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175mph in the middle of London: by Steve Sutcliffe, with photography by Stan Papior and Mitch Peshavria

On paper it was the simplest of ideas. After all, we’ve driven hundreds of fast cars down all sorts of runways over the years to answer that most straightforward of questions: what’s the fastest? But this time it was different. This time we were in London. And this time we were after a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Hard and fast: by Chris Harris, with photography by Mark Bramley

Ah the joys of low frontal area and 415bhp. Heading north from Stuttgart on the A81 and the GT3 has been the splodge of tomato ketchup in a grey rabble of large German saloons for the past hour. The speed limit seems to alter every few kilometres: 100km/h, then a burst of 130km/h, then a sneaky fillip of 120 and a bank of cameras to catch those napping.

The Greatest Drives on Earth: Mille Miglia: by Richard Bremner, with photography by Barry Hayden

It's almost impossible to imagine how differently the Mille Miglia would have been viewed if you'd been an Italian watching it tear through your village in the early 1930s. And not just because the race was for real back then, rather than today's excitingly indulgent time-trial nostalgia-fest.

Before the NSX, supercars were crap, by Andrew Frankel with photography by Charlie Magee 

It shouldn't have been like this. This was the last time we would meet, the final fling of an affair 16 years in the making.