Lang Lang's 50th Birthday

GM Holden’s proving ground at Lang Lang has just celebrated its 50th anniversary.

GM Holden’s Executive Director of Engineering Tony Hyde said: “Lang Lang has played a key role in the development and success of GM Holden since its earliest days.

“Having a world class testing facility has been integral in enabling Holden to develop generations of vehicles able to withstand the uniquely challenging Australian driving conditions.”

Located 95 kilometres south east of Melbourne, the 877 hectare site was Australia’s first automotive testing and development complex and has been the testing ground for every Holden from the FC to the recently released VE Ute.

Behind the security fencing, more than 4.5 million kilometres are driven under test each year where prototype, pre-production and current production vehicles are tested on a variety of sealed and unsealed surfaces designed to replicate real world conditions.

The 44 kilometres of road systems are designed for specific and general durability testing as well as performance and high speed testing. This includes a banked 4.7km high speed track, a twist course, a noise road for noise and vibration development, a rattle and squeak track, tests hills and a skid pan.

The proving ground also houses a safety test laboratory which is home to an extended family of state-of-the-art fully instrumented test dummies and has an airbag test and development capability.

A range of collision types can be reproduced at Lang Lang’s full compliance SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) barrier facility where cars are winched towards a 76 tonne concrete barrier at speeds of up to 90 km/h.

The proving ground’s emissions laboratory is capable of conducting a wide range of exhaust emission tests for certifying vehicles to Australian and international regulatory requirements.

Purchased by GM Holden in 1956, Lang Lang commenced operations in 1957 and is the lead test facility for General Motors in the Asia Pacific region.

But rather than go on and on about it, we thought we’d treat you to this wealth of historic pics...

The high speed loop.

The 1963 EH Holden range on the high speed loop.

One of the prettiest Commodores never produced was 2000’s ECOmmodore (see Holden's Green Car). Unfortunately, all the driving it ever did was here...

Back in the early days indeed, with some 1958 FC Holdens on display.

Yes, that is the speed loop – still dirt! An amazing pic, but – rightly so – Holden engineers of the time probably thought high speed dirt was pretty damn relevant to Australians...

The Holden Hurricane of May 1969 represented Holden’s forward thinking – but apart from the Australian-designed V8 (available in 253 and 308 cid versions), nothing else Hurricane found its way into Holden production cars...

An HQ Holden prototype – probably from 1970 – sent to the wall. Note the outside crash testing facility and the structural integrity of the cabin – although we don’t know the impact speed.

Emissions testing, where the driver needs to follow a monitor trace that shows required speed. We’re sure that Holden test drivers never bothered leaning out of the cabin like this – but it’s good for the photographer...

Was the handbrake yanked on or was this the result of a massive throttle lift? Holden testing the dirt road handling of an early Astra...

The HK Holden range on the speed loop, 1968....

...and the LH Torana models, 1974.

A VB Commodore – the first Commodore – being inspected after a frontal impact test. The test facility is still outside. Note the banks of (switched off) lights and the bicycle wheel speed monitoring device.

But all was not speed loop or crashes. Here an HX GTS model undergoes the water splash test – with more mud than water. The year would have been about 1975.

The Torana GTR-X was another Holden that never made it. Shown publicly in August 1970, the car even reached the stage of having journalists drive it. But it was not to be – something that with the market success of the Datsun 240Z, may have been the wrong decision.

Was the high speed test loop used more for publicity pics or testing? Here are three VB Commodores in 1978. Note the headlights wipers of the SLE – you won’t find them on a VE Commodore!

Without a doubt, the most beautiful car ever sold by Holden was the Monaro. Even in this image, the absolute grace of the shape still shows through...

The sign says “16.0% hill” – and that’s pretty steep. The year would have been about 1958.

More a publicity shot than one of testing, but the kangaroo crash test dummy was apparently also used in real crash testing – like Saab use a make-believe moose...

Side impact testing of the Statesman and...

...rough road testing by one Peter Brock in the 1984 VK Commodore.

The photo’s captioned by Holden as the “65 litre airbag test’ and we’d assume it’s from the early Nineties.

And bringing things right up to the present, here’s the VE Commodore undergoing testing at Lang Lang.

Sincere congratulations to Holden for the work that’s been done over the 50 years.

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