WRC: M-Sport plans new base and test track

Leading World Rally Championship team and factory Bentley GT squad M-Sport is planning a major redevelopment of its UK base, including a private test track, new factory and hotel.

Plans are with the local city council at the moment, with a decision expected soon and a finishing date of mid-2016 if the new 105,000 square-foot M-Sport Evaluation Centre gets the green light.

M-Sport ran Ford's works WRC program from 1997 to 2012 and continues to develop to factory-specification Ford Fiesta RS WRCs for the world championships. It is the biggest supplier of new rally cars in the world and is currently rolling out its 88th Fiesta R5, as well as running Bentley's Continental GT3 program.

With more work coming, managing director Malcolm Wilson says M-Sport has outgrown its current base.

"This is the next step for M-Sport," said Wilson. "We've been working on this for a number of years now and it's very, very exciting to see the potential.

"We want to become a true one-stop shop. We pretty much have the ability to design and build cars completely in-house as it is, but with the M-Sport Evaluation Centre and the test track, that's exactly what we can do.

"We will have the best possible facility here; if something needs to be redesigned or re-engineered we have designers and engineers working here that can do that immediately. And, if something needs manufacturing, we'll have the ability to get that done overnight."

Wilson admitted there had been some local objections, with noise one of the primary concerns, but is sure the fears can be allayed.

"We've taken a team of planners and councilors down to Anglesey [race circuit] and we've given them a demonstration of the super-silencers we will be fitting to the exhaust systems of the cars," said Wilson.

"With that fitted, the R5 car is quieter than an ST road car. As well as that, we've employed the UK's foremost expert in acoustics to help designs ways of catching and deflecting the noise.

"What we want is for a team, a manufacturer or an individual to come here, have their car built then drive it out of the factory onto the track, shake it down and take it away in absolute confidence."