Top Gear Track Hits Google Street View

[RedMoon11]

Top Gear Track Hits Google Street View

Yes, our track is now fully virtual. Along with an appearance from Stig in an SLS Black...

Simon Bond 23 January 2014



Geospatial technologists, map enthusiasts, fans of repetitive mouse clicking, rejoice! It's now possible to explore Top Gear's remote test track in rural Surrey without leaving your living room. Yes, our top secret filming location (just off the A281 in Dunsfold) is now featured on Google Street View.

Not only that, we sent TG's Man in a White Suit to keep Google's man in sunglasses company as he lapped our 1.75 miles of ex-airbase tarmac in his Opel Astra camera car (reasonably-priced no doubt). Inevitably, The Stig brought along something quicker: a Mercedes SLS AMG Black. Some sideways occurred.

Hit the link to head to the start line and check out the video below for some behind the scenes action. See if you can spot some of Top Gear magazine's 2013 Awards winners lurking in the car park...

www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/stig-on-google-street-view-2014-1-23

[RedMoon11]

Google Has Street Viewed the Top Gear Test Track

Type 'Top Gear test track' into Google Maps, hover the little orange man over the circuit and you can Street View it like you would any road, with The Stig making a cameo on the back straight.

Google visited the figure-of-eight track at Dunsfold Aerodrome, Surrey, which has long been the site of choice for the motoring show's car tests, with one of its Street View cars in order to capture it as The Stig sped round in a Mercedes.

"From anywhere on the planet, Top Gear’s millions of followers can now explore the official track from the show with some spectacular shots, thanks to Google Street View technology," Duncan Gray, Top Gear’s Commercial Director, BBC Worldwide said. "We did have to tell The Stig to slow down a couple of times though.”

A special camera is used to capture environments for Google Street View (Picture: BBC)

This is not the first time Google has taken Street View off-road in its relentless bid to photograph absolutely everything, previously fitting a camera to its operations manager's back and sending him out to capture the Grand Canyon and using a boat to snap the Thames.



"At Google, we’re used to life in the fast lane, so we were thrilled to ride alongside the infamous Stig and capture imagery of what has become a British — and indeed global — institution for automobile fans," Ulf Spitzer, Street View Program Manager, Google commented.



Top Gear is back for for a new series on Sunday 2nd February, with Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond all set to return.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/motoring-news/google-has-street-viewed-the-top-gear-test-track-9080245.html

[aston]

Well, my lap time was 1:58.