First in a series Bryan Herta's senses are arrested immediately as the glass doors at Honda Performance Development open, revealing front and center in the spacious lobby a race car. Not just any car, but the No. 7 XM Satellite Radio Honda-powered Dallara that rocketed the Valencia, Calif., resident to victory at Michigan International Speedway. "Wow! It looks like it could race today," the Andretti Green Racing driver says upon initial inspection. source: indycar.com by Dave Lewandowski Up next: Technical questions answered Sorry, Bryan, but there would be a large aerodynamic problem to overcome for the high-speed ovals of the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series or even the relatively slow-moving traffic on the nearby I-5. It seems someone cut away much of the left side of the chassis to showcase the Honda Indy V-8. "Well, it still might be able to win," laughed Herta, who led 159 laps from the pole position and won the Firestone Indy 400 by 0.0374 of a second over Dan Wheldon. On a sun-splashed mid-October day, Herta joined other IndyCar Series drivers in touring the 123,000-square-foot technical operations center in Santa Clarita, Calif. - from the colorful lobby with its display of automobile racing championship engines to the tidy storage area where powerplants rest in silver trunks awaiting deployment. Earlier in the day, more than 120 HPD associates led tours of the facility that they've called home since February 2005 for families and friends. Media members, suppliers and vendors also saw the inner-workings of the high-tech center that coordinates American Honda's participation in the IndyCar Series. The two-story structure - a widget's throw from Santa Clarita Studios -- houses comprehensive engine Research & Development operations, including design, development engineering, prototype and production parts manufacturing, engine preparation, rebuilding, material analysis, quality control inspection, dyno/test cells, machining, parts distribution and administrative offices. For Jeff Lage, vice president of B&B Manufacturing, the tour and subsequent Q&A session with HPD president Robert Clarke was both education and business beneficial. His Valencia-based company of 200 skilled employees supplies cylinder heads to HPD.
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