The Dunton Campus (informally Ford Dunton or Dunton) is a major automotive research and development facility located in

Dunton Wayletts Dunton Wayletts is a hamlet in the unparished area of Basildon, on the western outskirts of Laindon, in the Borough of Basildon, Essex, England. It is located between the Southend Arterial Road (A127 road) and the London, Tilbury and Southend lin ...

Laindon Laindon is a commuter town in Essex, between Basildon and West Horndon. It was an ancient parish in Essex, England, that was abolished for civil purposes in 1937. It was based on the (probably smaller) manor of the same name and now lies mostly ...

, Essex, United Kingdom owned and operated by

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

. As Ford's European headquarters, it is the largest automotive technical centre in the United Kingdom and takes its name from the nearby

. Ford Dunton houses the main design team of

Ford of Europe Ford of Europe GmbH is a subsidiary company of Ford Motor Company founded in 1967 in Cork (city), Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with headquarters in Cologne, Germany. History Ford of Europe was founded in 1967 by the merger of Ford of Bri ...

alongside its Merkenich Technical Centre in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, Germany. With the closure of Ford's Warley site (located in

Brentwood, Essex Brentwood is a town in the Borough of Brentwood, in the county of Essex in the East of England. It is in the London commuter belt, situated 20 miles (30 km) east-north-east of Charing Cross and close by the M25 motorway. In 2017, the popula ...

) in September 2019, the staff from the UK division of

Ford Motor Credit Company Ford Motor Credit Company LLC, d/b/a Ford Credit, is the financial services arm of Ford Motor Company, and is headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan. The predominant share of Ford Credit's business consists of financing Ford and Lincoln vehicles an ...

and Ford's UK Sales and Marketing departments have moved to the Dunton site. As of November 2019, Dunton had around 4,000 staff working at the site.

Location

Ford Dunton is situated at the junction of ''West Mayne'' (B148) and the

A127 The A127, also known as the Southend Arterial Road, is a major road in Essex, England. It was constructed as a new arterial road project in the 1920s, linking Romford with Southend-on-Sea, replacing the older A13. Formerly classified as a tr ...

Southend Arterial Road, in

in the district of

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

. An electricity pylon line straddles the site. In front of the building, to the north, is a vehicle test track. To the south is the Southfields Business Park. The site lies in the religious parish of Laindon with Dunton, formerly in Dunton and

Bulphan Bulphan (pronounced ) is a village and former civil parish in the borough of Thurrock in the East of England and one of the traditional (Church of England) parishes in Thurrock. In 2019 it had an estimated population of 1028. In 1931 the parish ...

before 1976. Dunton is a small hamlet to the west, with a former church near Dunton Hall. There is a Ford dealership on the B148 on the north-west corner of the site. In order to promote health and well-being at the site, there are walking routes and outdoor natural areas preserved on the site. There is a picnic area and a pond surrounded by a copse of mixed deciduous trees. The pond is home to many large fish and you can see the protected snail species

Helix pomatia ''Helix pomatia'', common names the Roman snail, Burgundy snail, or escargot, is a species of large, edible, air-breathing land snail, a pulmonate gastropod terrestrial mollusc in the family Helicidae.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. ...

History

Construction

Ford Dunton was constructed by

George Wimpey George Wimpey was a British construction firm. Formed in 1880 and based in Hammersmith, it initially operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919, and he developed it into a constructi ...

for a contracted price of £6.5 million. The total cost of the centre was around £10 million. The centre originally had of space for design work, making it the largest engineering research centre in Europe. Another development site at

Aveley Aveley is a town and former civil parish in the unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex, England, and forms one of the traditional Church of England parishes. Aveley is 16 miles (26.2 km) east of Charing Cross. In the 2021 United Kingdom ...

had been opened in 1956 which made prototype cars and spare parts, and closed in 2004. Ford's earlier UK design site was at Dagenham and it previously had seven engineering sites around the UK, with five in Essex; these all moved to Dunton. Ford Dunton was opened by

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

, then the British prime minister, on 12 October 1967.

