Honda plans to invest in US, and we don’t whether it was an impact of Donald Trump’s threatens or something else, but the automaker says it wants to open an aeroacoustic wind tunnel test center in East Liberty, Ohio.
It will include an interchangeable belt system with a five-belt rolling road system for production vehicles, including Honda and Acura cars and light trucks, and a single wide-belt system for high-performance vehicles and racecars. The wind tunnels “will be integral to our aerodynamic and aeroacoustic r&d activity, which spans from advanced research and computer simulation, through scale-model and full vehicle development, to production vehicle performance assurance,” Honda R&D Americas Inc. President Frank Paluch said.
The aeroacoustic wind tunnel design “will drive the next generation of wind noise reduction,” the statement said, with microphones and cameras used to identify potential exterior or interior noise issues in vehicles. The tunnels can replicate wind speeds of up to 192 mph. The test center is expected to break ground late in the summer, but a Honda spokesman couldn’t say yet what size the facility will be. It will have four private customer bays for different automakers to test their products. Honda of America purchased the Transportation Research Center in 1988, but it operates as an independent vehicle research and testing center.
