Top Gear (2002–…): Season 14, Episode 2 - Episode #14.2 - full transcript
The boys tried to make their very own electric car. Jeremy road tests the new Audi R8 V10 and compares it to the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1.
Now...
if you buy a G-Wiz,
plainly you are not interested
in style or comfort or speed
or practicality or driving pleasure
- or safety or your dignity.
LAUGHTER
And that got us thinking. If all
you want is a battery-powered box,
why spend £8,500 on one of these?
Why not simply build one yourself?
I mean, how hard can it be?
Keen to get cracking, we went to the Top
Gear Technology Centre and set to work.
It's all very simple, really.
I am in charge of the batteries
and the electric motor.
Clarkson is in charge - God help
us - of the bodywork and interior,
and Richard Hammond is in charge
of the chassis and the brakes.
If you are going to build your owncar, there's no
point just throwing the chassis together yourself
cos you'll get caught up in 20 years
- of red tape trying to get it registered to use on the road,
so what you need to do is use
the chassis from another car.
But there is a problem, because most
modern cars don't have a chassis as such.
It's all kind of built into the body,
so you need to choose from an older car.
Specifically, you've got a choice of
either a Land Rover, a Lincoln Town Car,
or this, a TVR Chimaera.
I bought this one for £5,000, and I
was going to remove its body and engine
and then use its chassis as
the backbone of our new car.
James, meanwhile, was preparing to
cannibalise something a bit less sporty.
I shall be using the electric motor
- from this, which just leaves me with the problem of the batteries.
Now, the Tesla - that
American electric sports car -
uses 6,831 batteries,
but that seems a bit excessive
to me, so to save weight,
and money, I'm going
to use two batteries.
Like all great car designers,
I'd created a mood room,
hung with images from which
I could draw inspiration.
Big cats, jet fighters,
the actor Peter Bowles,
and pretty soon, I was
ready to start work.
It's a lovely material to work
with, aluminium, because it bends.
Car makers could learn a lot from
this simple system I've adopted.
Ow! BLEEP! Ow!
And there is the precious chassis.
That is the basisof everything
we're doing. A doddle!
In terms of construction, I've
taken my lead from shelving.
You've simply got the
uprights, which I've got here.
There it is.
The bolt goes through there.
Damn it!
How simple is this?
One piece, another piece,
bolts holding them together.
With the milk float dismembered,
my power system was taking shape.
That's 100 quid's worth of
batteries, a 20 quid milk float motor,
and watch this. MOTOR WHIRRS
Hear that?
Is that turning round now? Don't put
your finger on it. I'm not going to.
As long as you two keep the weight
of your body and chassis down,
that'll go like a
stabbed rat. Are you sure?
Well, it'll be a damn
sight faster than a G-Wiz.
'While May wired up his batteries and
Hammond prepared his chassis...' It's free!
'..I retired to the mood room to
seek further design inspiration.'
OK. We're removing
ancient history here. Guys!
Is he...? Yes?
Has anyone ever done a car
with a moustache? No. No.
Having finished their jobs, Hammond and
May left me alone to complete the bodywork.
Beautiful.
Our masterpiece was ready.
Well, credit where it's due... I can't see
any of the nail heads. I mean, it's all right.
You're pleased? Very. Amazed.
I have to say, this isn't actually it.
Oh. Oh.
There you go!
FANFARE PLAYS
That is the worst-looking
car in the whole world.
I'd rather look at one
of your dingleberries.
What is the matter exactly?
Everything is straight.
Everything is doable
on your kitchen table.
Jeremy, is that a section from
a garage door? Yes. Oh, OK.
What's more, I'd fitted a tape
player, and, rather brilliantly,
three-abreast seating.
Who's going to sit here? You
haven't given them any head room.
Hammond can sit in the middle. Oh, God.
Careful of my roof!
You're bending my roof!
It's bending my spine! You
really need to change the roof.
That's no good. All right, all
right! Back to the drawing board.
'While Jeremy modified the roof...'
Out. Out! '..Hammond and I
'started to think about
a name for our creation.'
I hate it when eco-cars are given a
really pious name like Intelligentsia.
So we want to give it a more aggressive
name? Like Mustang, Tiger, Leopard, Panther.
Or Vixen. Vixen!
'Sadly, though, Jeremy
had beaten us to it.'
"Geoff".
