Guy Martin: The World's Fastest Van? (2018) - full transcript

NARRATOR: This is the legendary
Ntirburgring circuit in Germany.

ENGINE STARTS

Guy Martin has come here
with his favourite transit van.

And on this track,
he'll attempt to break two records.

That's the plan,
but it's not gonna go to plan, is it?

Course it's not gonna go to plan,
we all know that.

NARRATOR: Guy's hoping
today will be the successful finale

to a story that began over three years ago,

in September, 2015

Guy crashed his favourite transit van
on the way to work

and wrote it off.



Gutted. Love that van.

NARRATOR: But rather than letting
it go to the breaker's yard”.

GUY: I bought it back
off the insurance company for 900 quid.

PAUL:
You were robbed!

You what? You what?
- THEY LAUGH

There's two new back tyres on it!

NARRATOR:
Guy decided to rebuild it,

GUY:
Un-write it off.

If that's un-writer-off-able.

NARRATOR: Rebuild it,
and make It better than it was before,

Better, stronger, faster,.

GUY:
Sounds a treat, don't it?

NARRATOR:
He wanted to build the world's fastest van,

GUY:
It's not just fast for a van, it is fast.



NARRATOR:
Once finished, Guy took his van to the States

and entered the world's fastest road race.

Successfully driving 90 miles

across the Nevada Desert...

at massive speeds,

MAN ON HANG:
164 miles an hour!

One mad Englishman coming over
in a work van.

MAN: Yeah.
- THEY LAUGH

NARRATOR:
Even though he didn't win the race

going from write-off
to blisteringly fast racing machine

in just a few months
was a massive achievement.

My bag's in the back. Hey, in the van.
- MAN: Yeah?

NARRATOR:
But now Guy wants more,

Fast van, but...
we didn't really set any records with it.

It wasn't the world's fastest van.

We did feel at the end of it

we've got unfinished business.

NARRATOR:
Guy wants to prove beyond all doubt

that his transit van
is the fastest in the world,.

GUY: We're going for two world records,
the world's fastest transit van

outright speed, and the world's fastest lap
around the NUrburgring.

Van, fastest lap...

commercial vehicle,
but whatever you wanna word, it's the world...

Yeah, fastest van around the Nfirburgring.

NARRATOR:
The Nflrburgring is the most difficult.,.

demanding,.,

and dangerous motor racing circuit on Earth,.

And to stand a chance
of setting a lap record there

Guy has months of work ahead,,,.

GUY:
The transit has sort of taken over me life.

NARRATOR:
He-engineering almost every part of his van,

Aye, but it's what I like, innit?
It's wrecking stuff in your shed.

NARRATOR:
Learning the 12.9 mile circuit

and every one of its hundred plus
bends by heart”.

GUY:
Oh, that's... like that?

Not like that.

HE LAUGHS

NARRATOR: Using every trick In the book
to give him the edge.

And she says, "Yeah, that were
the co-ordination from me tid welding."

So I thought,
"Oh, yeah, I need a bit of that."

NARRATOR:
And then heading to Germany to prove

he owns the world's best transit...

pushing him and his van
to the absolute limit,”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, stop, stop!

NARRATOR:
”and possibly beyond,

DAN:
There's flames at the back of the car!

NARRATOR:
Straight after the Nevada road race

before his van had even left America

Guy saw an opportunity to bag
the world speed record for a transit van

at the home of speed,,,

the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

GUY: The van was only at Ely,
which was a couple... three hours away.

Got the van up there and I thought,
"Oh, yeah, yeah, we'll just...

foot to the boards, go down there,
break the record.

Job's a peach, all the way home."

NARRATOR:
For over 100 years

Bonneville has been the place
to come to break world speed records.

Hundreds have been set and broken here.

Now Guy's keen to join the roll call
of salt flat record holders.

Helping Guy are motorsport engineer,
Brian Schaefer

and data technician, James Scott.

Their target...

for Guy to hit a top speed
on the salt of 177 miles per hour,

The current record holder is Super Van II
and he did it in 1984, so that's 32 year ago.

The record was set using
a 3.9 litre Cosworth V8

making 590 horsepower, so that's going some.

And it looks like a transit van
but it's not a transit van.

It was seven-tenths size

with a mid-mounted engine,
and a fiberglass shell.

NARRATOR:
While everyone agrees

that Super Van H is the vehicle
that holds the record

there is some dispute as to
what that record is.

Some people say the record
is 174 miles an hour.

Some people say it was Martin Brundle
down Hangar Straight

that did 176 miles per hour.

Soto be sure, we need to do 177 miles
per hour. We'll be right.

JAMES:
So, we've got quite a lot of salt today.

We've got a long stretch
where we've got five mile to run on.

Timing gate right at the end
so we'll know our final speed there.

NARRATOR: Guy's first run
will be at relatively low speed,

GUY:
That us?

Looking forward to it.

Come on then, give me a helmet.

NARRATOR:
Called a shake-down

it's used to ensure
the van is working correctly

and also allow Guy to assess
how the van behaves on this new surface,

ENGINE STARTS

NARRATOR:
As Guy reaches 140 miles per hour

it's apparent that the van is behaving
very differently.

GUY: It didn't feel that stable.
Just felt really sort of nervous on the salt.

It just felt to be floating on the top of it.

NARRATOR: The van's tyres
are designed to work on tarmac,

When looked at In close-up,
tarmac has a rough surface.

The rubber tyres of a car fold around this

and that's what allows them
to grip a road so we“,

The larger the contact area, the more grip,.

While the surface of the satt flats looks
similarly rough in close-up

it's a lot more brittle and is covered
with a layer of loose granular dust,

Guy's relatively wide road tyres
can't out through the dusty, brittle surface

preventing them from gaining sufficient grip
to use all the van's power,

To overcome this, purpose-built
salt flat racers don't have wide tyres,

GUY:
Bonneville racers have real thin tyres

so the tyre digs through the salt,
the loose salt, and gets to the hard stuff.

And that's where the traction comes from,
that's where you get your traction.

GUY: She's a bit lively.
- MAN LAUGHS

GUY:
But you wouldn't think, would you?

You're not, like...

but you... you're... you're playing with it.

NARRATOR:
As changing the van's tyres is not an option

the team decide
their only throw of the dice

is to find more power,

New data for the engine's
electronic control system

known as an engine map

is emailed over from the factory in England
and loaded into the van.

These boys haven't pushed
this engine that far yet

so we're going into the unknown,
and she might chuck a rod out.

Oh, well, we're here for one reason,
aren't we?

We're here to go fast.

NARRATOR:
To eke out every extra mile per hour he can

Guy reduces a bit of the drag on his van
by removing the lip from the rear wing,.

R's amt un...

it's a bit unstable, so I'm gonna put me,
um... me HANS device on.

Just in case.

It's to stop me, um...
head falling off me body.

Y-y-your shoulder straps go...

go there, and then...

you see?

Better safe than sorry.

HE CHUCKLES
I don't wanna lose me head.

What am I gonna do?

HE LAUGHS

Go on, let's give it a go.

NARRATOR:
At the end of his five-mile run

Guy flies through the timing gate,.

So, does he now own
the world's fastest transit van?

Now then, Alan, are you there?

NARRATOR:
Did he reach 177 miles per hour?

MAN ON RAND:
Timing stand here.

