Holden’s testing ground back up for sale

The Lang Lang Proving Ground outside of Melbourne had a four-lane track. Photo: Supplied

Want to own a top-secret car testing facility with its own race track? Got a spare $38 million? Then have we got a deal for you, Holden's former proving ground is back up for sale.

Vietnamese carmaker VinFast bought the facility 10 months ago but will cease operations at the former Holden proving ground in Lang Lang, just out of Melbourne.

VinFast will be closing the proving ground at the end of September 2021, and running a skeleton crew until a new buyer is found, says CarExpert.com.au. 

VinFast employed around 100 staff at its local headquarters in Port Melbourne and the Lang Lang proving ground to develop a range of internal-combustion and electric vehicles for the Vietnamese startup, says CarExpert.

Lang Lang Proving Ground was opened in 1957 by Holden and was used to test every Holden model from the FC onwards. 

It has 44 kilometers of road systems, including a 4.7 kilometers 4 lane circular track (speed bowl), 5.5 kilometers of handling course,1.8 kilometers of noise road, and 98-metre diameter skid pan.

In February 2020 GM announced the test track and design centre would close with all jobs being redundant to reflect the GM decision to quit global right-hand-drive vehicle production.