1967 to 2000

At the time of its opening, Dunton was assigned responsibility within Ford of Europe for vehicle design, interior styling, chassis and body interior engineering, engine calibration and product planning. Ford's Merkenich Centre in Cologne, Germany was given principal responsibility for body and electrical engineering, base engine design, advanced engine development, exterior styling, homologation, vehicle development (ride, handling, NVH) and transmission engineering. This was a 'systems' approach to the engineering process intended to eliminate the duplication of engineering responsibility within Ford of Europe. In the late 1960s Dunton worked on an experimental electric car, first shown on 7 June 1967, and called the

Ford Comuta The Ford Comuta was an experimental electric vehicle designed by Ford in the 1960s. The vehicle was powered by four 12-volt 85-Ah lead batteries Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a ...

. On 10 May 1971 Peter Walker opened a £1 million engine emissions laboratory at Dunton, the largest of its type in Europe. In November 1974 the world's first automated (computerised) multiple engine (six) test bed was constructed at Dunton, built in co-operation with the engineering department of

Queen Mary, University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

. In 1974 a Honeywell 6050 computer was installed at Dunton at a cost of £820,000. The computer was linked to Merkenich and to the Ford test track at

Lommel Lommel () is a municipality and a city in the Belgian province of Limburg. The Kempen city has about 34,000 inhabitants and is part of the electoral district and the judicial district Lommel Neerpelt. Besides residential town of Lommel also ha ...

in Belgium. From 1978 Dunton had access to a

CDC Cyber The CDC Cyber range of mainframe-class supercomputers were the primary products of Control Data Corporation (CDC) during the 1970s and 1980s. In their day, they were the computer architecture of choice for scientific and mathematically inten ...

176 computer at the USA base in Dearborn. By 1984 staff at Dunton were conducting video-conferences with colleagues at Merkenich, using the ECS-1 satellite, and enabled by British Telecom International. In 1988 Dunton prepared the way for design of the Mondeo (codename CDW27) by pioneering, in collaboration with Merkenich, the Worldwide Engineering Release System (WERS). Dunton at this time was the most advanced automotive development centre in Europe. In 1995 Dunton, in collaboration with the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

, developed a device which is capable of detecting different

types of plastic Some familiar household synthetic polymers include: Nylons in textiles and fabrics, Teflon in non-stick pans, Bakelite for electrical switches, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in pipes, etc. The common PET bottles are made of a synthetic polymer, polye ...

(for recycling) using the

triboelectric effect The triboelectric effect (also known as triboelectric charging) is a type of contact electrification on which certain materials become electrically charged after they are separated from a different material with which they were in contact. Rubb ...

, including polypropylene, polyethylene, nylon and

acrylonitrile butadiene styrene Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) (chemical formula (C8H8)''x''·(C4H6)''y''·(C3H3N)''z'' is a common thermoplastic polymer. Its glass transition temperature is approximately . ABS is amorphous and therefore has no true melting point. A ...

(ABS). On 16 December 1997

Alexander Trotman, Baron Trotman Alexander James Trotman, Baron Trotman (22 July 1933 – 25 April 2005) was a British-born businessman who served as the CEO of Ford Motor Company from 1993 to 1998. Trotman was the first foreign-born chairman and CEO of a Big Three Americ ...

opened a £128 million environmental engine testing facility at Dunton.

2000 to present

In 2003 a

Silicon Graphics International Silicon Graphics International Corp. (SGI; formerly Rackable Systems, Inc.) was an American manufacturer of computer hardware and software, including high-performance computing systems, x86-based servers for datacenter deployment, and visualiza ...

(SGI) Reality Centre was constructed at Dunton, incorporating SGI Onyx 3000 visualisation supercomputers, using the

InfiniteReality InfiniteReality refers to a 3D graphics hardware architecture and a family of graphics systems that implemented the aforementioned hardware architecture that was developed and manufactured by Silicon Graphics from 1996 to 2005. The InfiniteRealit ...