It's Guy and James here,
what was the speed of the van, mate?

What was the top speed of it?

MAN ON RAND:
Top speed, 163,175 miles per hour.

1-6-3 point 1-7-5,.

Hey, thanks very much, mate, cheers.

Cheers.

What do you think?

MAN ON RAND:
Thank you, nice, good”. Nice job,

GUY:
163.175.

Not what we wanted, is it?
- No.

Hmm.

It... it's gotta be the salt, hasn't it?

Gotta be the... the width of the tyres
on the salt.

It is, yeah. I mean, tarmac, we're alright.
You know, it'll go quicker.

It's just the only we'll change
is what we're running on.

GUY:
Yeah. Yeah, which is salt, not tarmac.

GUY: I suppose you could say
it's fastest van on the salt.

You could say that, couldn't you?

You could say that.
We weren't here for that, really.

We just wanted to be
the fastest outright van.

Oh, well, back to the drawing board.

NARRATOR:
Guy Martin has built a very fast van

but it's yet to win anything,.

It failed to win
the Nevada Open Road Challenge

and it failed to set a new transit van
speed record at Bonneville.

Now, Guy wants to totally re-engineer the van

not only to make another attempt
at the speed record

but also to break the van lap record
at the legendary NUrburgring,

However, since Guy and his van
returned from America

life's been a bit busy,

GUY:
Had a baby, moved house

started a new job, been to China...

been to Russia for a month,
built a World War I tank

went racing for Honda for a year,
which I shouldn't really have done.

Yeah, did that.
That was last year, weren't it? 2017.

Went endurance racing,
classic endurance racing.

Me and a few mates did that.

Went spannering for Williams at Spa...

been on holiday.

Sharon says that weren't a holiday,
I said it was an holiday.

We managed three days in Monkey World.

NARRATOR:
Finally, in April this year

Guy decided the van project
couldn't wait any longer.

It had come back from America,
I didn't have room for it

so it went to a museum in Scotland,
it'd been there for a year.

And then I thought, I'll get it back,
muck about with it a bit

so I planned this track day at Cadwell
with all the original build crew.

Dan and Paul from Crazy Horse,
James from Radical

and it was great, great to meet everyone
cos they're bloody knowledgeable buggers.

NARRATOR:
The plan [5 to put in a few laps

to see how a van built purely
for straight line speed

handles round corners.

JAMES:
Is it as we packed it up

in the States?
- GUY: Yeah.

There's your suitcase in here still, Dan.

NARRATOR:
First job, though, is to see if it'll start,.

Right, shall we try that?

Yeah?
- ENGINE STUTTERS

ENGINE ROARS
- Oh.

DAN:
Sounds good to me.

GUY:
Yeah, it goes a treat.

We might need some more petrol, though.

That's the trick,
and it started straight away.

Yeah, what are we looking like, boss?

We look fine, yeah,
all sensors still reading.

Engine's still running nice.
- GUY: Yeah.

JAMES: So we should be good to go,
test it round the track and...

and see how it pulls.
- GUY: Yeah, spot on.

NARRATOR:
Guy and Dan head out onto the circuit,

GUY: I had to put an hair net on
because whoever wears the helmet next

they might catch summat off me hair.

I wouldn't dare,
you might catch foot and mouth.

HE CHUCKLES

NARRATOR:
This will be the first time

the van has ever been driven
on a proper race track.

As well as only being
a few miles from Guy's house

Cadwe/I Park Is the ideal test circuit
for the project

because it has lots of elevation changes

wooded sections...

and fast bends

earning its nickname ”the Mini Niirburgring”,

GUY: Drove it round Cadwell
and it was better than I thought.

It... it weren't great.

It weren't great, I mean,
gear box weren't very good.

GEARS CRUNCH

Oh...

GUY: Massive weight,
at times like it was gonna be a ship at sea.

GUY LAUGHS

GUY: You've got that big body roll
of getting it to the car

when you've got it committed, it's alright.

GUY:
We'll be getting a bit wild, innit?

GUY LAUGHS

AM there for using!

TYRES SQUEAL

THEY LAUGH

I was asking for that, weren't I?

GUY:
We didn't do a fantastic lap time.

What did we do?
About a one minute 50-something,

But it was alright.

It was alright.

NARRATOR:
Next, the team sit down to make a plan

and they're joined by aero expert
Rob Rowseu from Wirth Engineering,

first, they all watch the lap record
Guy wants to beat,

Bloody hell! He looks very professional,
doesn't he?

NARRATOR:
It was set in 2013

by Nurburgring expert, Dale Lamas

in a modified Volkswagen 75 van,

GUY:
He ain't backing off a lot for that, is he?

He's fairly committed to the job!

NARRATOR:
Dale's record time

which Guy will need to beat,
is nine minutes and 57 seconds.

Yeah, so go on. So, right, obviously,
we wanna break the NUrburgring record.

He does know where he's going, though,
don't he?

That's not gonna be easy, is it?

NARRATOR:
One lap of the Infamous Niirburgr/ng

is almost 13 miles long

with 100 plus different corners,

GUY: Right, so where are we starting?
Starting here.

ROB:
Start... the actual start-finish line

is down there.
- GUY: Oh, right.

NARRATOR: Guy will have to learn
every turn, bump and line by heart,

GUY:
What did it take me to learn the TT course?

Three years.

NARRATOR:
So, could Guy bag both the van lap record

and the outright transit speed record

in the same run around the Nfirburgring?

This is only two kilometre straight, but...

you've got a lot of power, I mean...
- GUY: More power.

I think it'd be definitely worth

attempting it there.
- GUY: Yeah?

DAN: I mean, you might run out of road
but it's a nice bit of smooth tarmac

on a race track.
- GUY: Mm-hm.

NARRATOR:
Guy's van won't be struggling for power

which is great
for the straight line speed record.

GUY: You reckon it's about 700 horsepower?
- ROB: About 700, yeah.

NARRATOR: But for the lap record,
It needs to go on a diet,

It is an heavy old pig, isn't it?
What is it, 2,200 kilograms?

The windows could be changed for plastic.

NARRATOR:
it doesn't accelerate consistently,”

The gearbox is terrible.
Well, we knew that, didn't we?

DAN: We knew the gearbox was terrible.
- We knew that.

NARRATOR:
”and it doesn't handle we" around comers.

The quicker you can go round the corners,
the quicker you come out the exit

the quicker you're going down the straight.
- GUY: Yeah.

NARRATOR: After ah hour or so,
the team think they've worked out

how to build a van capable
of breaking both records.

However, this time, how the van gets bum
is going to be a bit different,

in America, Guy got frustrated,

As the driver, he had to stay in Las Vegas

while all the last minute work
on the van was done by other people,

Hello?

GUY: I'm just jealous of Dan,
getting stuck in and doing the job.

But I want me cake and I wanna eat it,
because I wanna drive it as well.

NARRATOR:
This time,.,

he wants the van to be all his own work.

I decided, yeah, I wanna build it, so...

I'm doing all the work.
I've got a couple of mates.

Plenty of cups of tea.

It's happening, it's happening. Great.

NARRATOR: With girlfriend Sharon
acting as camera operator

Guy gets stuck in and he has an idea,.

You know what would be it?
Just put the engine in the back.

Put the engine in the back, yeah.

This isn't good for you
cos this is gonna be more time in the shed.

The basic engine will just move in a lump
six foot back

like you see here.

