General Motors Proving Ground, Milford Michigan - 89 Million Miles Of Testing In 20 Years (1944)

General Motors Corporation - ASIN: b000uyalfu - First Published in 1944 **VERY RARE BOOK IN REASONABLE CONDITION - some visible damage to front spine - contents intact ***

Dedicated to the 'fact finders" of the Proving Ground—the men and women who have measured the value of General Motors engineering developments since 1924, who in wartime have provided the United States Army with a scientific means of impartially testing military vehicles produced by other manufacturers as well as General Motors.

It is always sound philosophy to recognize that the most effective attack is the determination of facts without predjudice and with an open mind.

That was the fundamental concept of the General Motors Proving Ground. That, I believe, always will be its function—to test General Motors engineering under the most favorable scientific conditions and with the aid of the latest technical apparatus, first by identifying points of weakness as well as strength, and then by measuring them.

Certainly in no better way, probably in no other way, could we achieve the essential objective of giving constantly increasing value in General Motors products.

How true it is that important developments so often flow from accidental circumstances. The idea of the Proving Ground came in 1923, when we were questioning the desirability of adopting four-wheel brakes on General Motors cars.

A group of General Motors executives and engineers was attempting to test them on the public highways near Flint, Michigan—attempting to determine an exceedingly important technical policy under such adverse conditions that essential fact-finding was almost futile. The urge to provide a better way of doing such things stood out crystal clear, and the General Motors Proving Ground was the final result.

During the ensuing peacetime years, the scientific Proving Ground way of finding facts amply demonstrated its value. It has again proved its worth in time of war. After all, whatever the final objective may be, we must first determine the facts.