LA man spent day in Michigan's private city where all the gas is free and cars don't have license plates and couldn't believe what he saw
Published on Dec 02, 2025 at 1:18 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Dec 02, 2025 at 10:10 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Mason Jones
This guy traveled from California to Michigan – to a ‘city’ owned by General Motors where gas is free and cars have no license plates.
It sounds like a dream, or maybe something out of a GTA video game, but it really exists.
But there are a couple of catches.
The biggest one is you can’t just move here.
This ‘city’ in Michigan now has a ‘twin’ in Italy
Ferrari is working on something vaguely similar to this town in Michigan.
Most car people might be familiar with Fiorano, Ferrari’s private test track.
But the company is now building more facilities around Fiorano, and sooner or later it’ll look like a town.
It’s inevitable.
You start with a facility where people work, but workers need food and a place to stay.
And it makes sense to build cafeterias and diners and houses near the facility for added convenience.
Before you know it, what started as a business place becomes a lot more than that.
Sometimes companies make it official.
SpaceX, for example, was founded in California before relocating to Texas, where its main HQ, Starbase, is now an incorporated city.
The reason why General Motors built this ‘city’
General Motors built this place for the exact same reason Ferrari is building an equivalent ‘town’ in Italy: privacy.
The location in question is the Milford Proving Ground, smack in the middle of Michigan, which has served as a vehicle testing location for about a century.
Milford sits conveniently central to key GM hubs such as Flint, Detroit, Lansing, and Pontiac – all within an easy drive of Milford.
Gas is free because this is where GM tests prototypes, and there are no license plates for the same reason.
Uptin, a content creator from California, traveled all the way to Michigan to check out the proving ground in person, and he couldn’t believe what he found when he got there.
This is basically a whole city.
You’ve got long stretches of road that look like highways, high speed rings like Nardo in Italy, and obviously plenty of space to test vehicles off road as well.
It’s amazing, but there’s a catch.
But this isn’t the sort of town you can just move to.
Partly because the entire place exists to test prototypes in total secrecy, away from competitors and prying eyes.
But also because only a tiny number of security staff live on-site; everyone else commutes in.
And everyone else is a GM employee.
Alessandro is an automotive journalist with 10 years of experience covering supercars, automotive history, emerging vehicle technology, and luxury transportation. He wrote the first article published on SupercarBlondie.com when the website launched in 2022 and has since built a reputation for insightful reporting across the automotive and transportation industries. His expertise is grounded in hands-on experience. Alessandro has driven every Tesla model ever produced, from the original Roadster to the Cybertruck, and regularly covers the latest developments in electric vehicles and automotive innovation. His passion for transportation extends beyond cars, he has even flown a Boeing 787 Dreamliner simulator in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His reporting spans everything from classic American muscle cars and rare automotive discoveries to luxury yachts, private aircraft, high-end watches, and cutting-edge vehicle technology. Known for his deep knowledge of automotive history and ability to uncover the stories behind iconic vehicles, Alessandro brings readers a blend of historical context, technical expertise, and first-hand experience.
