Google has added the Top Gear track to Google Street View (via 9to5Google), which fans of the UK automotive show will recognize instantly. You could sort of experience driving it from the cockpit camera footage the program itself uses, but now you can ride along through Chicago, the Hammerhead, Gambon and all the rest from your desktop or device on Google Maps.
Fun fact I learned today: The Top Gear Test Track was originally a Royal Canadian Air Force base built during the second world war, so it’s literally a part of my heritage. I’ll definitely be thinking about that the next time Top Gear puts a semi-famous British celebrity in a Vauxhaull Astra and sends them round the track – an experience I can now better sympathize with thanks to this new Street View addition.
In the video above you can see some behind-the-scenes footage about how they shot the Street View, complete with Top Gear’s tamed racecar driver The Stig hot-dogging the Google Street View camera car in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black. Maybe the Street View car can catch up in the corners.