3 graphics rendering system. In March 2010 Ford announced plans to develop a new generation of environmentally friendly engines and vehicle technologies at Dunton following an announcement by the UK government that it would underwrite £360 million of a £450 million loan to Ford from the European Investment Bank. In July 2010 the new coalition government confirmed that it would honour the loan commitment, and the contract was signed in a ceremony at Dunton attended by the business minister Mark Prisk on 12 July. In recent years Dunton has been responsible for the development of the ECOnetic range of vehicles, and has contributed to development of the

EcoBoost EcoBoost is a series of turbocharged, direct-injection gasoline engines produced by Ford and originally co-developed by FEV Inc. (now named FEV North America Inc.). EcoBoost engines are designed to deliver power and torque consistent with thos ...

range of engines. In 2020 during the medical ventilators crisis generated by COVID-19, a Dunton Manufacturing team participated in VentilatorUKChallenge consortium and had a major contribution to deliver over 10,000 units to the NHS in just 12 weeks.

Activities

Dunton houses the main design team of Ford of Europe, alongside its Merkenich Technical Centre in Cologne. Currently Dunton has responsibility for the design of the

Ford Fiesta The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car marketed by Ford since 1976 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and has been positioned below the Escort (later the ...

, the

Ford Ka The Ford Ka is a small car manufactured by Ford Motor Company from 1996 to 2016 as a city car and from 2016 to 2021 as a subcompact car. It entered its second generation in 2008, produced by Fiat in Tychy, Poland. A third generation was introduce ...

, engines for Ford of Europe (powertrain), commercial vehicles and the interior of Ford of Europe cars. It has facilities to simultaneously test fifteen cars and around one hundred engines. Around 3,000 engineers currently work at Dunton. Ford Dunton is also the home of

Ford Team RS The Ford TeamRS was Ford Motor Company's European performance car and motorsport division for Ford Racing activity. The Ford RS badge was born for rally racing, the RS stands for Rallye Sport. TeamRS was the successor to Ford Special Vehicle Engi ...

, and as part of the Special Vehicle Engineering section of Ford created by Rod Mansfield, developed the XR family of '

hot hatch A hot hatch (shortened from hot hatchback) is a high-performance hatchback car. The term originated in the mid-1980s; however, factory high-performance versions of hatchbacks have been produced since the 1970s. Front-mounted petrol engines, ...

' vehicles with the

Ford Fiesta RS Turbo The Ford Fiesta Mk3 was the third generation of the Ford Fiesta supermini built by Ford Europe. Originally introduced in 1989, the Mk3 represented the biggest change to the Fiesta since the original car was introduced in 1976. In addition to th ...

, more recently becoming the RS family of vehicles. Ford also notably worked in this area of design with

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

Notable staff

Eamonn Martin Eamonn or Éamon or Eamon may refer to: *Eamonn (given name), an Irish male given name *Eamon (singer) (born 1983), American R&B singer-songwriter and harmonicist * ''Eamon'' (video game), a 1980 computer role-playing game for the Apple II *"Éamon ...

, 1993

London Marathon The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom, and is the 2nd largest annual road race in the UK, after the Great North Run in Newcastle. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held ...

winner worked at Dunton

References

External links

History of the site at BBC Essex

WikiMapia

Video clips

Environmental Test Laboratory

University of Cambridge solar powered vehicle
built by

Cambridge University Eco Racing Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) is one of UK's solar car racing teams. A team of 60 Cambridge students designs, builds and races Solar power, solar-powered vehicles. Founded in 2007, their first prototype vehicle, ''Affinity'', became th ...

News items

Electric cars in December 2009

40th birthday in October 2007

{{authority control 1967 establishments in England Automotive engineering Automotive industry in the United Kingdom Borough of Basildon Buildings and structures completed in 1967 Buildings and structures in the Borough of Basildon Engine technology Engineering research institutes Ford of Europe Ford vehicle design Research and development in the United Kingdom Road test tracks Science and technology in Essex