MECHANICAL GRINDING
And after some more styling tweaks,
- Geoff was ready for the road.
I feel like the Pope
with his head in a box!
It works!
THUD! Ow.
LOUD DRONING What is that
noise? It's the motor.
It sounds like they're
filming an episode of Bonanza.
It's an amazing racket.
Don't knock it. It's working.
Open it up, James. Open it up.
Yeah, go on. Give it some
beans! I have. Is that it?
Is that full speed? Uh, yeah.
How fast is that? Nearly ten.
You've built a car that
will only do 10mph?!
It... Yeah.
'Actually, that wasn't such a bad thing
'on account of the design flaw
with Jeremy's shiny bonnet.'
Ah, I'm blind! My head's being
cooked in a box! That's quite bad.
I'll tell you what, though
- it works. It does work.
I mean, it's going along. We're in an electric
car. Which we made. It's fantastic. £6,000.
Can you put three
people in a G-Wiz? No.
'In fact, we were so proud of Geoff,
we took him for a drive into Oxford.'
Now, you do realise Oxford
loathes the motorcar?
Not this one. But this
one will be welcome.
They will think it's the
second coming! A hippy!
See the happy hippies?
Did you see the cyclist smiling at us?
'However, as we neared the city centre, James'
power system started to develop some issues.'
I'm not going to indicate.
It seems to slow it down.
You're not telling me that the
indicators affect the charge?!
There's something not quite right with the
way it's wired. I felt a drop in power as I...
Why did you not fit
more than two batteries?
Because I wanted to save
weight. Stop picking holes in it!
'To take our minds off the power
problems, I found some music.'
Belinda Carlisle.
MUSIC PLAYS
'Sadly, though, James doesn't
like Belinda Carlisle.'
Off! TURNS MUSIC OFF
James, James, we aren't allowed to
drive down this street. Yes, we are.
No, we aren't. We are.
'I was right. We weren't.'
Oh, God!
Well, you're going to have to
turn round. That's a dead end.
Hang on. It's packed up. Oh, no. DRONING
Don't tell me it's died. HORN BLARES
Sorry. Why is it doing that?
HORNS BLARE
You designed the engine. It's working!
James, wait! The cyclist!
There's a Peugeot! Sorry, mate!
Mind the cyclists.
'Then it stopped again.' Sorry.
Sorry. It's got a bad connection.
It just cuts out. HORNS BLARE
I feel silly now.
Oh, there's a policeman!
'Every time we reversed,
the motor cut out,
'so we had to go forwards into the
buses-only zone.' Excuse me, Hammond.
Sorry. Sorry.
# You say that it's complicated... #
Sorry. Belinda Carlisle!
What do you think of that?
'Having annoyed the people the centre of Oxford,
we drove on and ended up annoying the people
'in the outskirts of Oxford.'
Have we got anyone behind us? Yes.
Oh, yes! Yes, we have, yes!
This is embarrassing. HORNS BLARE
'And then it got a
bit more embarrassing.'
James, this isn't... Why
are you stopping? Oh, God.
James? Why...?ENGINE SPLUTTERS
We've run out of juice. But...
HORNS BLARE
'While James and Richard
directed the traffic round Geoff,
'I went in search of some
electricity.' DOORBELL RINGS
HORNS BLARE A tiny, tiny bit left.
That'll do. You've got room on the left.
Nobody in.
Wait, wait, wait. Just
go back a little bit.
HORNS BLARE
I thought everybody was unemployed!
So it's left a bit. A bit more.
No, no, no! Left. That's right.
This'll be an old people's home. They
won't have electricity. HORNS BLARE
Guys, we're going to have to get the
electricity from this side of the road.
Nobody is in there. OK.
Thank you.
Sorry, everybody. You are so kind.
When you run out of fuel in the future, this will be your life
- undoing spaghetti.
We're in!
There. That works.
Sorry. Sorry.
James, how long does it take
to charge an electric car?
Well, to charge it fully would take a good
six or seven hours, but in two hours...
Whoa! Six or seven HOURS?!
My arm's aching already. Those are the
facts of battery-powered cars. We know that.
'Still, much to the
relief of everyone...'
CRUNCH! No! '.. Geoff was ready to go.'
Let's see. Yes! MUSIC:
Theme from "Rocky"
'Sadly, though, he was
just as slow as before.'
