Ehra-Lessien

Infobox Ort in Deutschland
Wappen = Wappen von Ehra-Lessien.pnglat_deg = 52 |lat_min = 35 |lat_sec = 48.5
lon_deg = 10 |lon_min = 47 |lon_sec = 45.8
Lageplan =
Bundesland = Niedersachsen
Landkreis = Gifhorn
Samtgemeinde = Brome
Höhe = 63
Fläche = 56.08
Einwohner = 1620
Stand = 2006-12-31
PLZ = 38468
Vorwahl = 05377
Kfz = GF
Gemeindeschlüssel = 03 1 51 008
Gliederung = 2 Ortsteile
Straße = Bromer Str. 1
Website = [http://www.ehra-lessien.de www.ehra-lessien.de]
Bürgermeister = Jenny Reissig
Bürgermeistertitel = Bürgermeisterin
Partei = SPD

Ehra-Lessien is a municipality in the district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany.

Volkswagen test track

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 the firm.

The facility features convert|96|km|mi|0 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 a high speed circuit with 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 level, when standing at one end of the straight, the other end cannot be seen due to the curvature of the Earth. It also includes banked corners at both ends of the circuit, to allow a high average speed around the 20 km lap.

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 convert|407|km/h|mi/h|0|abbr=on in a Bugatti Veyron.