Daventry abandoned rail tunnel to be test facility for cars

The research centre where engineering students would be trained, with the wind tunnel behind

Engineers are hoping to turn a disused rail tunnel in Northamptonshire in to an international facility to test the performance of new cars.

Plans are being prepared by aerodynamics specialist TotalSim of Brackley to convert the Catesby Tunnel near Daventry into a wind tunnel.

The aim would be to measure the aerodynamic performance of new vehicles.

The facility will include a research centre to train engineering students.

Managing director Rob Lewis hailed the facility as one of the first of its type in Europe,

An artist's view inside the completed wind tunnel

The entrance to the abandoned railway tunnel near Daventry