Motor Industry Research Association
Encyclopedia
MIRA Ltd, formerly known as the Motor Industry Research Association, is a limited company
based near Nuneaton
in Hinckley and Bosworth
, Leicestershire
(near the Warwickshire
boundary) in the United Kingdom
, which provides product engineering, research, testing, information and certification services to the automotive sector.
in the parish of Higham on the Hill
(also near Fenny Drayton
), Warwickshire
, where around five hundred staff work, with another establishment in Basildon
in Essex
. The company dates back to the foundation of the Cycle Engineers' Institute (CEI) in 1898, which became the Incorporated Institution of Automobile Engineers (IAE) in 1906. The IAE became the Automotive Branch of the IMechE
in 1946. The IAE and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
were largely responsible for creating MIRA.
area, apart from Vauxhall
which had its factory in Luton and Ford
which by now was located at Dagenham
to the east of London. The Motor Industry Research institution under its director Dr Albert Fogg (who would later turn up as the Engineering Chief at British Leyland) therefore looked for a location that was reasonably accessible from all these locations, and the site near Nuneaton fulfilled that criterion. The facilities became available to MIRA member companies in October 1948, though at this stage the test tracks consisted only of disused runways. Facilities were nevertheless developed under Dr Fogg and Professor Robert MacMillan who took over the directorship from Fogg in 1964.
Tony Benn
, in April 1968, of MIRA's in-door rig for crash testing cars in head-on impacts. Such tests, at 30 mph (13.4 m/s), had recently become mandatory for cars sold in the US. The MIRA crash rig featured the UK's largest industrial linear motor. It replaced a complicated out of doors system that had involved the "victim" car's final seconds being controlled by means of radar dependent remote device from a following vehicle.
. It bought the Creative Automotive Design consultancy in March 2003.
which forms the largest area of MIRA is built on 760 acres (307.6 ha) of the former RAF Lindley airfield, named like the nearby Lindley Hall Farm after the former Lindley Hall. This farm has the notoriety of being the centre of England, if calculated by the centre of mass method, similar to a centroid
. Meriden
also claims the same honour. The Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway
used to pass along the south-east perimeter of MIRA, and is now the Weddington Country Walk. The line was open to freight until 1971, and had a station at Higham on the Hill on the perimeter of MIRA.
at Dunton Technical Centre
in Essex
), it provides research to many overseas clients including those in the USA. It also does much work for the defence industry. The Midlands is still home to much of the UK car industry, with Jaguar Land Rover
having a large research centre
just south of Coventry at Whitley
.
Limited company
A limited company is a company in which the liability of the members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. And the former of these, a limited company limited by shares, may be...
based near Nuneaton
Nuneaton
Nuneaton is the largest town in the Borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth and in the English county of Warwickshire.Nuneaton is most famous for its associations with the 19th century author George Eliot, who was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for...
in Hinckley and Bosworth
Hinckley and Bosworth
Hinckley and Bosworth is a local government district with borough status in south-western Leicestershire, England, administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Its only towns are Hinckley, Earl Shilton and Market Bosworth...
, Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
(near the Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
boundary) in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, which provides product engineering, research, testing, information and certification services to the automotive sector.
History
It was formed in 1946 and was mostly government-funded. It is based just off the A5 near the junction with the A444A444 road
The A444 is a primary road running between Coventry and Burton on Trent in England, usually referred to as the "A treble four".-Route:Starting on the A4600 Sky Blue Way in Coventry, the road heads north on a dual carriageway road, crossing the M6 at junction 3. It bypasses Bedworth to the west and...
in the parish of Higham on the Hill
Higham on the Hill
Higham on the Hill is a village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England.-Geography:The village is about three miles away from both Hinckley and Nuneaton. The parish is bounded by Warwickshire and the A5 to the south-west...
(also near Fenny Drayton
Fenny Drayton
Fenny Drayton is a village in Leicestershire England, in the district of Hinckley and Bosworth. Near to the county border of Warwickshire and using a Warwickshire County postcode, it is just off the A444 road an old Roman road, north of Nuneaton close to its crossroads with the A5...
), Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, where around five hundred staff work, with another establishment in Basildon
Basildon
Basildon is a town located in the Basildon District of the county of Essex, England.It lies east of Central London and south of the county town of Chelmsford...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. The company dates back to the foundation of the Cycle Engineers' Institute (CEI) in 1898, which became the Incorporated Institution of Automobile Engineers (IAE) in 1906. The IAE became the Automotive Branch of the IMechE
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is the British engineering society based in central London, representing mechanical engineering. It is licensed by the Engineering Council UK to assess candidates for inclusion on ECUK's Register of professional Engineers...
in 1946. The IAE and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is the trade association for the United Kingdom motor industry. It "promote the interests of the UK automotive industry at home and abroad".-History:...
were largely responsible for creating MIRA.
Pooling of expertise
After World War Two, the UK car industry was finding it difficult to export to countries where it had earlier had little trouble finding markets for its wide range of cars. It was decided, by the government, to pool the research resources of UK car manufacturers into one site to reduce costs and possibly find new technological advances sooner that could be incorporated into all ranges of UK vehicle makes. The principal auto-makers were located in the BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
area, apart from Vauxhall
Vauxhall Motors
Vauxhall Motors is a British automotive company owned by General Motors and headquartered in Luton. It was founded in 1857 as a pump and marine engine manufacturer, began manufacturing cars in 1903 and was acquired by GM in 1925. It has been the second-largest selling car brand in the UK for...
which had its factory in Luton and Ford
Ford of Britain
Ford of Britain is a British wholly owned subsidiary of Ford of Europe, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Its business started in 1909 and has its registered office in Brentwood, Essex...
which by now was located at Dagenham
Ford Dagenham assembly plant
Ford Dagenham is a major automotive factory located in Dagenham, United Kingdom operated by the Ford of Europe subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company...
to the east of London. The Motor Industry Research institution under its director Dr Albert Fogg (who would later turn up as the Engineering Chief at British Leyland) therefore looked for a location that was reasonably accessible from all these locations, and the site near Nuneaton fulfilled that criterion. The facilities became available to MIRA member companies in October 1948, though at this stage the test tracks consisted only of disused runways. Facilities were nevertheless developed under Dr Fogg and Professor Robert MacMillan who took over the directorship from Fogg in 1964.
Secondary safety
Marking the increasing concern with secondary safety at the time was the opening by the Minister of TechnologyMinister of Technology
The Minister of Technology was a position in the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's ambition to modernise the state for what he perceived to...
Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
, in April 1968, of MIRA's in-door rig for crash testing cars in head-on impacts. Such tests, at 30 mph (13.4 m/s), had recently become mandatory for cars sold in the US. The MIRA crash rig featured the UK's largest industrial linear motor. It replaced a complicated out of doors system that had involved the "victim" car's final seconds being controlled by means of radar dependent remote device from a following vehicle.
Commercial organisation
Since 1975, the funding arrangements for belonging to the organisation went from a membership subscription (or levy – mostly irrespective of the quantity of work that took place for individual manufacturers) for car companies to a fee-based system. Currently the site has around £110 million of test equipment. On 4 July 2001, the organisation changed its name to MIRA Ltd. At this point it also became liable for corporation taxUnited Kingdom corporation tax
Corporation tax is a tax levied in the United Kingdom on the profits made by companies and on the profits of permanent establishments of non-UK resident companies and associations that trade in the EU. Prior to the tax's enactment on 1 April 1965, companies and individuals paid the same income tax,...
. It bought the Creative Automotive Design consultancy in March 2003.