James, you're being
overtaken by children.
A lot of children coming past.
There's a bicycle coming by. With two
people on it. Another bicycle coming by.
'On balance, we thought it best to leave Oxford
and get back to the Top Gear Technology Centre,
'but then James took a wrong
turning...' Left! Left there!
What? '..with terrible consequences.'
HORNS BLARE James, this is the A34!
Oh, God! This is a road
with a speed limit of 70mph.
A lot of traffic now! Can
you drive with the hazards on?
Yeah, but it might slow
us down a bit. Oh, my God.
James, get off the dual carriageway.
That sign says "Motorway 6". I
don't want to go on the motorway!
James, do not... Is there
a junction before that?
Look at the traffic jam. I can't.
It's too embarrassing.
Look at the traffic jam.
I can't! I've got my head in a
plastic box, and everyone can see me!
HORNS BLARE Do you know what we've done?
We've made something
worse than a G-Wiz.
Don't say that. We have.
I disagree. It's slower. Yes.
He's being cooked. Yes.
It's rubbish.
MUSIC PLAYS SLOWLY: "Heaven Is
APlace On Earth" by Belinda Carlisle
# We'll make heaven a place on... #
Eventually, we ended
up in the countryside
where at least we couldn't
get in anyone's way,
but unfortunately, the A34 had had a
catastrophic effect on our performance.
We're hardly
moving!HIGH-PITCHED DRONING
I wouldn't mind it going slowly. I
just wish it wouldn't make that noise.
James...
Oh, God! What?
ENGINE WHINES
Please tell me that... ENGINE STOPS
You bloody idiot!
Why did you think two batteries
was the right solution?
Tesla used 6,800 batteries for a reason.
Oh, great(!) We're actually holding
people up here. Sorry. Sorry!
THEY STRAIN Come on, Geoff.
Come on! I'll tell you what, James.
What? There's loads of houses
around here where we can get
some more electricity(!) James, seriously, why
didn't you put more than two batteries in it?
I didn't want it to weigh too much.
- Batteries go flat. This is important consumer information.
Stored electricity is
like a caged animal.
You should have used more than two.
- Well, next time, I know and we know.
Tell me that isn't happening.
Tell me that isn't happening.
CRASH!
I... I don't want to...
The lonely walk
confirmed our worst fears.
Geoff was dead.
Don't applaud. Don't
applaud. Geoff is dead!
It was the saddest moment. As
it hit the tree, my heart broke.
They're obviously all from
Oxford, that's what it is.
Yeah.
Anyway, we could have given up
at that point, but we didn't.
We went back to the drawing board
and later on you'll be able to see
the results of our frankly brilliant
effort. But for now, it's the news.
It is indeed and we start with this.
As we know, Formula One has always
been the most glamorous sport
in the world, hasn't it? Yeah? But
not any more. Not from next year.
There's four new teams joining in,
OK. One of them, Manor Grand Prix,
is based in Sheffield.
How glamorous is that?
Strictly speaking, it's actually
between Sheffield and Rotherham.
If we're going to be pedantic, it's
between Sheffield, Rotherham and Worksop,
in a place called
Dinnington, which I know well.
And it's exactly like Monte
Carlo...apart from in every single detail.
It does take the shine of it a bit.
I can't wait to see their new car.
I don't why you bother with all that
carbon fibre, I made mine out of steel.
Stainless steel. If that
Fernando Alonso hits our car,
his Ferrari will be knackered.
I'll tell you that for nowt.
It's funny, me dad worked in pit and
now I've got a job in pit and all.
They're replacing Toyota and
they've signed Timo Glock,
who presumably is currently learning
why it's important to punch anyone
who looks at him funny.
Is anyone from Sheffield?
Yeah. Are you? Whereabouts?
You're from Sheffield?
Cos I'm just thinking,
they're using Cosworth engines,
or I should say, Sheffield, Cozza.
Cosa? No, Coz-za. You've got to have-
a stroke halfway through the word.
Coz-za. So your face falls.
Coz-za.- Coz-za. Your face falls off.
You're from Sheffield, just
practise it, just show us.
How do you say it? Cozza.
There you go!
I think it's fair to say that
that team is probably Top Gear's
absolute favourite F1 team.
I want them to win everything,
so on the podium they're gonna
have a big brass band at the end.
