Cold fish

摘要

"Must Like Walleye." You're likely to find that stipulation on any job posting at Automotive Enviro Testing (AET), a sprawling, for-hire winter proving grounds in one of the lower 48's coldest locales, Baudette, Minnesota. The city dubs itself "the walleye capital of the world," and backs that claim with Willie the Walleye, a 2.5-ton, 40-foot-long fish statue that probably wasn't sculpted by Rodin. During my February visit to AET, I had fried walleye for lunch, broiled walleye for dinner, and probably creamed walleye in my oatmeal too.rnDon't mention the word "walleye" to the members of Acura's Ohio-based engineering team. Every winter, they live on the grounds at AET (in Spartan but comfortable dorms) for sixrnto eight weeks, pushing prototypes and test vehicles to the max in a brutal yet incredibly well-controlled environment."This is the best place in the world for winter testing," says Ted Klaus, the first and thus far only American to serve as an Acura vehicle chief engineer.