Because I work for car companies and they occasionally need prototypes tested over long distances
I used to regularly travel down to see my daughter in Cornwall so could offer '600 miles of testing and data logging'.

Highlights include-

Driving a pristine white DBS Coupe to the beach.
Driving a Merlot red DBS Volante through Falmouth town centre (top down of course)
Driving a V12 Vantage around the Lizard peninsula
Tripping up to Aberdeen in a V8 Vantage to check RFI from the Dyce airport radar.
Taking a Range Rover TDV8 to Newquay
Hooning a V8 Range Rover Sport around some country lanes testing the active roll system.
Point-and-squirting a Jag XK8 around Goonhilly downs

Also at the test facility at Gaydon during the course of work:-

Pissing away fuel at the rate of 4 mpg in the Range Rover Sport Supercharged on the high speed track,
Doughnutting on the steering pad in the same car(Hey, I waas testing the DSC function)
Tearing up the sand pit in a Disco 3 and then sliding around the Low Speed Endurance in the wet to check the Terrain Optimisation settings
Wading in the water trough (70 cm deep)in a Freelander

As well as catapulting up the M40 in a XJ Super V8.
Taking stage 3 driver test at Millbrook, driving 130mph on the top of the high speed bowl and having to balance the car with the throttle, hands off the wheel, for an entire 2-mile lap

As you can guess I've moved around the industry a bit- I failed to stay at Caterpillar long enough to try out an 'Articulated Truck' 740 in the quarry (Machine Systems didn't really need any driving experience) but all the same, I have a different company prototype on the drive this very evening-

A 2.2l 100hp Diesel transit van. With no pissing air con. *Sweats*
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Thu 28 Jul 2011, 20:07, 11 replies)

Top Gear called.
They say this counts as outing yourself as The Stig.

Clarkson's furious.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 28 Jul 2011, 20:45, closed)

I'm a bit taller than he....
and a lot slower.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Thu 28 Jul 2011, 21:11, closed)

You
Are most definitely The Stig!!
(Ymob is a kaburu, Thu 28 Jul 2011, 21:08, closed)

I'm his girlfriend.
I can indeed confirm that he does drive like The Stig.
( The Cat's Mother Not a People Person., Fri 29 Jul 2011, 18:52, closed)

One to add to the list...

Picking Pooflake up in (what I remember to be) a DB9 convertible and razzing him up and down the A46 like the veritable clappers!

I will never forget that - and I thank you again :)
( Pooflake braces for an onslaught..., Sat 30 Jul 2011, 16:45, closed)

you're most welcome sir :-)
had it for a fortnight, tried to spread the joy elsewhere but the Coventry Massive were busy :-(
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Sun 31 Jul 2011, 13:59, closed)

Lucky bugger
A colleague of mine was phoned by his mate one Saturday night. Said mate works for a certain Crewe-based outpost of the Wolfsburg empire.

"Fancy coming out for a spin in a Mulsanne tomorrow?"
"Where are we going?"
"How about Padstow?"
"Why?"
"I fancy a pasty."

And so, it came to pass that my colleague was chauffeured some 600 miles to Cornwall and back in the lap of luxury. Pasty was cold by the time he got back, though.
( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Sat 30 Jul 2011, 23:23, closed)

i just traveled 6500 miles to Cornwall, the yearning for a pasty and some scrumps being a prime motivation. Of course i was in lemming class Air Transat from Canada to Gatwick and then an Astra,

which is about the opposite of luxury.

ansom couple pastys, mind.
bloody lovely.
(Matty73, Wed 3 Aug 2011, 16:08, closed)

How do you balance the car on throttle in the outside lane at Millbrook?
I took (and failed) an assessment for a driving job there about 15 years ago in a Cavalier Turbo 4x4. The natural steering speed in the top lane of the bowl is 100mph, and at 150-odd this Cavalier had to have 1/8th of a turn of steering lock applied all the time, just to keep it away from the barrier.

I presume vehicle dynamics have moved on a bit since the Mk3 Cav though.
(WillI'mNot logs in twice a year, every year, Mon 1 Aug 2011, 16:14, closed)

Me, just following the instructor. No DSC intervention,
I admire your balls in doing that in a family saloon car on steroids rather than a ground-up designed sports car though. The VH platform owes more to aeronautical engineering than traditional monocoque.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Mon 1 Aug 2011, 16:24, closed)

They had a good way of impressing on the driver the need to pay attention:
The instructor sat in a blue Sparco bucket seat with a 6-point harness. The driver got the standard velour Cavalier job with a 3-point inertia reel.

Apparently at top speed on the banking, the tyres twist so that only a 1"-wide patch on the outer edge of the tread is being used... So the whole car is in contact with a total area of road smaller than the palm of your hand, at more than twice the motorway speed limit.
(WillI'mNot logs in twice a year, every year, Mon 1 Aug 2011, 16:57, closed)