Today, Ford announced the opening of their new Technical Support Center in Concord, North Carolina. The new 33,000 square foot facility will offer a wide assortment of state-of-the-art tools to assist Ford’s performance vehicle development and increase their success in motorsports.

It will be fully operational later this summer and will serve as a home for Ford Racing technical support and provide a place for teams to develop and test their cars in preparation for competition. With a home in Concord, in the shadow of Charlotte Motor Speedway and zMAX Raceway, the facility is well-positioned within close proximity to the NASCAR research and development center and a majority of NASCAR Race team headquarters. 

“Motorsports and product development at Ford are interlinked, and this new center will house advanced tools that will serve both our race teams and the development of future Ford performance vehicles,” said Raj Nair, group vice president, Ford global product development.

The Technical Center will house a full-motion platform simulator, which will allow race teams to optimize their setups for individual tracks – and give the drivers a chance to strap in and practice on a particular track ahead of an upcoming race.

The simulator will apply to the race teams, but the technology is expected to trickle down to allow Ford to improve vehicle dynamics on their high-performance street vehicles like the Mustang GT and Focus platforms.

“We have enhanced our vehicle dynamics simulation tools to lead the development of Ford Racing cars in NASCAR and IMSA, as well as our street products,” said Nair. “The driving simulator will help us to push handling optimization to the next level so that our cars can be fast right off the trailer, allowing our teams to focus on fine-tuning changes when they get to the track.

Other testing equipment includes a Kinematics machine, which can test and measure suspension kinematics like camber, tie, and tire scrub. There is also a chassis torsional twist rig to determine the torsional stiffness of an entire car, the chassis independently, and even the influence of various components on the car. Also on-site are a center-of-gravity machine and coordinate measuring measuring machine.

In addition to providing race support, the facility will also serve as a parts distribution warehouse.