Are you able just to take a car there and razz it around, or do you need a permit?

Just seen a bit of an old Top Gear and really fancy a bit of a blast there! (4WD cars are harder to drift though, right?)

nope. was closed to the public about 5 years ago i think. the museum of speed it still open though and kind of cool.

Rode the bike along there many years ago, don’t think I broke any records. Met a guy in the town who was spending the summer riding around the coastline of Britain. Accompanied him for a few miles westward and in talking to him discovered that he was the son of one of my lecturers at the Polytechnic of Central London.