Holden’s former proving ground nearby the Victorian town of Lang Lang – situated between Melbourne and Phillip Island – has been sold, with car brands set to exit the facility within weeks.
Opened by Holden in 1957, the 2152 acre site was designed to best replicate Australian roads, becoming a crucial element to the development of every Holden made locally since the FC of 1958.
Featuring a 4.7km four-lane ‘high speed bowl’ circular track, a 4km ‘Ride and Handling Track’, a 1.7km ‘Noise Road’ and a skid pan among its many facilities, Lang Lang was instrumental in making sure Holden’s vehicles were prepared to take on roads every day Australians would travel.
After being purchased for circa-$36 million by start-up Vietnamese car maker VinFast in 2020 – as a part of a later-axed plan to establish a local engineering hub here – the facility has been up for sale since 2021, though it has been rented out for vehicle-specific events.
Now, it appears its time as a vehicle development facility is at an end.
As first reported by CarExpert, the Lang Lang proving ground has now been sold to an unnamed Australian defence contractor, with VinFast relinquishing control of the facility this month.
The new ownership will have an almost immediate effect on operations at Lang Lang. A handful of car brands have been utilising the proving ground to test and tune their vehicles for local conditions, with GWM going so far as to take up ‘permanent residency’ as of mid-2025.
In a statement provided to Torquecafe, GWM Australia chief operating officer John Kett confirmed the brand is set to vacate Lang Lang before the end of the month.
“As a result of the sale of the Lang Lang Proving Ground, GWM were advised that they would no longer be able to use the facility post mid-May,” Kett said.
“It’s important to recognise that in the 10 months since we took up residency, our AT-1 [pronounced at-one] local tuning efforts have made significant progress.
“In addition to the AT-1 tuned Haval H6 now being on sale, the work has also been completed on several other models which are due to hit showrooms over the coming weeks and months.
“It was always the intention to use Lang Lang as our base to bring AT-1 tuning to the current GWM lineup and, for the most part, that has been achieved.
“While the sale of Lang Lang has delivered a minor ‘speedbump’ in our local development plans, we are already well advanced in making alternative plans for a dedicated facility in Melbourne that will become GWM’s home for dealer training and product testing and development.
“This new facility will be furnished with all the necessary equipment for Rob Trubiani to continue the AT-1 localisation program and we remain 100% committed to local tuning and development to deliver the best possible cars for customers across the ANZ region.
“We look forward to sharing more details in the not-too-distant future.”
Rob Trubiani will continue as GWM’s head of Australian engineering, a role he took up last year, having previously been Holden’s chassis engineer.
In the past two years, other brands such as JAC (with the Hunter PHEV), Walkinshaw (with the right-hand drive converted GMC Yukon), and Savic (C-Series electric motorcycle) have been open about their usage of the Lang Lang facility, while numerous others have tested and refined vehicles there.
With the Lang Lang proving ground all but expected to shut its doors to carmakers, Australia will only have two dedicated vehicle-testing facilities left.
Ford continues to utilise its You Yangs proving ground (opened in 1965) for development of the Ranger, Everest and other global market vehicles.
The Australian Automotive Research Centre (AARC), located near Geelong, is also used for vehicle development and automotive events, as well as being used by some defence companies.
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