SHARON: What, what have I done?
I've just zoomed!

Oh, Christ, you're really big on the screen!

How do I go out?
How do I zoom out?

You got it?
- SHARON: Oh, ah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Put bracket under the chassis,
cut the floor out, um...

All that handbrake stuff
can be sorted out later.

The biggest thing is gonna be
getting the pipe work to the front.

Yeah, but I'm not shy of a challenge, am I?

SHARON: No.
- You'll have to keep the teas coming.

SHARON: Great.
- Them dogs are falling out.

Why them dogs falling out?

Hey, go on, hey, hey. Nige! Nigel

SHARON CHUCKLES
- Steve! Nigel

No!
- DOGS WHINE

GUY:
They listen to the boss, don't they, eh?

SHARON: Come on, back to the van.
- GUY: They listen to the boss.

GUY:
When we've got the engine in the back

the centre of mass
is gonna be in the middle of the van

rather than hung over the front axle.

It's gonna be fair more controllable

it gives us a better gearbox option,
loads more space

we can get that van to its potential.

GUY:
Turn the van round, take the back doors off.

SHARON: Is this a stupid question?
- Go on.

How you gonna turn the van around
now there's no engine in it now?

You're gonna shove it.
- SHARON: Oh.

SHARON:
God, I'm such a lucky girl!

NARRATOR:
Having turned the van around

next job is to cut out the floor
where the engine will fit

and for that,
Guy's recruited a couple of mates,

Tim Grey and Uncle Rodders,

Uncle Rodders, who's not me uncle

been me Uncle Rodders for...
Oh, since I remember.

Real good blacksmith, shoes horses,
but retired now, so any job that I've got on

any project, he always wants to be,
"What you doing, what you doing?"

Tim Grey, he's a farmer, really.
He used to build muck Spreaders.

He's a proper yacker, proper yacker
and he just... nuts and bolts

bit of a tape measure, cup of tea.
He's a good, good bloke, good bloke.

NARRATOR:
It's no coincidence

that most purpose-bum racing cars
and high-end sports cars

are mid-engined,

GUY:
Now we're in, now, aren't we?

NARRATOR: Moving the engine from the front
to the centre of the van

should Improve Its performance
In a number of ways.

It will mean the van's weight is more evenly
distributed across all four wheels

improving the van's balance
when cornering or braking,

It puts more weight over the rear axle,
and because Guy's van is rear-wheel drive

that should help improve power delivery
and acceleration,

And it can lower the van's centre of gravity,
because the engine can be mounted lower down

making the whole vehicle more stable,

Great to see it now with the floor cut out,
the engine sat in.

There's nothing that's happened today to say,
"Well, this can't happen," cos it can.

Obviously, it isn't gonna be easy, is it?
Of course it's not gonna be easy.

If it was easy, someone would've done it
by now and they haven't done it, have they?

It's in me shed, we're making stuff,
that's what I do, that's what I do.

That's what I do, it's great.

SHARON:
Steve, have you got fleas?

NARRATOR: Guy Martin is building what he
wants to be the world's fastest transit van.

Well, the transit has sort of
taken over me life.

GUY:
Go film me welding on the manifold.

Go film me welding on the manifold.

SHARON WHISPERS:
What's a manifold?

SHE LAUGHS
Steve, what's a manifold?

NARRATOR: When it's finished,
he wants it to be the fastest transit ever

in a straight line,

But even more challenging,,,.

He also wants it to be the fastest van ever
around this place”.

The Niirburgring, Nordschleife,

At 129 miles long, with over 100 corners

very time run-off,
and no forgiving Armco everywhere

it's the most challenging, dangerous
and addictive

motor racing circuit in the world,.

There is simply nowhere else

quite like the Nurburgring,.

In its illustrious 90-year history

the track's claimed the lives of many
who have tried to master it,

Some estimates put the number of fatalities
at well over 200,

tt's a gruemng and severe challenge
for any car

and that's why the world's reading
manufacturers pay millions to come here

and push their prototypes to the limit,.

And it's a mecca for car fans

because every weekday evening
and on some weekends

the track becomes a one-way to" road,.

Once you've paid the to",
you can drive it in whatever you want,”

as fast as you want,

GUY: How long you been coming
to the Nfirburgring then?

I come here from '87.

Did you move over here because of the track?
- Yeah.

How long have you lived here?
- Two years.

Two years now. No regrets?

No, nothing.

I mean, I've done it year on year.
- GUY: Right.

There's nothing compares to it.

Been coming here for 16 years.
- 16 years? Bloody hell!

MAN: If you're local, it's like, yeah,
get up in the morning, seven o'clock.

Get the car ready, 7:30. On the track, eight.

Fair play, 20 years of it?
- Yeah.

Addicted to the NUrburgring, yeah?

When you live here,
there's no other chance.

This is the mecca for motorsport.

WOMAN:
There's something here that pulls you back.

MAN: There's no other track as long as this,
or has as many corners, or has the elevation.

When you come here, it's just a totally
different place than you ever imagined.

I just love it. Yeah, I love it down here.

It's unique.

NARRATOR: With three months left
before his record attempts

Guy's driven to Germany
in his other transit van

to reccie the Nordschleife.

And he's arranged to meet up with the man
whose lap record he intends to beat,

Now then, Dale.
- Ey up, stranger?

What's happening, mate, you alright?
- Yeah, alright. Alright, mate.

Dale Lomas, I've known him from years ago.
He got infected by the Nfirburgring bug.

DALE: Can see Wehrseifen hairpin
from the kitchen window.

I've been riding and driving
and instructing here

cracking on for 20 years.

I want to learn, I'm just gonna...
cos you're the man that holds the record.

Yeah, I'm just gonna...

milk you for information.
- Milk me for--

Yeah, yeah, get as much information
out of you as I can.

Just his course knowledge.

Dale Lomas' course knowledge
is bloody second to none.

Every bump of the course.

He reckons he's done
20-odd thousand laps round it.

GUY:
What's Project 8 then? What's that?

I had the great pleasure to kind of say,
"Oh, yeah, this is a four-door Jaguar.

Please hop in."

So, here we go.

And he's like, "Is this fast then?"
I'm like, "Oh, yeah."

NARRATOR: The Jaguar Project 8
is the fastest overproduction four-door

around the Nurburgring,.

GUY:
How fast are we going now?

Nearly 160.

Little jump, down to fifth, turn it in,
back on the gas.

Six hundred horsepower and all-wheel drive

and we're flying down the hill,
way over 100 miles an hour

into the dip and I just get the moment
to have a quick look

and see how Guy's doing,
and I could see his eyes widen slightly.

HE LAUGHS
- ENGINE ROARS

GUY:
It moves.

She moves, she flies.

A lot faster than what you would think,
a lot faster than what it looks.

You know what you're doing, don't you?
I can see this.

HE LAUGHS

I should by now. If I was driving a forklift
20,000 times round the warehouse

I'll be pretty deft at that as well,
you know?

GUY: You're flat out now.
- DALE: Yeah, we're flat now.

It's all there for using, I suppose, innit?
- It's all there.

Little jump there.

Little jump in the middle of Stefan-Ballot.

I see this as a calibration run,
showing him how fast 600 horsepower is

so that he's got an idea in his head

what's gonna be expected of him
when push comes to shove.