Former airfield
The proving groundProving ground
A proving ground is the US name for a military installation or reservation where weapons or other military technology are experimented or tested, or where military tactics are tested...
which forms the largest area of MIRA is built on 760 acres (307.6 ha) of the former RAF Lindley airfield, named like the nearby Lindley Hall Farm after the former Lindley Hall. This farm has the notoriety of being the centre of England, if calculated by the centre of mass method, similar to a centroid
Centroid
In geometry, the centroid, geometric center, or barycenter of a plane figure or two-dimensional shape X is the intersection of all straight lines that divide X into two parts of equal moment about the line. Informally, it is the "average" of all points of X...
. Meriden
Meriden, West Midlands
-External links:*****...
also claims the same honour. The Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway
Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway
The Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway was a pre-grouping railway company in the English Midlands. It was jointly owned by the Midland Railway and the London and North Western Railway and linked Nuneaton and Coalville....
used to pass along the south-east perimeter of MIRA, and is now the Weddington Country Walk. The line was open to freight until 1971, and had a station at Higham on the Hill on the perimeter of MIRA.
Functions
MIRA is a provider of product engineering, research, testing, information and certification to the worldwide automotive industry. It was developed to provide research for UK companies but, since the UK car manufacturing industry has steadily decreased (and companies such as Ford have own their proving groundFord Proving Grounds
Ford Motor Company operates several proving grounds worldwide, for development and validation testing of new vehicles.For Ford/Mazda Proving Grounds in Japan see Mazda Proving Grounds- - Wittmann, Arizona:Latitude and Longitude: The opened in 1985...
at Dunton Technical Centre
Dunton Technical Centre
The Dunton Technical Centre is a major automotive research and development facility located in Dunton, Laindon, United Kingdom owned and operated by Ford Motor Company. It is the largest automotive technical centre in the United Kingdom and takes its name from nearby Dunton Wayletts...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
), it provides research to many overseas clients including those in the USA. It also does much work for the defence industry. The Midlands is still home to much of the UK car industry, with Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover is a British automotive company owned by Tata Motors of India. It develops, manufactures and sells vehicles under the Jaguar and Land Rover marques.-History:...
having a large research centre
Whitley plant
The Whitley plant, situated in Whitley, Coventry in the West Midlands of England, is one of the engineering centres of Jaguar Land Rover and the headquarters of Jaguar Cars...
just south of Coventry at Whitley
Whitley, Coventry
Whitley is a suburb of southern Coventry in the West Midlands of England.-Industry and commerce:Whitley is the home of the Whitley plant, which is the Engineering Centre and Headquarters of Jaguar Cars Limited...
.
See also
- Transport Research LaboratoryTransport Research LaboratoryTRL is a British transport consultancy and research organisation based at Wokingham Berkshire with approximately 500 staff. TRL is owned by the Transport Research Foundation , which is overseen by 80 sector members from the transport industry. TRL also own small UK regional offices situated in...
- Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre near ThatchamThatchamThatcham is a town in Berkshire, England 3 miles east of Newbury and 15 miles west of Reading. It covers about and has a population of 23,000 people . This number has grown rapidly over the last few decades from 5,000 in 1951 and 7,500 in 1961.It lies on the River Kennet, the Kennet and Avon...
- Automotive Research Association of IndiaAutomotive Research Association of IndiaAutomotive Research Association of India is co-operative industrial research association by the automotive industry with the Ministry of Industries, Government Of India The objectives of the Association are Research and Development in automotive engineering for industry, product design and...
- similar organisation in India - ARAI - International Automotive Research Centre at the University of WarwickUniversity of WarwickThe University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
- Monterey Institute for Research in AstronomyMonterey Institute for Research in AstronomyThe Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy is a privately established, non-profit, professional organization for astronomical education and research, near Monterey, California. It is located adjacent to the campus of the California State University, Monterey Bay, within the city limits of...
- Japan Automobile Research Institute - similar organisation in Japan(:ja:日本自動車研究所)
- Millbrook Proving Ground
- Bruntingthorpe AerodromeBruntingthorpe AerodromeBruntingthorpe Aerodrome and Proving Ground is a privately owned airport in Leicestershire near the village of Bruntingthorpe. It was opened as RAF Bruntingthorpe in 1942.- United States Air Force use:...