Monday September 10th, 2001

The Daily Grapevine has learnt that the Jaguar Racing team have requested planning permission for a new wind tunnel in the British Midlands. The new facility is to be located at Gaydon, which is the new engineering center for Land Rover and a future site for Aston Martin production as well.

Jaguar are currently sending the tunnel models to California, and while Gaydon is only some 45 miles cross-country from the team's headquarters in Milton Keynes, on Britain's congested roads a round trip of two or three hours, it won't put Jaguar Racing on a par with top rivals whose tunnels are right on site and instantly accessible.

With wind-tunnel testing a key requirement in the development of winning Formula One cars, Jaguar have been paying the price of having to travel to California to use the Swift facilities in the past two seasons.

It is believed that Ford - owners of Jaguar - want the wind tunnel to be useful for the Premier Automotive Group's other brands as well. If so, however, it will probably miss the point because tunnels like Ferrari's are in use on a three-shift basis around the clock.

Published at 11:49:23 GMT

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