GUY: That's a lot quicker than I thought.
- DALE: Yeah.

That's a lot quicker than I thought.
I'm not getting round there 'owt like that.

DALE: It's about being comfortable
and having faith.

DALE (V0): He's got a big personal challenge
ahead of him.

He's got a 13 mile international standard
Grand Prix circuit to learn.

They've never built a circuit like this again

because nobody would,
cos it's too much to learn

and he's got to nail it,
cos there's so much riding on it now.

GUY: I've got a sweat on.
- DALE LAUGHS

Change everywhere...

Yeah, that's been bloody brilliant,
to be honest.

Yeah.

NARRATOR:
Next, Dale and Guy set off

on a slightly slower look around the track,.

GUY: Yeah, we went on the bikes,
and had a look round and about the track.

DALE: I wanted to show him
the technical trickiness of the track.

DALE:
Good view, innit?

GUY: Yeah, what a place, hey?
- DALE: It's mega.

DALE:
So this, Brfinnchen 2, is decreasing radius

and the reason it's decreasing radius
is you have to think back

to the days when they started
building this track.

GUY: Go on.
- DALE: 1925 to 1927.

Back in the day

they were just convincing people that maybe,
possibly they could race vehicles

in a controlled environment
instead of round the town square

on a Sunday morning.
- GUY: Yeah, yeah, right.

DALE:
So, it was a big thing.

But they decide it's gotta be tough,
and it's gotta be tricky.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, so decreasing radius corners

there's only one real trick to it,
and the Nfirburgring's full of this

late turn in, late apex.
- Yeah.

NARRATOR: The apex of a corner
is usually Its geometric centre,

When driving, hitting the apex allows you
to take the straightest line

and maintain the highest speed,

A corner with a decreasing radius,
which tightens the more you go around it

like so many at the Nurburgring

has the apex further around the bend,.

So, to maintain the highest speed,
you need to tum in a lot later.

Remember, if you turn in too early
and you hit that apex

that you think is the apex in your mind...
- You'll knacker the exit of the corner.

The track's going that way,
and you're going that way.

Yeah.
- That's the sub-optimal solution

to the corner, isn't it?
- Sub-optimal solution! Right, alright.

NARRATOR:
The Niirburgr/ng staged Its first car race

on 19th of June, 1927.

It was won by German driving legend
Rudolf Caracciola

in car number one,
a Mercedes Benz Model S,

Right from the start

the Nordschleh'e was opened every evening
for members of the public to drive it,

What's now become known
as a “touristenfahrten”.

GUY:
So, what's this then, mate?

DALE:
Welcome to BrUnnchen, AKA YouTube Corner.

Perfect view of one, two, three corners...
- GUY: Yeah.

DALE:
...and everybody's got a smart phone.

So, if you do make a mistake...
- GUY LAUGHS

and you make it here.
- GUY: The world's gonna see it, yeah.

DALE: It'll be up in front of the whole world
within ten seconds of you doing it.

This is a daily occurrence, obviously.

Boys crashing every day,
there's boys into the barrier every day?

Track's open seven days a week,
there's boys crashing seven days a week.

That's just the way it is, isn't it?
- Right, right.

DALE:
We're standing looking at one tiny section

of the whole Nordschleife.
- Yeah, yeah.

And it's coming in over the right...
- Yeah.

DALE: Like 100 foot higher than this bit.
- Yeah.

DALE: And in the whole lap of the NUrburgring
you're gonna go down 1000 feet

to Breidscheid Bridge,
you're gonna come up 1,000 feet

in a couple of kilometres.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's gonna be hammering every kind of thermal
aspect of the engine, gear box and diff.

You've gotta build something
that's proper, mate.

GUY:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

NARRATOR: In 1951, the Nflrburgring
staged Its first Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Drivers complained repeatedly that the track
was too dangerous for Formula 1,

And after winning the 1968 Grand Prix
in driving rain and fog

Jackie Stewart famously nicknamed it
"The Green Hell“,

DALE: This is not public access.
- GUY: Right.

DALE:
This is special permission only, so...

NARRATOR: Data's intimate track knowledge
means he can take Guy

to the exact point where this track's
relationship

with Formula 1 ended in 1976.

DALE: Up there is Lauda Links.
- GUY: Yeah, yeah.

So, Lauda Links stands for everything
deep and murky

about the NUrburgring Nordschleife history.

GUY: Go on.
- DALE: 1976.

Niki Lauda,
he'd had reservations about the NUrburgring

for a couple of years.
- Mm-hm.

DALE: Niki Lauda's also driving force
of the F1 Driver Safety Council.

GUY: OK.
- The night before the race

Niki's pushing hard
that they should vote not to race.

GUY: OK.
- This place was hard to get ambulances

and response crews to...
- GUY: Yeah.

Was difficult to marshal safely

and was still ridiculously dangerous

with no run-off,
and massive potential for loss of life.

And he lost.
- Right.

The teams put the pressure on the drivers
to not give up.

GUY: Yeah.
- So, they raced.

Like the man he was,
Lauda took that result on the chin

and raced his heart out the next day.
- GUY: Yeah.

DALE:
So, he comes into here, round that left

he went into the fence on the outside there

just in front of us, and landed
in a fiery heap just here.

GUY:
Right, OK. OK.

DALE:
And it's absolutely chilling stuff.

Back then, the first guys that were on scene
in a fire proof suit were...

GUY: Yeah, the drivers.
- The drivers.

GUY:
Bloody hell, right.

How long was it before
the fellow drivers got him out the car?

DALE: Couple of minutes
before they had him out properly.

GUY:
Oct...

Massive facial burns, isn't it?
- DALE: Massive facial burns.

The end result was
Nfirburgring never saw an F1 race again.

GUY:
Right, so that was the nail

in the coffin then?
- That was it.

He proved his point
by having this massive crash.

Right, OK.
- I'm pretty sure it's not the way

Niki wanted to prove his point, but...
- No, no.

DALE:
The point was made.

GUY: Right, and Formula1
have never been back here since?

DALE: Yeah.
- OK.

NARRATOR:
Miraculously, Niki Lauda survived

and was racing again
before the end of the season,

But the Nordschteife remains
one of the most dangerous circuits on Earth,

TYRES SCREECH
- DRIVER: Oh!

Jesus Christ!

MAN: Better make sure he's alright.
- DRIVER: Yeah.

NARRATOR: To get his first hands-on
experience of driving this perilous track

Guy hooks up with another ring legend,.

Right, um, got Andy Carlisle.

Motorbike lap record holder
at the NUrburgring

and you're gonna give me a bit of advice,
aren't you, mate?

Oh, come on, you don't need much advice,
do you?

You've got more tin cups than I have.

GUY LAUGHS

NARRATOR: Together they head off
for a couple of "touristsnfahrten" laps

in Guy's other transit van,.

ANDY: Look at the white sign,
turn at the white sign and run the curbs.

Run 'em, greedy, greedy.

Greedier than that, that's a nibble.
- Is that right?

Yeah, that's a... I should be out the track.

He looks at things in the same way
as what Dale does

but puts it over in a different way.

ANDY: As a rule of thumb,
all the sections have got summat in them.

There's a risk, a jump, a bump...

There's summat, right?
- Yeah, yeah.

So if you haven't found it,
you're either not going fast enough

or you haven't paid attention.
- Yeah.

ANDY:
And as you go faster

new stuff will come out the floor
and find you.

