Things are about to be a bit breezier at the Transportation Research Center in Ohio. Honda has announced a $124 million investment for a multi-functional aeroacoustic wind tunnel facility for future product development.
The new wind tunnel will aid Honda in the engineering of not only more fuel efficient vehicles but will will also help the Japanese brand pioneer future performance products as well. So, hopefully, it will help shape that spiritual successor to the S2000 we've been hearing about.
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Featuring an interchangeable belt system, the new wind tunnel will have the ability to test both production cars and vehicles for the automaker's various motorsports endeavors. A five-belt rolling road system will be put in place for road vehicles and a single belt will test Honda performance vehicles and race cars. Speeds in the tunnel will be capable of reaching 192 mph.
Good guy Honda isn't keeping the state-of-the-art facility to itself, however. The automaker plans for four secure customer bays at the facility, too, to share the fruits of its labor. At this point, Honda isn't saying what companies it will share the wind tunnel with, however.
Honda will break ground on the new facility in late summer of this year, while further west, the automaker joins forces with General Motors to jointly manufacture fuel cell systems. The factory, a GM plant, resides in Brownstown Township, Michigan, and mass production is expected to go online in 2020.