Ehra-Lessien

Ehra-Lessien
Coat of arms
Ehra-Lessien Location of Ehra-Lessien within Gifhorn district
Coordinates: 52°35′49″N 10°47′46″E / 52.59694°N 10.79611°E / 52.59694; 10.79611Coordinates: 52°35′49″N 10°47′46″E / 52.59694°N 10.79611°E / 52.59694; 10.79611
Country	Germany
State	Lower Saxony
District	Gifhorn
Municipal assoc.	Brome
Government
• Mayor	Jenny Reissig (SPD)
Area
• Total	56.08 km2 (21.65 sq mi)
Elevation	63 m (207 ft)
Population (2017-12-31)[1]
• Total	1,852
• Density	33/km2 (86/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	38468
Dialling codes	05377
Vehicle registration	GF
Website	www.ehra-lessien.de

Ehra-Lessien is a municipality in the district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The Municipality Ehra-Lessien includes the villages of Ehra and Lessien.

• 
  The Lutheran church in Ehra
• 
  Lessien with old inn
• 
  Test track entrance

Volkswagen Group test track

Volkswagen Group owns a test track facility in Ehra-Lessien. The facility was built during the Cold War. The location was chosen, at the time, because it was in a no-fly zone near the East German border, thus secret prototypes could be tested out of sight of potential rivals.

The track is currently used by all Volkswagen Group subsidiaries and marques, such as Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, SEAT, Škoda, and Porsche.

The facility features 96 km (60 miles) of private tarmac, which includes a large variety of road surfaces and curves, used as test tracks to evaluate new and prototype vehicles. More significantly, there is a high speed circuit with a straight approximately 8.7 km (5.4 mi) long. Although the straight portion of the track is perfectly flat and level for the entire length, when standing at one end of the straight you cannot see the far end due to the curvature of the Earth.^[2] Banked corners at both ends of the circuit allow for a high entry and exit speed to and from the straight, and to increase average speed during the 20 km (12 mi) lap. The straight is especially useful for determining vehicle top speed, and is one of the few places on earth that the Bugatti Veyron or the McLaren F1 can reach their top speed.

Notably, the top speed of the Bugatti Veyron and the McLaren F1 were recorded along this straight. In episode 2 of Season 9, aired on 4 February 2007 on BBC Two's Top Gear, presenter James May reached 407.5 km/h (253.2 mph) in a Bugatti Veyron.^[2] In July 2010 a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport with 1,200 bhp (890 kW), reached 417.9 km/h (259.7 mph) while driven by James May, back at Ehra-Lessien again. However shortly after this, while being driven by Bugatti test driver Pierre Henri Raphanel, the vehicle recorded the production car world speed record at an average of 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph) (Top Gear Episode 5, Season 15). The facility also appeared on National Geographic Channel's Man-Made, in episodes about the Bugatti Veyron and Chiron.

References