How often have we watched motor racing on the television and thought that everything seemed pretty slow? The braver of us may even have ventured that we could do better in our tuned-up road burners with the go faster stripe. It is hard to judge speed when watching it on a screen without peripheral vision to give us a reference point.

The Top Gear team performed a revealing test, however, pitting a standard but sporty car against a rally car and a Formula 1 racer - and the results are even more staggering than we can imagine. Have a look at this clip and be amazed at the speed of the F1 car.

Warwick University’s Eco One

The WMG students at Warwick University have designed and built one of the greenest cars on earth, the Eco One - and it’s made from potatoes and cashew nuts, amongst other exotic materials. Amazingly, it’s a racing car capable of 150 mph and runs on bio-fuels.

The ultimate aim of the students’ project is to build a car that is ninety-five percent bio-degradable or recyclable. The Eco One is just the beginning, it seems. But it does show what is already possible in this field of research and points the way for manufacturers of green cars in the future.

The Eco One will debut at the Sexy Green Car Show at the Eden Project between March 30 and April 15, where it will stand alongside the offerings of some of the largest car manufacturers in the world. To learn more, visit the Warwick University site or read PitPass’ article giving the racing view of the project.

Always fancied driving a race car but never had the time, money or opportunity? Well, a small company in Britain is producing what amounts to a road legal race car and it is going to be made in the States by Brammo Motorsports.

It is called the Ariel Atom and is just a space frame, wheels and an engine - needless to say, it goes like a racer. In fact, Jeremy Clarkson says it’s more fun than a motor bike and he just might be right.

With the Honda Civic R engine, supercharged, it has over 500 bhp per ton and achieves 0-60 mph in 2.9 seconds. Top speed is a mere 140 mph or so but, as it has no windscreen (or body for that matter), it would be tearing off your face at that speed anyway.

As with all great cars, it is the handling that makes the real difference and the Atom just begs to be thrown around - as it should with so little weight and loads of power.

The American version will have a supercharged GM Ecotec engine but promises to be just as quick and as much fun. Save your pennies.

Through the 1950s and 1960s, a horde of little cars competed at Le Mans for the Thermal Efficiency Index prize. The idea of this formula was to reward those who tried for performance without using oceans of fuel and the competing cars were invariably small, ultra-streamlined and powered by tiny engines. I have always felt that the drivers of these little wonders must have been very brave to head down the Mulsanne straight at their maximum 120 mph or so with the big cars screaming past at close to 200 mph.

A consistent entrant and winner of the class was the small French firm, D.B. - the initials indicating the partnership between two designers, Charles Deutsch and René Bonnet. When the pair split up in 1962, Bonnet started building cars under his own name with Renault supplying the engines.

And so was born one of the prettiest little GT cars ever - the René Bonnet Djet. It was one of the first production mid-engined cars and, thanks to its light weight, was as zippy as it looked. With only one liter of engine, it still managed a top speed of about 110 mph. Most were bought for racing in spite of being intended for road use.

By 1965 M. Bonnet was in financial difficulties and sold out to Matra, who continued production of the Djet and eventually rebodied it with one of the ugliest designs ever. As a result, the original Bonnet Djets are still regarded as the real thing.