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www.ADandP.media under the vehicle's left and right side frames. The result is an improved capability to safely channel energy during a frontal crash. And it certainly proves advantageous from a miles-per- gallon standpoint, as well, in that as much as 75 pounds of mass are saved on the new vehicle vis-à-vis a comparable version of the previous generation. OK: the weight save isn't entirely based on the steel. There is the aforementioned aluminum hood. And an aluminum front bumper beam provides a 2.6-pound save. There is a cast composite component that supports the battery; it saves 2.9 pounds. One place where steel has given way to an alternative material is the steering hanger beam, the structural element to which the steering column and the instrument panel are attached. Harrison says that in the previous generation the component was a steel weldment. For the new Odyssey it 31 is a cast magnesium part. Because it is a single piece, it has a simpler, more precise construction than the multiple pieces of steel welded together. What's more, it is lighter: 10.1 pounds lighter. (It is interesting to note that this, too, is an approach that debuted on that third-gen MDX: the learnings achieved at Honda are clearly transferred among projects to positive effect.) ADDRESSING AERO From an aerodynamic standpoint, a minivan is pretty much like shoving a large brick on wheels through the air. So a chal- lenge for engineers and designers of the 2018 Honda Odyssey was to make the vehicles—relatively speaking—as slippery as possible. They set about doing what they could to reduce the drag of the vehicle without penalizing its primary function, which is to carry people, in this case, eight. While the wheelbase is the same as that of the fourth-generation Odyssey (118.1 inches), and there are fractional changes to the length—+0.3 Once it seemed as though a defining metric of whether something was truly a minivan was whether it could handle a 4 x 8-foot sheet of plywood. The 2018 Odyssey has a 48.6-inch tailgate opening and fold-flat seats. Yes, it can take the plywood. But it is really designed to carry people. AD&P; ∕ AUGUST 2017 ODYSSEY