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Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien test track is around 18km long and has been described, not least by VW, as ‘an oval'. But it isn't, really.

At each end is a 180-degree banked turn. One side of the ‘oval' is a 8km long dead straight, but the other is shaped more like a comic-strip dog's bone. Viewed from the sky, I suggested, it would look a bit like a very elongated BMW grille. They didn't like this.

Words: James May
Photos: Justin Leighton