GUY:
It's good just to hear a...

another man's version of the same events.

NARRATOR: To stand any chance
of breaking the transit van speed record

Guy will need to be carrying
as much speed as possible

out of the final corner
before the two kilometre straight.

Are we... are we apexing it

or we're not apexing?
- Yeah, we are. Super wide.

Number...
- Yeah, 186, don't commit into it until...

And then it's number, and have a look
for when the colour changes

goes red, and somewhere in there,
there'll be a strong throttle on point.

Yeah.
- And then work her backwards

until it's... you've run out of grip.
- Yeah.

GUY: It's good that I can go back now,
let all that information sink in.

And we need to get to the point
where the van is the limiting factor

cos at the moment,
I am the weak link in the chain.

NARRATOR: With two months left
before his record attempts

the complete rebuild of his van
is we" on schedule.

Yeah, we're on top of it

if not slightly ahead, but you know,
you never think that.

Got Shazza. Shazza, if she's not filming
young 'un and the dogs

she's on the case, yeah,
my own personal camera operator.

SHARON: The only reason I'm looking at this
is because it has "Quaife" on it.

So I know that that's the gearbox.

I love it. It's just fannying about
in your shed, innit?

Making stuff in your shed, I love it.

NARRATOR: Building a blistering/y fast van
[5 only half the battle for Guy,

if he stands any chance of success

he'“ need to know every twist, turn
and elevation change

of the 129 mite Narburgring circuit
by heart,

That's a treat, hey?

HE LAUGHS

NARRATOR: So, he intends to spend
half an hour every day

driving and learning the track

using a state of the art
driving simulator rig.

I mean, this is far better than playing it

with a conventional controller
cos if the steering wheel pushes back at you

it does give you a fairly real sensation.

GUY (V0): Y'know, and I'm not having
to put petrol in it

I'm not having to put tyres on it.

It sort of teaches you not to be scared...

cos you can be brave, you see?

You don't hurt yourself.
It don't cost you any... any damage.

You know, cos it's not your car.

NARRATOR: The lap record Guy wants to beat
[5 nine minutes and 57 seconds.

A big ask in a van

but nowhere near the fastest lap of all time,

GUY: A couple of weeks
after we left the NUrburgring

yeah, Porsche have been and set
a new outright lap record

just short of a minute off
the existing lap record.

What was that? Six...? 6.11.

And the new record's 5.19, in the 919 Porsche

which is a weapon of a thing.

But if you watch that, I mean, you're gonna
put it on the programme, aren't ya?

Jeez, man, that is fast.

If we could do a minute off, I would be...

I... I'm just trying to say,
what could I say that it's gonna be?

I'd be... I could say I'd be tickled pink.

NARRATOR: To further Improve his chances
of smashing both speed records

Guy's hired a room
at a local Grimsby community centre

for a special training session,

We're on the Nunny.

That's like the bloody roughest estate
in Grimsby.

I was born here on the, yeah,
the maternity hospital.

The Grimsby Maternity Hospital
was on the Nunny.

NARRATOR:
He '5 meeting up here with Dr Sheryl/e Calder,

I'm a sports scientist and performance coach

and I work mainly with elite athletes
all over the world.

NARRATOR: Dr Sheryl/e works with many
of the world's leading professional

and Olympic athletes,
and has flown in from South Africa

specifically to work with Guy,.

In very layman, simple terms,
I work on how you take information in.

So, eyes fit, how quickly your eyes see,
take information in

recognising, pick up cues.

How do you know it's not fit?

Have you trained it before?
- Never.

OK, then it's not fit.
- Never heard of anything like this.

Then it's not fit, so I'm gonna do one test,
it's to see how quickly

your eye moves from one spot to another.

You need to move from that number

to the top number, etc, etc

till you get to the bottom.
- OK.

Get your eyes fit?

You ready to go?
- Yep.

Go.
- Two, one...

GUY (V0): It's alright your eyes seeing,
but your brain's gotta translate

what your eyes see

and then translate that
into movement at your limbs.

In this case, it's, um...

pressing throttle, pressing brake,
turning the steering wheel.

Fifty-nine seconds, you did it in.
- OK.

He... he almost did it in double
the time expected, so really slow.

And you had seven mistakes.
- Seven mistakes?

No, I was crap, weren't I? I was crap.
- But the exciting thing is

we're gonna train that ability.

We're gonna give you a training programme
to do and we're gonna make you better.

What we've discovered over time
is you can train people

to make more effective decisions
under pressure.

It's the ability to recognise

something early which means
you've got more time to make a decision.

NARRATOR: By studying the Nflrburgring
on videos and on a simulator

Dr Sheryfle has designed
a training programme for Guy,

SHERYLLE:
Visual cue...

Orange mark, turning.
- GUY: Yeah.

So you really need to scan
and make a quick decision.

NARRATOR: It should help him make
more effective decisions under pressure

when he's making his record bids,

Do you know this track, lass?
How do you know all this?

Because I've gone round it.

Bloody hell.
- Quite a few times.

She has put some effort in.

NARRATOR:
Next, she gets Guy working

and runs him through the bespoke exercises
she wants him to use

over the next three months.

SHERYLLE: Find that object...
- GUY: Yeah.

And follow it.
Every time it changes, you count.

SHERYLLE: Got it?
- No.

SHERYLLE: Shall I restart it for you?
- Yeah.

Bloody hell, they're moving.

Cos it was a bit of a challenge
and I thought, "Oh, right, this isn't easy."

Anything that's a bit of a challenge,
I dig me heels in.

"Oh, right, this isn't easy.
This isn't easy, I like this."

GUY: 19.
- SHERYLLE: OK.

Here we go, 24.

Whoops!
- OK.

I missed a few then, yeah.
- But tough, hey?

Yeah.
- Tough.

Yeah, but we kept repeating it and I thought,
"Oh yeah, I've got sort of...

not great, but I did get better,
now I've got the gist of it."

Looks like 100 percent to me.
- Yeah, 100 %.

Seven out of seven, really cool. Well done.

And then we identified his ability
to stay focused is... is not good.

If your concentration waivers

you're not gonna be seeing--
- Which it is.

What you should be seeing.

That could be dangerous on that track.

NARRATOR:
Dr Sheryl/e's theory [5 that through training

we can improve our ability to react
to our environment

meaning our eyes detect more detail

and our brain processes how to react
much, much faster.

When you see someone throw you a ban

your natural first reaction
is to move your hand up to catch it.

Then use your eyes to try
and pinpoint its trajectory

process that information

and adjust the position of your hand
to try and make the catch.

Dr Sheryfle's training teaches you
to change your order of reaction

so when you initially see the baii thrown

your eyes immediately pinpoint its trajectory

and your brain processes
that information faster,

Then when your hand goes up for a catch,
it is reacting to precise information

and is much more likely to make
a very clean catch.

For Guy, when he's driving the Nflrburgring
at massive speeds

the ability to see, process and react
much faster and more precisely

to everything will be crucial
to a quick time.

GUY:
I mean, me eyes, me brain and me limbs

is all gonna work a bit more efficiently.

And she says, yeah, that were
the coordination from me tid welding.

So I thought,
"Oh, yeah, I need a bit of that."

SHERYLLE:
You need to respond to that basketball...

Right, OK.
- As soon as you see it on the screen.

