Alex 'stuntman-for-a-day' Eckford speaks to the living legend and finds out why Britain's new F1 star once swept the floor of his garage.

I'm driving around a deserted Santa Pod raceway in Northamptonshire, looking for one of Britain's top stunt drivers. I don’t know where he might be, or what car he's driving. I just need a sign. In the distance, I see a car driving on two wheels. Bingo.

Regular visitors to motor shows and fans of Channel 5's Fifth Gear will know Terry Grant as one of the country's top stunt drivers. If you've ever seen a car driving up on its side, or a man standing on a bonnet while his car spins round beneath him, chances are the man behind the wheel was Terry.

Looking around the area, to the side of Santa Pod's infamous drag strip, I see Terry's collection of specially modified motors - a TVR Sagaris, two Legends racers, a Honda Civic Type R and a Vauxhall Corsa with a stabiliser. A stabiliser?

"It's so people can drive on two wheels without having to spend months learning how to," says Terry. "There's no way people can learn to do it in a day, so this gives them a head start."

We retire to Terry's Winnebago, a vehicle so spacious it's comfortably bigger than most people's flats.

The first topic of conversation is what he did at the weekend. It tops most people's.

"I was at Lewis Hamilton's house with his family to watch his first Grand Prix," says Terry. "I was there with his mother, his brother Nick and basically all his close friends and family except his dad - who was there in Melbourne. His mum was nervous as hell, but ten minutes before the race he rang and spoke to each and every one of us, thanking us for coming round.

Terry has known the driver, who finished third in his debut F1 race on Sunday, since he was a boy.

"I've known his family since he was eight. I used to own a kart track he used to come down to. I also owned a garage - on a Saturday he'd come in, pick up a broom and help us sweep the floor and have a chat.

"Lewis is a great kid and a fantastic driver. I absolutely guarantee you he will blow people away this year."

Terry and his mechanic Martin are using a spare patch of ground at the raceway to put on a display for the launch of a computer game called Full Auto 2: Battlelines. His reputation on the motoring circuit means he's the first port of call for companies looking to promote their products with a little extra oomph.

I watch as Terry performs his trademark stunt - locking his Sagaris into a donut spin before climbing onto the bonnet and holds his hands aloft. It's a spectacular sight.

His talent for motor stunts has made him one of the most sought after acts in the world. But success comes at a price - Terry has even completed stunts with broken bones.

"I've broken my right wrist four times and my left wrist three times," says Terry. "Sometimes it's through collisions, but sometimes they get caught up in the steering."

"Once it happened at a corporate show. Something broke on the car, and it went into the wall. I knew I'd broken my wrist, but I just put it down in my lap and finished the show driving with my left hand.

"You don’t tell anyone you've hurt yourself at a racetrack, because of all the red tape and all the forms. I got my mechanic to drive me to a hospital in Manchester about three hours later. I just had to put up with the pain.

"I never eat during the day when I'm working in case I have to go to hospital and have an operation for whatever reason and can't have anaesthetic or morphine. But after my last performance I'll stuff my face."

Terry's road to racing and stunt driving began a few years earlier than most people's.

"I was eight when my dad first let me drive a car on the road. We got pulled over by the police. I was so small I couldn’t sit properly on the seat if I had my feet on the pedals. He policeman told my dad off a bit, but he just laughed in disbelief."

Terry's mother and father were both champion kart racers, enjoying success while representing their country.

"But they didn’t pressure me in any way," says Terry. "If you’re pushed into something, you don’t do it, you rebel. I got into stunts because of Evel Knievel. It was my nickname when I used to ride my bike when I was a kid. I used to build ramps and jumps on my bike and on my skateboard. I used to travel around the country doing displays with other kids on skateboards."

His love of all things wheeled led him to start racing professionally.

"I've done national Hot Rod racing, raced pick-up trucks, touring cars, saloon cars, I've done loads of stuff," says Terry. "But by 1996 I decided not to race anymore and concentrate on the stunts."

An obvious talent for controlling cars encouraged Terry to make attempts at world records. He holds eleven, including one for driving a car on two wheels through the smallest gap.

"That was a lot of fun," says Terry. " You measure it from the height of the car. An Australian guy drove through a gap 86cm higher than the distance from the floor to the roofline of the car, and I did 68cm. I absolutely smashed the record, " he chuckles.

As I leave, I ask Terry if he'll show me how he drives on two wheels. Within seconds we're in his Honda Civic, with the front left side aiming at a ramp, and suddenly we're up on our side.