Honda Motor Company today celebrated the launch of its newest facility in the United Kingdom, a state of the art wind tunnel at the Honda Racing F1 Team’s Operations Centre in Brackley, Northants.

Officially opened in a ceremony hosted by the Rt. Hon. Alistair Darling MP, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and Shigeru Takagi, President of Honda Motor Europe, the new facility represents further evidence of Honda’s commitment, not only to Formula One, but to investment in the UK.

Honda’s presence in the UK began over 40 years ago with the creation of Honda UK in London. The company currently has seven locations employing 5500 people throughout the country, with total investment now reaching over 1.3 billion pounds.

For a company synonymous with engineering excellence, Honda recognises the value of investment in the most up to date infrastructure available. The new facility effectively provides the Honda Racing F1 Team with an in-house ‘test track’ - a fully automated, fully instrumented testing facility able to accommodate one of the team’s full-size RA106 race cars. The tunnel can generate a wind speed of 80 metres per second (the equivalent of 180mph), driven by the 5.3m diameter fan and its 16 rotating and 27 static blades, and is powered by a 2263kW electric three-phase induction motor, generating 43560N.m of torque at 495rpm.
The rolling road is also capable of running at 80 metres per second.

Shigeru Takagi, Chief Operating Officer for Regional Operations (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and President of Honda Motor Europe Ltd. commented: “This facility is a demonstration of our strong commitment to the United Kingdom, to motor sport and to our research and development capability. Our passion for the toughest challenge in motor sport and our desire to become Formula One champions requires a very strong infrastructure and it is with this in mind that we have invested in our new wind tunnel at Brackley.

“This kind of deep commitment to racing is not new to us. It has been a constant throughout Honda’s history, simply because we regard racing as an investment in the research and development that drives our future. It is our aim that the same spirit of challenge which goes into making Formula One racing cars should go into every one of the twenty million Honda products we will sell around the world this year.

“I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all our partners and to the citizens of Brackley for their co-operation in allowing us to complete the wind tunnel ahead of schedule.”

The Rt. Hon. Alistair Darling MP, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, said: “This impressive new facility shows Britain is still attracting the best engineering and manufacturing in the world. One of the great strengths of the British automotive industry is its ability to evolve and create new opportunities in the face of change. Engineering is the future in Britain.

“The wind tunnel I am opening today is another excellent example of partnership between the best of British and the best of Japanese industrial know-how.

“People don’t talk enough about our successful automotive industry. Last year we made 1.6 million cars, not far below the peak in the early 1970s, and nearly twice the number built in the early 1980s.”

Press release
Honda

Only Ferrari, Renault and McLaren have wind tunnels at this stage in F1.

This is Honda's first year as a full works team since 1963 and they are already beating teams with big budgets such as Toyota and BMW.

This is a serious assault on F1, but may take a couple of years to bear fruit. This is a team that the great Ayrton Senna was wishing for!

i hope that some developments they make while racing and using this new windtunnel trickle down into their road cars

please make a new integra and nsx...

must be for testing the vtec badges

HSC is on its way! V10 Vtec, very serious race car...for the road and track. Integra has been discontinued in the states but no news as yet in oz.

Heres the HSC...

http://media.cars.ign.com/media/611/611858/imgs_1.html

yeah it's a pitty more teams don't have their own aswell instead of having to fork out millions a year to hire wind tunnels

pitty williams don't have their own, they could spend the cash they use to hire one to get some better engineers

Yeah very true!

Frank has openly admitted that their let down has been aero. Alot of people have been knocking willies this year but its only a matter of time for a team like this to shine again.

We will either see willies or toyota with the next wind tunnel. I bet it will be toyota though, they would be spewing to see honda with one!



Man you should go and hang yourself on a stock peg at trade tools as you're a fucking spanner!

was waiting for some dickhead to make a "smart" comment

I got it wrong, both Toyota and Williams do have wind tunnels of their own.

where can i get one, and do they let you use them on the weekends? lol

lol u kno toyota spends more than ANY f1 team and they suck

money really isnt everything in f1, its knowledge

The irony of this topic (Please note it was started a year ago) was that Honda's shitty performance this year was due to their wind tunnel being incorrectly calibrated, thus giving them useless data...

rofl

ahahah thats soo funny.

Avid fan that missed news from 2 and a half years ago

hope they have style
some aerodynamic cars look ugly

I'd love them to make a new Teg I've liked every series they've built

Tipical rotor fanboy comment.

I sure hope this new investment will boost Honda's current standing at the F1 race.

hasn't honda just recently exit F1 racing in total?