by Joe Jeffrey
Bailey provides caravans for 18th consecutive year in row for Towcar of the Year testing
The Caravan Club has thanked Bailey of Bristol for providing a selection of ten Bailey Pursuit, Pegasus GT65 and Unicorn caravans as part of the testing process for the Club’s annual Towcar of the Year Awards 2016.
Testing for the 33rd Caravan Club Towcar of the Year Competition took place during August at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, where a wide cross section of vehicles from leading car manufacturers were put rigorously through their paces by an independent panel of driving judges over a four-day period.
All of Bailey’s caravans chosen for the testing process provided each of the 43 competition entrants with a suitable tow match, whilst each caravan was ballasted to 85 per cent of the towcar’s kerb weight, or its maximum towing limit, if lower, and had any stability aids disabled to ensure each car’s reactions to the demanding series of tests could be fully assessed.
Whilst the purpose of the testing is to assess the performance of the individual tow vehicles, this competition also provides a thorough examination of the participating caravans in terms of product durability and stability.
During the evaluation period, it wasn’t just the towcars which were put through their paces, though, as each Bailey caravan used was subjected to over 200 circuits of the Millbrook track, featuring a lap of the high speed circular track and a demanding hill route (equating to over 1,100 test miles) and each one of the tests were successfully completed by the test units without incident.
Simon Howard, marketing director of Bailey of Bristol attended the judging and said: “It is really incredible to see how arduous and thorough the testing is for this important competition, and we are really proud to have been invited to supply caravans for 18 years running.”
Nikki Nichol, external communications and sponsorship manager at The Caravan Club added: “This is an incredibly important competition to help our members choose the best cars to tow with, and be as safe as possible, so we are hugely grateful to Bailey of Bristol for supporting it for so long.”
The full results of the competition were announced at The RAC Club in London on 24th September, details of which can be found here.
