Last night in the UK saw the start of the eleventh series of popular BBC2 car show Top Gear – so it’s time to finally visit the Top Gear studio and track!

Based at Dunsfold Park in Surrey, the two mile track was built on an old RAF airfield by Lotus engineers.

As seen from the opening credits, the large hanger by the track is the studio, although the large Top Gear logo isn’t there any more (or perhaps this picture was taken before filming). Just next to the studio, you can see the production office of Top Gear, which is, according to the makers, just a portakabin!

A member at Google Earth Community has posted an overlay of the track, so you can get an aerial overview of Gambon and the follow-through, with the Hammerhead sitting at the end of the runway. The lack of visible tyre marks suggests that the images was captured before the ‘Power Lap’ and ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’ features began.

You can find out more about Top Gear and Dunsfold Park at Wikipedia. Sightseeing car fans in the UK can watch the most recent Top Gear again at BBC’s iPlayer.

Thanks to Scott Blair, Shane Ferguson, Justin Flavin, Stu Gowdy, Lee, Patrick, Scott and Matt Wix.

When we last spotted Thomas the Tank Engine he was happily entertaining children on the Isle of Wight. People said things like “Best. Sight. Ever!“, and we all reminisced about the favourite anthropomorphised train from our childhood.

Since those halcyon days, Thomas has relocated to the English seaside resort of Paignton where he has, distressingly, hit hard times.

The creaky blue locomotive now spends his days slumped in a corner at the back of the station car park, where locals report he is often seen glugging from a bottle of diesel and telling the platform attendants to “feck off”.

Thanks to Anthony Houghton.

The web is abuzz today with news that an English animal sanctuary has applied to the Guinness Book of World Records to have one of their bullocks, “Chilli”, recognised as Britain’s tallest cow.

The giant Friesian apparently measures a staggering 6ft 6ins (1.98 metres), which raises the question – can we pick Chilli out amongst all the other cows at the Ferne Animal Sanctuary?

The current world record holder for tallest living cow is 6ft 8in Italian “Fiorino”, who was unavailable for comment.

Also see our previous coverage of the World’s Largest (model) Cow.

Thanks to Rob

Last Sunday saw the swearing in of Boris Johnson, conservative MP for Henley (and renowned committer of gaffes), as the new Mayor of London. This means that, not only will he have power over nearly everything in Greater London, he will also take up office in London’s rather spectacular City Hall.

Opened in 2002, the glass clad building contains a 500 metre helical walkway, which eventually reaches ‘London’s Living Room’, a large space 10 floors up which affords rather spectacular views over the River Thames, and which also played host to Boris’ acceptance speech at the weekend (and unsurprising trip-up beforehand!).

Perhaps the new Mayor will be more accepting of the Norman Foster design than Ken Livingstone, who famously likened the building to a ‘glass testicle’. Boris however is said to refer to it as ‘The Onion’ – which fits, since the nearby ‘Gherkin’ is another work by Foster and Partners.¹

Here’s a link to the Live Maps Bird’s Eye view of London City Hall which really demonstrates the tower’s bizarre shape, or you can see lots of pictures and read more about it at GreatBuildings and wikipedia. Thanks to Krusader.

Just off the coast of Portsmouth, England, we can a group of sailing vessels engaged in some competitive harbour or buoy racing.

The vessels just rounding the buoy as the image was captured were facing some stiff competition, but the leaders of the pack appear to be way out in front.

On the beach we can see the Seafarers Sailing Club, and according to Google Earth the image that captured the race was taken on April 21st 2007 – which would mean that we’re seeing the 3rd race in the Seafarers Sailing Club Spring Series, which was won by sail number 1178 with K. Stares at the helm!

Given that Portsmouth has such a long naval history¹ is hardly surprising that there’s about a hundred zillion different kinds of boats to see in the area, so why not go for a virtual wander and see what interesting boats you can find?

See our previous post about Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower and some of the ships on display there, or brush up on this kind of Yacht racing and the Racing Rules of Sailing at Wikipedia.

Thanks to ZaberNS.