Watch Bill's virtual and real-life laps

Watch Jason Platos' lap

It's one of those fundamental questions that has plagued humanity since the dawn of time. Well, since the dawn of the Playstation, anyhow.

Just because you're handy at racing computer games, does that mean you'll be any good on the track?

A simple question, but one that's darndedly difficult to answer. But, scientific entrepreneurs that we are, we decided to find out once and for all.

First, we needed a seriously realistic game. And they don't come much more realistic than Race, the new PC game based on the 2006 WTCC. The Brands Hatch circuit is modelled to an accuracy of less than 1cm, and the game designers measured the grip coefficient of every inch of the track.

It's so realistic that, during the 2006 season, WTC drivers were learning tracks on the game and then setting almost identical lap times out on the circuit. It's that good.

Second, we needed one of the cars from the game. Perhaps unwisely, the kind souls at Seat Racing agreed to lend us their £200,000 Leon touring car for the day. With 270bhp on tap, a stripped-down dash, LCD screen and banks of switches, it's a proper racer. And scary.

Finally, we needed a guinea pig. A man happy to spend countless hours in front of the computer in pursuit of the perfect virtual lap. It was a tough gig, but we reckoned our man Bill Thomas was up to it.

Oh, and just so Bill couldn't blame it on the car, we enlisted the help of Jason Plato to demonstrate what the real Leon could do.

Jason is a former British Touring Car champion and widely acknowledged as one of the quickest touring car drivers in the world. He's also a works Seat driver, so he's on pretty good terms with the Leon. If anyone could show Bill what the Leon is capable of, Jason was the man.

So it came to pass that on a cold, crisp winter morning at Brands Hatch, Bill Thomas - computer racing driver extraordinaire - strapped himself into a snarling lump of race-tuned metal, massaged his aching thumbs and set off.

Would all the hours of virtual practice pay off? Would Bill beat his computer lap? And, most importantly, would Bill total a very expensive touring car and send Top Gear into bankruptcy?

You'll have to watch the video to find out.