel to bring to the designing and the production organizations the information that is most valuable in making an improved product. Two tendencies of the industry are toward automobiles that become lower in overall costs per mile of transportation and vehicles that function with less trouble, delay and inconvenience.