November 2006
Consumer Reports Autos Staff Bio
DAVID CHAMPION
Senior Director of Consumer Reports Auto Test Division
Hometown: Bridgnorth, Shropshire, Great Britain
All-time favorite car: Ford GT40 from the 1960s
Off the track:
Champion and his wife have two teenage children. He is an avid do-it-yourselfer around the house and yard--he cuts his lawn with a 1951 Ford BN tractor--and loves playing and coaching soccer with his kids. "I have a number of old Jaguars I’m working on--or not, according to my wife."
How he got into auto testing:
"I was hooked early because my father was a tire engineer for Goodyear. I remember going to test tracks in England when I was 10 years old, and seeing the orange cones flying everywhere."
"My first car was a 1959 Austin 7, the first version of the original Mini. When compared to the modern Mini, its acceleration was slow, its brakes didn’t work as well, and it was crude and noisy. Most of all, I'm glad I was never involved in a crash while driving it! But what a fun car…not much power but you never needed to lift off, and it would go around corners as if it were on rails. Today’s Mini Cooper is a far superior car in nearly all respects, however."
Champion obtained a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Aston in Birmingham, England, and started his working career at Lucas Electrical ("the Prince of Darkness"), until, as he puts it, "I saw the light and it was dim at the end of a long tunnel." He then moved on to Land Rover where he tested vehicles in the Arizona desert and Nissans in California before joining the Consumer Reports auto-testing program in 1997.
Work at Consumer Reports: Champion directs an auto-test staff of 21 that puts all vehicles to the test on CR’s 327-acre test track in East Haddam, Conn. Four-wheel-drive vehicles are also tested on a challenging rock hill and off-road course with mud, rocks, and water.
"We test around 70 vehicles a year, and each one spends about six months here at the facility," he says. “Most of our tests are geared around the safety of the vehicle on the road. Does it have good handling, brakes, acceleration, visibility? Is the driver comfortable and fully aware of what’s going on around the car? All the controls should be clear and easy to operate."
Champion gets to know each test car intimately. "I drive a different test car each day. I write in the logbook if my right foot got cold or whether the headlights give a good view down the road. Some radios have little tiny buttons that drive you mad.
"Our tests and the experiences of our subscribers show that cars are becoming much better and more reliable," Champion says. "In the ’70s and ’80s, the Japanese manufacturers raised the standard for reliability, and now American manufacturers are producing better cars."
Senior Director of Consumer Reports Auto Test Division
Hometown: Bridgnorth, Shropshire, Great Britain
All-time favorite car: Ford GT40 from the 1960s
Off the track:
Champion and his wife have two teenage children. He is an avid do-it-yourselfer around the house and yard--he cuts his lawn with a 1951 Ford BN tractor--and loves playing and coaching soccer with his kids. "I have a number of old Jaguars I’m working on--or not, according to my wife."
How he got into auto testing:
"I was hooked early because my father was a tire engineer for Goodyear. I remember going to test tracks in England when I was 10 years old, and seeing the orange cones flying everywhere."
"My first car was a 1959 Austin 7, the first version of the original Mini. When compared to the modern Mini, its acceleration was slow, its brakes didn’t work as well, and it was crude and noisy. Most of all, I'm glad I was never involved in a crash while driving it! But what a fun car…not much power but you never needed to lift off, and it would go around corners as if it were on rails. Today’s Mini Cooper is a far superior car in nearly all respects, however."
Champion obtained a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Aston in Birmingham, England, and started his working career at Lucas Electrical ("the Prince of Darkness"), until, as he puts it, "I saw the light and it was dim at the end of a long tunnel." He then moved on to Land Rover where he tested vehicles in the Arizona desert and Nissans in California before joining the Consumer Reports auto-testing program in 1997.
Work at Consumer Reports: Champion directs an auto-test staff of 21 that puts all vehicles to the test on CR’s 327-acre test track in East Haddam, Conn. Four-wheel-drive vehicles are also tested on a challenging rock hill and off-road course with mud, rocks, and water.
"We test around 70 vehicles a year, and each one spends about six months here at the facility," he says. “Most of our tests are geared around the safety of the vehicle on the road. Does it have good handling, brakes, acceleration, visibility? Is the driver comfortable and fully aware of what’s going on around the car? All the controls should be clear and easy to operate."
Champion gets to know each test car intimately. "I drive a different test car each day. I write in the logbook if my right foot got cold or whether the headlights give a good view down the road. Some radios have little tiny buttons that drive you mad.
"Our tests and the experiences of our subscribers show that cars are becoming much better and more reliable," Champion says. "In the ’70s and ’80s, the Japanese manufacturers raised the standard for reliability, and now American manufacturers are producing better cars."
