Top Gear test track
The Top Gear test track is used by the BBC automotive television programme Top Gear. It is located at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, United Kingdom. The track was designed by Lotus Cars as a testing facility, with many of its Formula One cars tested there. It is used to test both cars and drivers seen on the programme, mainly in Power Laps and Star in a ... Car. For the 23rd series of Top Gear the track was expanded with a rallycross section for the "Star in a Rallycross Car" segment, but it was abandoned at the end of series 23. In December 2016 planning permission was granted for 1,800 homes to be built on the current site of the aerodrome. As part of the redevelopment, it was proposed that the track (and associated aerodrome infrastructure such as the runway drag strip) was to be demolished. Layout The track is on a former Royal Canadian Air Force airbase constructed during the Second World War and later used by British Aerospace (and its predecessors) as a manufacturing and test facility. The track's main route, marked by painted lines and simple structures such as stacks of tyres, was designed by test drivers