The Top Gear Test Track is a privately-owned raceway designed by Lotus Cars as the testing ground for their Formula 1 vehicles. The raceway is famous in motorsports thanks to the BBC's show Top Gear, which uses it to put racecars and drivers to the test. The service and taxi lanes of the Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, England, form the challenging 12-turn trajectory of the racetrack. The 1.75-mile (2.81-km) Top Gear Test Track exerts all types of mechanical pressures on the racecars to take them to their limits. Oversteering, understeering, suspension quality, tire grip are some aspects hit hard by testers on the track. The average speed is 81 mph (130 km/h), but the best indicator of a car's performance is its ability to withstand the harsh maneuvers in the course.
The Top Gear Test Track starts on a slight bend to the right called Crooner Curve and then turns aggressively to the left on the long Wilson corner. Chicago is a shorter and slower right-hander leading into an acceleration segment. When testers get to Hammerhead, the precision of their reflexes and their racecars steering system meet a challenging left-right combination. The next sector features a sweeping curve combo with Follow Through and Bentley going right and then left. The second-to-last corner and the last one are both 90-degree left-handers, called Bacharach and Gambon, closing a lap on a tough-to-ride circuit worth every second of the view.