Top Gear meets the DeltaWing

SEBRING, FL. Beneath a clammy dawn, a black dart is streaking round the dry, dusty race circuit. Otherworldly, bizarre - part Batmobile, part Ann Summers stealth range, part roofless Reliant Robin - the dart fires into a sharp left-hand corner at a pace my mum would classify as ‘silly boy speeds'.

What happens next comes as a surprise. The BatDildoReliant does not flip over, launch like a grenade over the infield or otherwise murder its driver. Instead, it traces a graceful four-wheel drift, tail carving an elegant arc before whanging off down the straight with a thumping upshift. It takes the corner exactly like a... race car.

Words: Sam Philip
Pics: Webb Bland

This feature first appeared in the May 2012 issue of Top Gear magazine