These are busy times for the team at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, the 680-acre former military airstrip in the south Leicestershire countryside.
A car auction based there is doing well as are the outside companies with premises there – including Royal Enfield motorcycles, which has its design department there.
A big vehicle storage business is also thriving – accounting for around 90 per cent of turnover for Bruntongthorpe's owners – to the extent that management are taking on a second ex-airstrip in Cambridgeshire to store used cars prior to resale.
There is also an aviation museum, the vehicle proving ground itself, an events business and a big hanger that is rented out to businesses to use for conferences and other events.
On top of that there is a former car dealership which was re-erected on site for car companies to hold training days, launches and exhibitions in.
Now Bruntingthorpe is getting in on the driverless car act as one of the new testing areas for the kind of AI technology that will become commonplace in the next few years.
Latest accounts for parent company C Walton Ltd published a few weeks ago show the business turned over £48 million in the year to June 2018 – up 35 per cent year-on-year – and recorded pre-tax profits of £10.4 million, which were up about 15 per cent.
Paul Atkin, general manager for business development at Bruntingthorpe, said: “The company is going from strength-to-strength.
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“We’ve just finalised the accounts to mid-2018 and there was a big jump in turnover and profits due to general continued growth.
“We have another site in Notts, part of which we are using to store more cars, and we are just in the process of finalising a deal to take on a site in Cambridgeshire which is as big as Bruntingthorpe and will also be for car storage.
“It’s a significant investment for the long-term on a disused miliary site.”
Bruntingthorpe is a partner in the Manheim used car auction on its Leicestershire site, and a big part of the business is refurbishing former fleet and lease cars so they can be sold on.
Around a quarter are sold through Manheim while the rest are moved on by the manufacturers.
Mr Atkin said there are “tens of thousands” of cars on site and in Notts, and Cambridgeshire could double that.
“Our growth is predominantly down to car storage, refurbishment and resale – it’s been two-and-a-half years since we flew a big aircraft in, indicating how that side of the business has changed,” he said.
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“We used to have a lot of small tenants here, and although we haven’t discouraged that, we like having firms such as Royal Enfield with 150 people working for them.
“There are more than 700 people working on site now overall. There will be further growth this year.”
Last November, it was announced that the business could embark on the next big growth plan thanks to an £8.4 million investment in connected and autonomous vehicle testing facilities.
It is being developed in partnership with R&D company Applus+ IDIADA, and gained £4 million of Government funding towards the overall cost last year.
The site will be one of several going up around the 海角视频 – in this case recreating road junctions to see how driverless cars deal with them and how on-board technology can send information between street signs or traffic lights or other embedded transmitters and the vehicles of the future.
Mr Atkin, below, said: “We got match funding last year to provide special facilities for the long-term testing of autonomous vehicles, and work starts immediately.
“It will be used in exactly the same way that businesses use our existing test track.
“It might be existing customers or new customers – everything from start-ups to manufacturers working on the special technology associated with autonomous vehicles.
“We will be focused on road junctions, while other facilities elsewhere – such as MIRA near Hinckley – will be working on other aspects of testing, each sharing £100 million of Government money.
“All together there are seven driverless car test centres around the 海角视频.
“It’s very forward thinking by the Government, and 海角视频 industry has to match the money, so there is £200 million all together.”
The intersections and connected monitoring equipment will be set up to mimic different road junctions, from smart motorways to rural A and B roads, allowing the new technology to be tested in a “representative, yet safe and secure manner”.
There will be almost four miles of track used at Bruntingthorpe, designed by Applus+ IDIADA.
The consortium behind the plan is significant for various reasons.
It will help give the 海角视频 a head-start in developing the new technology.
It will also deliver foreign direct investment to the 海角视频 testing and development scene, and puts investment into Bruntingthorpe to add it to the 海角视频’s world class network of testing sites.
This upgrade will also establish a critical piece of testing infrastructure on the Bruntingthorpe site, enabling the testing of almost any vehicle under almost any scenario in a fully connected, representative environment and in a repeatable and controlled manner.
Mr Atkin said: “In the middle of our test track will be various junctions which can be adapted to represent anything on the road.
“At Bruntingthorpe it will mean an 18-month build programme – which needs planning permission – so it will be up and running maybe by the end of 2020.”
Bruntingthorpe managing director David Walton said “The site at Bruntingthorpe and the experience of the Bruntingthorpe team, together with IDIADA’s experience in designing and operating proving grounds, will allow us to develop a world class CAV facility which will attract intelligent vehicle development activities to the 海角视频.
“The project will deliver a highly configurable set of road junctions, ranging from smart motorways to rural roads, all within a fully connected and carefully controlled environment.”