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'Ehra-Lessien' is a municipality in the district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (VAG) owns a test track facility in Ehra-Lessien. It was originally positioned here during the Cold War because it was located in a no-fly zone on the East German border, safe from prying eyes from seeing secret prototypes.
As the track is owned by Volkswagen it is thus open to all its subsidiaries like Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, SEAT, Skoda as well as to Porsche, which has a 30% share in in the firm.
The facility features 60 miles/ 96 kilometers of private tarmac which includes a large variety of road surfaces and curves, such known as test tracks to test vehicles. More significantly, there is an unbroken straight of 9 km in length, on which the top speed of several of the cars developed may be determined.Though this portion of the track is absolutely flat and leveled, when standing on one side of the straight, the other end cannot be seen due to the curvature of the Earth. It also includes a banked turn, which is supposedly used to get the cars settled for their final pace at the straight.
Most notably the Bugatti Veyron's and (in 1997) the McLaren F1's top speed were recorded along this straight. In an episode aired on February 4, 2007 on BBC 2's Top Gear, presenter James May reached 407 km/h or 253 mph in a Bugatti Veyron.