The Honda facility includes a variety of test tracks and buildings - as well as plenty of security.
It’s something no serious gearhead should be without. And now you can own your very own test track.
Honda has decided to put its 4,255 proving grounds, in Cantil, California, up for sale. But if you’re interested you better move fast. The realtor is pushing the idea of converting the facility into a massive solar power facility.
The proving grounds originally were created “to implement a broad range of automobile, motorcycle and ATV vehicle and product evaluations,” explains realtor CB Richard Ellis.
Based out in the Mojave Desert, the Honda operation includes a huge 7.5-mile oval circuit, a 4.5-mile serpentine handling track and a number of smaller tracks designed to reproduce conditions as varied as public roads, race tracks and natural desert terrain.
It’s also put in place plenty of security, including berms to keep nosy spy photographers from getting too close with their long lenses, so privacy is a plus.
The realtors suggest turning the 4,200-acre facility into a solar energy farm.
There are also numerous test buildings where you can store and maintain your personal auto collection – or just share a beer with friends at the end of a long day out in the desert. And, the firm handling the sale notes there is shopping – and other amenities – located nearby.
Honda isn’t saying why it has decided to put the track on the market, though it appears to have decided it can handle the work elsewhere, most likely either in Japan or at the proving grounds it operates in mid-Ohio.
The maker isn’t the only one that has walked away from a U.S. proving grounds, however. Recognizing the land was too valuable, General Motors decided to sell off its huge facility outside Phoenix, several years back, to local developers.
It’s unlikely that the Honda track will undergo the same transformation. The desert region is still quite barren. But the developers note that more than 2,000 acres of nearby land have already been transformed into a solar energy farm, and similar projects are generating a lot of buzz in the region.
So, if you’ve got the cash and the need for your very own track, give Honda or realtor CB Richard Ellis a call.