Go on.
- There we go, a little bit quicker.

NARRATOR:
F1 driver, Va/tter/ Bottas

has been using Dr Sheryfle's
training programmes for a while.

Yours was 0.64, Valtteri is 0.11.

I always ask Valtteri,
"How do we impact your performance?"

And the one thing he did say is that...

when he does eye gym,
everything slows down for him.

And I think in Formula 1,
if you can slow things down

it's... it's quite an advantage.

Guy was fantastic, yeah,
he embraced what we did.

He was excited to do the training

and we kind of had to get him off at the end
and say, you know

"You've done enough for the day."

GUY:
You can only have ten minutes a day now.

I've got to the point where they'll only give
you ten minutes to play a day

so I've had all me ten minutes now.

We've explained to him how to do it,
and, um, he needs to get fit.

And I do genuinely believe it will help

me breaking this lap record.

NARRATOR: Wit/7 two months left
before Guy's double record attempt

his van spends a couple of weeks
at Pro Alloy near Cambridge

having a bespoke cooling system fitted,

When he gets it home,
Guy's chuffed to bits with what they've done,

GUY: Have a look at it, have a look at it.
Can you see?

You see that?

How trick's that?

NARRATOR:
With a mountain of work still to do

Guy's van is a tong way away
from being ready to travel to Germany,

It's taking shape, it is taking shape.

The plan is... yeah.

End of the month,
sort of fire up end of the month.

That'll be, yeah, that'll be good.
That'll be good.

NARRATOR:
And Guy still has to prepare himself

for driving
the world's most demanding circuit.

So, training continues
on Dr Sheryue's eye gym,

He puts in a lot more laps on his simulator

and travels back to Germany to put in
his first fast laps around the NUrburgring,

GUY: Got here for about one or two o'clock,
did five laps on the motorbikes.

To do it on a bike was great
because that's what I do.

I didn't have to think
about riding a motorbike at all

because that's what I've done
since I was a kid.

Yeah, just, yeah, autopilot,
just taking in the circuit.

Yeah, riding the bike,
I didn't have to think about that.

Really enjoyed it.

Had me heated grips on,
had me heated seat on, it was mega.

It was mega.

Made me realise how I miss riding
me motorbike, I bloody loved it.

NARRATOR:
Back in Lincolnshire

and with just one month before
his double record shot,”

Oil pressure is the main number, innit?

NARRATOR:
Guy's finally ready to start up his van

for the first time since the rebuild began,

ENGINE STARTS

ENGINE REVS
- INDISTINCT CHATTER

NARRATOR: Helped by his mate Jez,
and 11-year-old nephew Louis

Guy gets the van on his rolling road

to test the engine, gearbox
and new rear axle assembly at high revs,

First time now, so... see what happens!

JEZ:
Go on, mate, yeah. Go, go.

ENGINE WHIRS

NARRATOR:
It's sounding good.

But the next test will be the crucial one

when Guy takes his van back
to the Cadwe" Park circuit

for the first time in half a year,.

I love a challenge, love a challenge.

Yeah, but this is a big 'un,
this is a big 'un.

Yeah, getting the bloody van done.

GUY:
How's she looking, boss?

NARRATOR:
There are just 12 days left

before Guy Martin attempts
to set a new lap record for a van

at the legendary Niirburgring in Germany,.

And at the same time,
set a new world speed record

for a transit van along the Circuit's
two kilometre straight,

He spent six months rebuilding
his favourite transit van

ready for his double record shot,.

He's moved the 35 litre
twin turbo eco boost engine

to make his van mid-engined,.

He's fitted a Quaife racing gearbox
complete with paddle shifters.

He's upgraded
the van's rear suspension and brakes

fitted a state-of-the-art
charge cooling system

and ripped out everything
that might added unwanted weight,

Now, he's returned
to the Cadwe" Park circuit

to drive it in anger for the very first time,

GUY:
Done a bit of dyno time.

Other than that, that's all it's done.

Today, the first time
the van's been driven in anger, really.

Just to see what it's gonna do.

That's me being optimistic...

putting a tow hitch in the front
in case we need towing!

GUY LAUGHS

NARRATOR: Guy's testing his van
during an open track day.

GUY: You just rock up, pay your money,
show your car license

go do your laps round the track.
Bloody great.

NARRATOR With less than two weeks left
before his record attempts

any major problems here

could end the project
before the van '5 even seen Germany.

GUY (V0): Went out in the first stint
to go and do three laps.

R's gone mm 3 km of a monk and a with
DOWN“ firefight.

"What just fell? Is that a bit vibrating?"

And I just shut off, and I come straight in.

Came in, it had blew a CV boot off.

NARRATOR:
A CV boot protects a CV

or "Constant Velocity Joint"

which Is an intricate bail and socket joint

connecting the drive shaft
to the wheels atone end

and the gearbox at the other,.

Its job is to allow for the up-and-down
motion of the suspension,

The joints are filled with a special
lubricating grease

that is sealed tight
within the rubber CV boots.

We know what caused that,
cos I was being too... I put too much grease.

It's that near the silencer,
that much heat in there

the grease has boiled, giving the gas off,
blown the boot off, so we've realised that.

That one, that one, that one,
then that one.

DRILL WHIRS
- Whoa!

And then from then on,
we've not had any bother, really, have we?

NARRATOR:
After fitting the new CV joint

Guy heads back out on track,.

But as he gets faster,
it's clear the front brakes are struggling,

GUY: It can get stopped,
but it's blocking on, on the front.

Them callipers, a bit on the salt.

They had a right pasting
when they was here the last time.

GUY LAUGHS
- So we'll sort that out.

NARRATOR: The van's first run is judged
to be a qualified success.

None of us know what we're doing really.

And we've just sort of come at it and it's...
and it's all bloody worked!

Great day.

NARRATOR:
But there's always more work to be done.

Front brakes, painting, side skirts...

paint the wheels...
get some decent tyres for the rear.

Whatever, that van's good enough
to do the record.

If that van can't do the record,
I want sacking.

I want sacking.

NARRATOR:
With the van nearing readiness

Guy's decided he's still the weak link

so he's back at the Nurburgring again

this time to put in
as many fast laps as he can

to cement his track knowledge
learned on the simulator.

And it's a beautiful day
for learning the ring.

GUY: It's alright playing them
computer games, but there's nothing...

nothing like the real thing.

Me socks, mate, they are clean.

Yeah, Suzuki Swift.
It's like a little go-kart.

You can murder 'em
and they don't give any grief.

So it was great, it's great.

Just gave you a load of time to learn
without being overcome with horsepower

and braking power and handling,
it was just a great tool to do it in.

Really just confirmed that I had done
enough simulator.

It just... yeah, I...
I'd put enough effort in.

Flight, once I come out of the Karussell,
I know this follows that, follows this

and I was confident enough,
it was just the details that I didn't have.

NARRATOR:
For his last few laps

Guy's joined again by ring veteran
Andy Carlisle,

Go. More!

GUY:
Know it like the back of their hand.

Well, yeah.
I don't know the back of me hand that well

but yeah, knows the job inside out.

Faster than it looks,
just run it out really wide.

ANDY:
Go on, keep footing.

GUY:
Oh, all those little details.

Right, head for this and that'll carry you
over that bump at the right angle.

Gas, hop. That hop's the risky bit.

It's just best guess
of how the transit's gonna behave.

