You Can Buy A Giant Private Test Track In The Arizona Desert

Automotive conglomerate Stellantis is flogging its huge proving ground in Arizona as it looks to cut costs

22 Oct 2024

Stellantis Arizona Proving Ground aerial photo (Google)

Stellantis – the massive automotive conglomerate that emerged a few years ago from the merger of Fiat-Chrysler and the Peugeot-Citroen empire – isn’t doing so hot right now. Its earnings and sales have dipped massively this year, and several of its brands are losing money.

As it looks to turn things around, Stellantis is taking a look at where it can cut costs, and one of the places identified is the Arizona Proving Ground, which is… a proving ground in Arizona. Located in the western part of the state, around 100 miles south of Las Vegas, the massive facility was opened by Ford in 1955, and purchased by Chrysler in 2007.

Since then, Chrysler and subsequently Stellantis have used it for hot weather testing, unsurprisingly in an area where temperatures routinely exceed 40 degrees Celsius. The facility features around 70 miles of track and includes a high-speed oval, various shorter handling tracks and off-road testing grounds.

Now, though, the company is getting ready to offload the facility, telling Motor1 in a statement that it’s “continuing to market the Arizona Proving Grounds for sale and therefore, will cease use of the facility by the end of the year.”

Currently, 69 people are employed at the facility, and Stellantis says it’s working with the UAW – America’s trade union for those employed in car manufacturing – to offer them either special redundancy packages, transfer them elsewhere, or place them on indefinite leave which would allow them to retain pay and benefits for up to two years.

How much the company’s asking for the proving grounds isn’t clear, nor whether it has any interested parties, but it’s certainly a valuable site for car makers to see how well their cars withstand brutally hot temperatures.

We imagine it’ll be taken on by another company in the automotive sphere, but imagine for a moment you’re an eccentric billionaire looking for a place to exercise your vast car collection – what would you do with the Arizona Proving Ground?

The first full sentence spoken by an infant Mike was a review of the ride quality of a Volvo 850. It was “Daddy’s car goes bumpy-bump on a bumpy road,” so would probably need proofreading a bit, but it was a start.