Texas Proving Grounds

Near Fort Stockton, Texas, midway between El Paso and San Antonio, lies one of Bridgestone Americas’ most valuable educational assets: Bridgestone Americas’ Texas Proving Ground (TPG). Established in 1955, TPG is more than 6,000 acres of flat land that features a variety of test tracks and driving environments. At TPG, tires and vehicles can be tested to their limits in real-life conditions.

The facility is home to simulated highways, city streets, a giant “black lake” of asphalt and an oval track larger than those at Daytona and Indy. There are tracks that can be run in wet or dry conditions over rumble-strips, potholes, curbs and any other surface that drivers in normal — or abnormal — driving conditions may face.

TPG also gives invited visitors the opportunity to learn about tire technology, observe the complexity of tire testing and possibly gain some hands-on driving experience.

TPG helps Bridgestone Americas promote safe travel by:

• Providing exceptional technical testing capability for ride, handling, noise, traction and other OEM and fleet requirements
• Consolidating most on-road tire evaluation into an efficient location with flexibility for expansion
• Maintaining a world-class facility that is a state-of-the-art place to work

Location: Chihuahuan Desert, northern edge, USA
Elevation: 3,000 feet
Size: 9.5 square miles, 6,000+ acres
Avg. annual precipitation: 12 inches
Avg. temperature: 67 degrees Fahrenheit
Avg. annual days of sunshine: 360

• Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) surfaces
  2,296 feet long, more than 20 different surfaces, including potholes, manholes, railroad tracks, small and large undulations, smooth/defaced/patched/cleated asphalt and grooved/patched/cracked concrete
• Vehicle dynamics area
  asphalt, 25-50mph
• Wet/dry handling course
  1.06 miles of smooth asphalt, 26.3 foot elevation change, 25-87mph, 492 foot diameter skid pad, timer controlled water depth
• Dry road course
  1.2 miles of asphalt, 44-124mph, 82 foot wide straight for slalom, constant and variable radius turns
• Skid pad
  asphalt and concrete, wet and dry, braking traction, stopping distance, hydroplaning,
  RPM loss, pass-by noise on SAE/ISO surfaces, glass plate filming
• Lateral and longitudinal hydroplaning
  3,772 feet of smooth asphalt, 328 foot radius, bi-directional, 0-75mph
• Braking traction
  984 feet of asphalt, 492 feet of concrete, wet and dry
• 7.7 mile oval track