Corvettes may roar at Collier County track
Written by: Dick Hogan
August 17, 2011
Ford and Harley-Davidson prototypes no
longer zip around the 6-mile-long track on
the edge of the Everglades east of Naples.
Automotive spy photographers no longer
stake out nearby convenience stores in
hopes of ambushing an unwary engineer
road-testing the latest car or motorcycle.
Nowadays, the secluded, 531-acre vehicle
proving ground on the edge of Golden Gate
Estates sits mainly silent following Harley’s
decision two years ago to consolidate its
hot-weather testing at a Kingman, Ariz.,
facility.
Before that, Ford Motor Co. leased the
track to test its own vehicles.
But the roar of well tuned engines may yet
fill the air at the Naples site — although a
Collier County commissioner cautions that a
racetrack might be too noisy for the
neighborhood.
Harley recently put the property up for sale
for $7.5 million. It bought the facility for
$6.5 million in 2002 from Collier
Enterprises Ltd.
Neither the motorcycle company nor its real
estate agent, Jim Garinger of Colliers
International Southwest Florida, would
comment.
But Glenn Hutchinson, president of
Corvettes of Naples, said his group and
others would be interested in leasing the
track for racing events that would draw
Stingray enthusiasts for hundreds of miles
around.
“If the price were right, we probably
would,” said Hutchinson, who is the Florida
executive for the club’s parent
organization, the National Council of
Corvette Car Clubs.
He’s had discussions already with possible
buyers who’d lease the facility out to his
club and others.
“Depending on what they charged for the
event for the day,” he said, “we’d be very
interested.”
For example, he said, the size, isolation
and sheer size of the old proving ground
make it ideal for holding an autocross — a
competition in which cars go through
obstacle courses.
“We put on autocrosses now but we have to
go at low speed,” he said — not the ideal
situation for performance cars like
Corvettes.
The nearest place where a high-speed
event could be held is Sebring International
Raceway in Central Florida, he said, and,
“they want like $70,000 a weekend, and
you have to use all their people.”
It’s unusual for a proving ground to be
converted into a racetrack, said Randy
Riggs, editor in chief of Vintage Motorsport
magazine.
“Typically the tracks that are in existence
were built specifically as racetracks, not
test tracks, so that’s kind of an anomaly,”
Riggs said.
It’s not often that a manufacturer is in the
market for a proving ground, he said, but
they tend to be similar to the one in
Naples: sprawling, remote tracts of land
where it’s easy to see an intruder coming
and to hide the test vehicles.
The heat and humidity of the Everglades in
summer is another plus, Riggs said.
Hot-weather testing is a must to see how a
car will hold up.
“They want to shorten their lead time for
bringing in new cars to market, so the
testing is very rigorous,” Riggs said.
If the track isn’t used as a test facility,
owners might have a hard time getting
approved for racing or some other hightraffic,
commercial use, said Collier County
Commissioner Jim Coletta.
Currently, it’s approved for testing, storing
and repairing automobiles and fuel
storage. Anything more would have to be
approved by the commission, Coletta said.
“The problem is it’s in the middle of a
residential area and the noise would carry
quite a few miles and disturb the public
peace,” Coletta said. “It would greatly
affect the two-lane roads in that area.”
The track could be converted back to
residential use, but the $7.5 million price
tag likely would make that unlikely.
“There’s a lot of land out there for sale
right now,” Coletta said.
