Looking for a dream job? Gerry Murphygives the post of test driver a shot at Ford's Belgian test track
Wanted! Are you still trying to figure out what your dream job would be? Do you love driving? Are you going to be doing what you are doing now, for ever? Some of us know exactly what we want to be from an early age. Others never do.
Dream jobs come in all shapes and sizes. Fancy working as a professional test driver for the Ford Motor Company?
A lucky 180 people, mostly men and a few women, do just that every day for a living at the Ford Proving Ground in Lommel, a small town in the north of Belgium. Working three shifts, from Monday to Friday and two 12-hour stints on Saturday and Sunday, the professional test drivers at the Ford Proving Ground clock up a combined 20,000 kilometres each day tucked away in the woods near Lommel, hidden from prying eyes and in complete secrecy.
On a visit to the 320 hectare site - that's about half the size of the Phoenix Park - cameras and mobile phones were seized at security to protect sensitive information. Mildly camouflaged new Mondeos were the guarded secret of the moment, and while a fleet of them was also being tested on the public roads, it was at the Proving Ground that they were most visible.
For 18 months, since prototype form, the Mondeo has been put through every possible examination. Eighty kilometres of highway, road, lane and boreen is the playground of the test drivers as they iron out the snags in all new Ford models. Crumbled surfaces, potholes and cracks are built-in essentials.
Ford built the Lommel site to exacting details of roads from all over Europe. Flat out in the Mondeo around the Comfort Road and the Hill Section showed how far a professional driver can push a medium family saloon.
Ramps, cobbles, railway crossings and kerbs test the limits of the suspension. Robots are used to repeat tests over and over to find the extremes of handling. All just part of the working day of the test drivers.
And then there is the high speed, banked oval track. A standard speed limit of 220km/h applies. However, higher speed testing is allowed following strict safety tests on both vehicle and the track. Ford and Jaguar formula one cars have been tested at Lommel, as have cars of other manufacturers on a hired out basis. Ford also tests other manufacturers' cars for comparison purposes. You are as likely to see a Golf 32R and a Honda Civic Type R out on the track as a Ford model. There is an off-road section that is often used by Land Rover to fine-tune their 4x4 systems. During the day-long visit, Ford engineers displayed many of the tests that have been carried out on the Mondeo, such as how far you can push the car with and without the Vehicle Stability System being operational, and what happens in the braking system with prolonged use.
Attention to detail is the foremost philosophy for the CAE Vehicle Dynamics team. Accurate feedback from the test driver is vitally important to achieve the best results.
Leaving Lommel, while retrieving the mobile and the digital camera from security, a Porsche 911 Turbo and an Aston Martin DB9 arrived at the gate. Aston Martin-clad technicians signed in. They were coming to pitch one against the other.
Unfortunately for me, it was time to leave. It takes 10 years to train a test driver to the top of the profession.
Ford Motor Company invest a lot of time in their test drivers and places on the team don't become available too often, but what a job!