Feature: Driving an A1 GP car

In the old days, the doctor used to take a grip of your crown jewels and ask you to cough. Apparently this detects whether you've got a hernia problem, but I always reckoned that it was the doc checking that they were big enough for the job in hand.

Doctor: 'Class in which you're competing?'

Goodwin: 'Road-going hot hatches.'

Doctor: 'That's fine, they're just about big enough.'

I fear that they might be several sizes too small for today's task.

I'm strapped very tightly into an A1 Grand Prix car in the pits at Snetterton and am rather nervous. Snetterton is a pretty quick circuit and I'm not sure what to expect because I've never driven anything like this before.

I don't know whether you've seen any of the races in this series, but it's real wheel-banging stuff. The grid is made up from drivers representing an individual country. The British car, for example, is driven by a young driver called Robbie Kerr; ex F1 driver Jos Verstappen drives the Netherlands car; with Ralph Firman taking the wheel of the Irish team car. And so on. There's an amazing mix of nationalities. Graham Rahal (son of Bobby Rahal) drives for the Lebanese team - his grandfather was Lebanese, which qualifies him for the drive.

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