Eyes watering down Regent Street

It is every boy's dream to experience what it is really like to be a Formula One driver - to wear the gear, drive the car and, best of all, feel the speed. Tonight in Regent Street thousands of people will witness the unique sight of eight Formula One cars racing up and down to promote the British Grand Prix this weekend.

Yesterday I was given the chance to drive the Jaguar that ITV motor racing commentator Martin Brundle will use against such drivers as Jenson Button, David Coulthard and Nigel Mansell on the streets of the West End.

Brundle, who turned up at the Northamptonshire drag racing circuit of Santa Pod, was uneasy to see my figure squeezed into the cockpit. He would have to follow me, assuming there was still a car to drive.

"Treat the car with respect," he pleaded. "It couldn't be more difficult today for you."

As he said this it started to rain. I listened to a host of crucial instructions: ease off the clutch gently, don't use the clutch at all after first gear, up-shift and downshift using the handles on the side of the steering wheel, and so on.

Your left foot was solely to brake, your right to accelerate, and your hands required to not only steer, but also use the clutch, and press the neutral button. This is only a fraction-of what a driver has to do in a grand prix. Talk about multi-tasking! Then it was time. The engine was switched on, the garage went quiet, my heartbeat rose uncomfortably, and I was away. They tried their best to warn me of the rate of knots this machine can move.

"It accelerates from nought to 120mph and back down to zero again in five seconds," said Tony Burrows, the test-team manager. But these are just words and figures.

The reality is altogether different. One touch of the throttle and I had accelerated faster than I had ever done in my life. It took me a fraction over 20 seconds to travel the milelong distance along the Santa Pod track, changing gear quickly from neutral to third, as I felt the downforce of the speed rock first my head back, and then my body.