All the way wide. Don't hit that!

You might roll the van.
- GUY: I might what?

Roll it.
- BLEEP!

Honestly.

ANDY (V0): Just some ideas
of where to be a little bit cautious

where to expect the thing
to have a lot of instability.

GUY: What will I...
what am I worried about in a van?

Floating.

ANDY (V0): There's always a problem
with something that you find

that you weren't quite expecting.

Of course there is in an untested,
unusual vehicle.

What are we gonna find? Hmm...

GUY:
Brilliant, hey?

Not a bad day at work.
- What are you thinking?

Petrol, get it revved.

I'm paying for the petrol.

Loved it. Mega, been bloody brilliant.

But now, yeah,
I've sort of been a bit on edge

for the past month or so cos the amount
of pressure on me with the van.

I get a bit quiet, and I get me head down

but I do love it,
I love being under pressure.

I love being under pressure.
I love being under pressure.

We'll go get some petrol.

NARRATOR:
It's now the day before Guy's attempt

to become a double record breaker
at the Nlirburgring.

He won't be putting in
any practice laps today

because there's racing on track all day,.

At the holiday home
he's rented for the weekend

Guy and his team of males use the time

to thoroughly check every part of the van,.

We're not scrimped on anything,
we've not bodged anything.

Everything is done
to the best of our ability.

Anything that goes wrong is because
we couldn't have accounted for it.

Everything up to this point
has been accounted for.

But it should be a peach.
Job should be a peach.

NARRATOR: But as they make final checks
on the wheels and brakes

they find a massive problem,.

Come and have a look.

Found a massive crack in the brake disc.

We were just doing all the little things,
there was nothing major to do

just tweaking here and tweaking there.

Just thought we'd take the wheel off,
just have a look round

and then we found these massive cracks
in the front wheel.

NARRATOR:
All modern road vehicles use disc brakes.

As you press the brake pedal,
pads close around the brake discs

and slow the speed
at which the wheels can tum,

Eventually the friction will stop the wheels
turning altogether.

Braking is all about energy transfer

converting the massive kinetic energy
of a fast-moving vehicle

into heat energy through the friction
between the pad and disc,

The trick is then to dissipate that
heat energy into the air

and away from the vehicle
as efficiently as possible,

However, if the discs and pads
are worked very hard

constantty getting very hot
then quickly cooling

like those on Guy's van

where they are repeatedly trying
to slow a two-ton vehicle from racing speeds

they can crack,

GUY: If that flies to bits,
it'd probably take the wheel out

and probably chuck me
into a barrier somewhere.

Good job we found that.
- LOUIS: Yeah.

TOOL WHIRS

LOUIS: On the last one as well!
- That would've been a disaster.

NARRATOR:
If Guy's record attempts are to go ahead

they need to find a replacement disc
very quickly,

And this was at three o'clock,
Sunday afternoon

in South Germany.

Oh, what are we gonna do?

NARRATOR:
Guy asks his only two local contacts to help.

Biker Andy Carlisle
heads off with the cracked disc

to try and find a match

while Nflrburgring test driver
Dale Lomas trawls his contacts.

So then we had to play "hunt the brake disc"

which turned out to be quite
an exciting game.

Dale made a few phone calls

and we found some discs,
there was no discs round here.

DALE:
My first solution basically involved

asking friends and relatives
to go to the brake warehouse

pick up the discs which were in Wigan
and drive them here.

You alright, boss?
- Alright?

GUY:
Go on, what are you thinking?

Do you reckon he could get here
for before ten in the morning?

DALE:
It's 12 hours door to door.

Five o'clock-ish now,
it should be theoretically here

just in time for breakfast,
cup of tea and throwing discs on the van.

That was gonna be an issue.

That was gonna be fitting brake discs
at 7 o'clock in the morning

for an 11 o'clock run.

Which is not optimal.

NARRATOR:
Time will be tight In the morning

so Guy gets on with prepping
both front wheels

for their new discs.

TOOL WHIRS

But then Andy Carlisle arrives back
with a miracle,

Took the old disc to somebody
who's interested and likes braking

and said, "Don't suppose...?"

And he said, "Oh, I can't go
in the shed at the minute.

I'm gonna take me dog out."
He's taken his dog out, anyway.

A few hours later, he'd found...
he'd found one pair.

NARRATOR: They're a pair of custom made
one-off discs

for the rear of a Nissan GTR.

DALE:
The disc wasn't even in any catalogue.

Not available online,
nothing you could search for.

It was purely something knocked up
as a bit of an upgrade for a Nissan GTR.

NARRATOR:
And amazingly, they fit Guy's van.

They wasn't perfect, but if anything,
they was better than what we had.

They was brand new, just a little bit bigger
but we could account for that

with a radial mount on the calliper.

So that's what we did, that's what we did.

GUY:
On!

Off!

That won't happen again.
That was a huge slice of luck.

DALE: If you were to apply
a figure to that Iuckiness

I'd say that would be like
a one or two percent chance

that we fixed that problem
within that time frame

within ten kilometres of here.

NARRATOR:
Guy's record attempts are now back on track,

And relax!

Hopefully, everything will go well tomorrow.

We'll do a couple of steady laps
to start with

break the record on those steady laps
and then just go and smash the record.

That's... and then we can
drive home happy campers.

But that's not gonna happen.
Summat is gonna go wrong, course it is!

I know that, course it is.

NARRATOR:
It's mid-October In Germany.

Usually at this time of year,
the Eifel mountains

have seen their first snowfall of the winter.

But today, the forecasters are predicting
a mini heat-wave,

And that's perfect for Guy Martin,
who has come here

to try and break two records,,,

the van lap record
around the legendary Nflrburgring

and on the track's two kitometre straight,
he wants to reach 177 miles per hour

and set a new world speed record
for a transit.

I'm nervous, I'm nervous.

Need to get me torch and me overalls
and have a look round the back.

NARRATOR: The lap record he wants to beat
was set five years ago

by ring aficionado Date Lomas
in a modified Volkswagen T5.

INAUDIBLE CHATTER

NARRATOR: Dale's come along to watch Guy
try to snatch his record

driving the hugely challenging
12.9-mile circuit

in under nine minutes and 57 seconds.

This is perfect lap record weather.
This is what you want.

Because you've got the sun beating down,
warming up the tarmac

you've got the cold air
still lying over the land

to feed the turbos the cold, dense air.

Couldn't have asked for a better day.

What's it doing back home?

It's lashing it down back home.
We're in, what is this? The second week?

Start of the third week of October.

Driving here, was 28 degrees.
Beautiful, beautiful.

Right!

NARRATOR: Guy has just one hour
in which to set both records.

The Circuit's his between 11:30 and 12:30

and he'll go for the lap record first,

GUY:
I'm gonna do two steady laps to start with.

Hopefully do the record
in those two steady laps.

Come in, refuel, check the tyre pressures,
go again and hopefully smash the record.

NARRATOR:
If all goes well, he 'll then head out again

to also try and break
the transit van world speed record.

That's the plan.
But it's not gonna go to plan, is it?

Course it's not gonna go to plan,
we all know that.

NARRATOR:
With just ten minutes left before his slot

Guy changes into his racing overalls

and the correct footwear
for driving a transit.

GUY:
Got me work boots on.

Just thinking... I was thinking
about race boots and all that.

