APRIL 22, 1996

Williams windtunnel move

THE Williams Grand Prix Engineering windtunnel - one of only three 50% rolling road windtunnels in the world - is on the move next weekend in a vast operation to relocate it from Didcot to the team's new base at Grove.

THE Williams Grand Prix Engineering windtunnel - one of only three 50% rolling road windtunnels in the world - is on the move next weekend in a vast operation to relocate it from Didcot to the team's new base at Grove.

The 165-ton structure, which will be housed in a purpose-built three-story research and development building, will be broken down into three main sections for the move and loaded onto four mammoth trucks for the eight mile trip which will take place at 01:30 next Sunday morning. In order to complete the trip the major A34 highway will have to be closed, as the loads will be too tall to go under the bridges, and the crash barriers removed to allow the trucks to cross the central reservation.

The convoy will then pass through a couple of villages which will entail power and telephone lines to hundreds of houses being cut.

The windtunnel is expected to be back in action in the middle of July, in time for work to begin on the 1997 Williams. In the interim Williams's aerodynamic work is being done at the Swift windtunnel in San Clemente, California.