Brake time

Road tester Owen Mildenhall ate a hearty breakfast before tucking into one of the most dramatic shoot-outs of 2009, flinging the best-stopping cars we had driven all year through a rigorous braking and ESP test. It involved a combined emergency stop and lane change from 70mph. The surprise overall winner
from a variety of sectors was BMW’s incredible X6 SUV.

However, spare a thought for intrepid road tester James Disdale. He put in the most dazzling performance of the day by sitting alongside Owen for every run, holding on to our timing gear...