STIC LAPS are back!

It's a 1.75-mile figure of eight on an old Canadian Air Force base just south of Guildford. Hardly Monza, or the Mulsanne straight, and never in a million years - you'd think a place that would become one of the most sought after performance benchmarks in the motoring world.

-  OLLIE MARRIAGE / OLLIE KEW / JACK RIX

But our little test track at Dunsfold Park, sketched out across the runways and taxiways of the aerodrome by test drivers from Lotus, is very possibly the most universally known track layout in the world. Ask a randomer in the street to name some famous turns from premier racetracks and if you're lucky they'll give you Copse or the Corkscrew. But ask them which track features Chicago, Gambon and Hammerhead? No contest.

The TopGear test track served three purposes during its telly era - somewhere for The Stig to roam setting timed Power Laps, a safe environment to let celebrities loose in reasonably priced cars, and the home of tyre-torturing power test films.