Transit, innit? Yeah, get your work boots on.

ENGINE STARTS

It's fingers crossed,
fingers crossed the van's alright.

Fingers crossed
that I don't do anything stupid

which... that's not out of the question,
is it?

That has happened before, hasn't it?

NARRATOR:
Also wearing his racing suit is Andy Carlisle

the fastest man around the ring
on a motorcycle.

Guy wants Andy in the van
during his record attempts.

Co-driver. Rally drivers have it, don't they?

Rally drivers have. What's...
HE LAUGHS

That's not against the rules, is it,
to have a co-driver?

If it meant I was gonna go faster,
then why not?

ANDY:
There's an awful lot of untested things

to do with such an unusual vehicle.

So, if there's something
that's gonna feel like a risk

I can maybe remove a bit of speed
before that risk goes to critical.

From what we lost in Andy's weight,
we would more than gain

in his track knowledge
that he could relay to me.

GUY: Alright?
- ANDY: Yes.

NARRATOR:
On the dot of 11:30, Guy and Andy set off,

A little bit apprehensive.

NARRATOR:
Because Guy has exclusive use of the track

he has been given special permission
to head out of the pits the wrong way

to then turn around and give himself
a good run-up for the start

without having to drive a whole
12.9 mile out lap,

First job, break a lap record,.

ANDY:
Right then, lad, we're away.

Gas and go.

Lead a bit in, we've gotta go into shade.

LOOK at the Mn board cm the be“,
2m board.

I can't hear you.

Right, that's our maximum.
Can you hear me now?

Yes.
- Good.

ANDY:
Calm it, calm it.

Jump straight, then gentle brakes.

Jump straight, gentle.

Test the curve, see what it...
see what it behaves like.

No, it bounces.

Skimmer brakes, feel it hop.

NARRATOR:
Halfway through his very first lap

Guy's flying, but the van's a handful,

GUY:
It's just a big van, it's too tall.

Trying to manhandle that
with no power steering

but it's good cos I got loads of feeling
through the steering.

ANDY: Strong right straight through,
bit more gas, keep her balanced.

It's a lot of van. Yeah, and the brakes,
struggling with the brakes.

Is that locking the back?

Too much power in the rear brakes
compared to the front brakes.

ANDY: It seems to handle alright.
Bit bouncy through Wippermann.

NARRATOR:
As he powers along the 2m straight

for the first time,
Guy hits 144 miles per hour

and that's without pushing hard,.

ANDY:
Look at that black sign.

Keep back on the gas,
keep your feet back on it, bit more.

NARRATOR:
As he nears the end of his first lap

an is looking good,.

You was all sort of on pit lane, weren't ya?
What'd it look like when I came on?

Alright?

Motoring?

NARRATOR:
Amazingly, on his very first attempt

Guy has beaten the lap record
by almost 30 seconds

recording a time of 9,28,

Gas through, feel it jump. Gas.

NARRATOR:
He's not finished yet though,

And pushes even harder on lap two,.

Everything was hunky dory really.

ANDY: We're going to be
travelling faster than we have before.

Is it all gonna work?

Second lap, we was going faster.
But the van was getting bloody hard work.

ANDY:
Just get it stopped here.

ANDY: And brakes.
- GUY: Yeah, I know.

Everything was red hot in the engine bay,
all the rear suspension, the front suspension

was just... got two ton of van to deal with.

It was just getting red hot.

And it was just pushing on
cos the tyres were overheating.

Oh, yeah.

You'll have enough cameras in the van
to see that I might've been sweating.

NARRATOR:
A third of the way into the lap

Guy's six seconds up on his previous time,

I think what I was losing
in the van being unsettled

I was gaining in confidence in the track,
and that van around that track.

NARRATOR:
As he rides the banked Karusse/I corner

he's 10 seconds faster,
and on for a blistering lap.

ANDY:
Use all the track on the way out.

Every inch.

Just from the noise alone,
everything resonates.

Gas up and over, feel it, it wriggles.

It's one of the loudest, if not the loudest,
vehicles I've been in.

Gentle brakes before.

Missed the first apex, look for the second.

ANDY:
There's something about that van that is...

it's playing with fire.

It's really playing with fire.

NARRATOR: Guy and Andy
are still on track for a great time,

But behind them, Andy's words are proving
a" too prescient,

A turbo oil line has come loose
and oil is now spraying onto the engine

and that's started a fire.

We braked and saw the smoke come forward
and I thought, "Oh, that maybe ain't right."

There's smoke coming through into cabin.

Yeah.

ANDY: Reading the apex,
what are the temperatures like?

Good.
- Right.

GUY: Everything was alright,
we're looking at the numbers on the dash.

So I thought there's no issue there,
but we have...

there is something going on in the back,
but the van was still going good.

Keep going, it's not completely on fire yet.

ANDY: Faster than it looks,
you can let it run out really wide.

Feed a touch more gas in.

More, bit more, more again.

NARRATOR:
As they reach the 2m straight

the fire's getting worse,

This could be Guy's only chance
to push for the speed record.

GUY NO):
And then she conked out.

Don't know why,
I don't know why it did that.

So I had to reset everything,
switch everything back on.

Ooh, she fired up again.

So we lost a good few seconds there,
and then we finished the lap.

MAN SHOUTS:
There's flames at the back of the car!

ANDY (V0):
As we're coming to a halt

loosen belts to get
the fire extinguisher out.

MAN:
Fire, fire.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

GUY: I thought there'd have been a bit
of smouldering going on

but no, I didn't think...
I didn't think we'd have flames.

But we did, and we dealt with them.

No one died.

WOMAN: You alright?
- GUY COUGHS: Yeah.

Did we do it?

MAN:
Do you wanna know your time?

GUY: Go on, what we done?
- MAN: 9.28.

Oh, so we've done the record.
- You've done the record.

First lap, 9.28.
- GUY: We've done the record.

NARRATOR:
Guy's broken the lap record

but with the van's engine now fire-damaged

he's forced to abandon
the speed record attempt,

Ey up!

Call that a draw.

NARRATOR: While the speed record
will have to wait for another day,”

GUY:
Done the lap record over 30 seconds.

MAN: 30 seconds?
- GUY: Yeah.

NARRATOR:
Guy's more than happy,

Happy camper.

Happy camper. The job's done, the job's done.

We had a fire. We had a fire, man.

Me dad got his thumb up.

ANDY: Surely everyone knows
that if you're gonna go to a racetrack

you don't take a van.

No matter how much modifications
and silliness you've thrown at it.

We was nearly in an heat, weren't we?
HE LAUGHS

DALE: It's been mega fun.
There is a certain grudging admiration

from the Germans
at what Guy's built in his shed

and brought over and broke a record in.

GUY:
Any spare second I've had in my life

over the past five months
has been that {fanny van.

And now...
HE SIGHS

And breathe!

ANDY:
It's not speed.

Outright speed is stimulating

but that doesn't mean that
the very fastest vehicle is the most fun.

That thing is such good fun.

GUY: Dale's full lap record was 9 minutes,
57 seconds.

I did on me first lap, 9 minutes 28.

So the thick end of 30 seconds off.

DALE:
9.28, mega lap time for a van.

No van has ever gone that fast before.

Yeah, but for how long am I gonna be
NUrburgring lap record holder?

Dale's got a smile on his face, yeah.

You're not having my van.

You're not having my van, boy.