Abide With Me. Ain't that a national anthem? We'll
have Abide With Me on a brass band, be lovely.
Now, criminals, would you like
to get away with your crimes?
Are you capable of running
more than 100 yards?
Well, good news, because the police
- are thinking of using these now.
It's a Mitsubishi electric.
They say it's helping
them crack down on CO2.
I don't want the police
to crack down on CO2.
I want them to get my
bloody television back,
because it's been six
years since that was nicked,
and I haven't heard a peep out of them whilst
they've been going on about cracking down on CO2.
I'll have to buy
another one at this rate.
What were you stopped for
the other day, by a policeman?
It was some motoring misdemeanour.
You just turned around and said,
"Oh, good. This must mean
you've found my television."
If I was a policeman and my chief
freemason came into the office
and said... I mean Chief Constable.
- I always get them muddled up.
And he said, "Right, you've got
to do your beat in one of those."
I would drink my own pepper spray.
I'll tell you what, this is a
slightly interesting one, OK.
There was a survey recently
about the effects that a nice car
can have on a male, the human male, OK?
What they did was they got 40 young
- guys and they made them drive
up and down the street in a Toyota
Camry and then drive up and down
the same street, in the
same manner, in a Porsche 911
and then they measured their
testosterone after each drive.
And after driving the
Porsche, it had shot up.
So it had an actual physiological
effect on them? Yeah.
I'm amazed by that. I think that
makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
Cos whenever I drive a really nice,
- exciting car I always get
like a nice little fizzing sensation.
No, it's not... Where is
this fizzing sensation?
It's not actually in
my penis, but it's...
but it's sort of just behind it.
A fizzing sensation
just behind your penis?
Yeah. So, isn't that
the pit of your stomach?
No, no, lower down than
that, sort of right...
That's your prostate, mate.
You've sat on the gear.
Does anybody else have a fizzing
sensation just behind their penis...
Am I the only person... Ah! Thank
you, sir. You have? Good man.
Or do you just want to be on television?
Come here. Do come here.
It's just got a lot worse! James May, a
man in a moustache has come on the stage
and wishes to meet you to discuss...
Please, have a seat. ..your fizzing penises.
That's the end of the news. Oh, God!
APPLAUSE
I'd like to commend you
on being brave enough,
especially as you've grown
a moustache for charity,
to come on the stage and admit that
- you too have been bestowed
with this great gift from the
gods of a slight fizzing sensation
somewhere behind your penis but in front of
your prostate when you drive an exciting car.
What sort of car are you
driving when you feel it?
Citroen AX.
Honestly, no, seriously...
we really must invite you to...
go back over there. Thank you.
I think some of us are just
more fortunate than others.
You must have had this on
a motorcycle. No, never!
I'm just gonna stand. I don't
even want to use that seat now.
Now, we have to just touch on
something, don't we, before we go,
because... LAUGHTER
No, we don't, no. No, no, no. Argh!
The news has gone wrong this week.
I'd rather chop them off.
I'd rather slice them.
Thing is, next week
we're doing this item
on which car company has produced
the largest number of great cars.
This is GREAT cars? Yes, GREAT cars.
- So, any thoughts on which
car company's made the
biggest number of GREAT cars?
See, Aston Martin isn't...
I don't think Aston has made a single
great, GREAT car. They make some lovely...
DB5 was only great because of
JamesBond. It's actually a bit rubbish...
Exactly. Anyone else got any thoughts?
Who said Ferrari? Somebody said Ferrari
over there. That's a good call, but...
It's a good call, but if you think about
it, they've made a lot of rubbish cars too.
Their 348 was rubbish, the
Testarossa was rubbish...
Mondial was rubbish. The F40
was a great car. That was great.
But what about mainstream
manufacturers, though? Ford.
They did the Model T, that's
kind of an important car.
Mustang... GT40 is a great car.
This, I think, is an interesting
debate that petrol heads can have.
We genuinely would like to
hear what you have to say,
so do please go on our website,
which is on the internet,
and then write something on... I don't
know how you... Write something on it,
which car firm you think has produced the largest
number of great cars. If you write that down
on our internet...we'll read it.
LAUGHTER
Now, last year I drove an Audi R8,
and I thought it was the knees of
the bee, but in a straight line, at
- least, it was a little bit slower
than a Porsche 911.
Yeah, quite a lot slower
than a 911, actually.
It was about THAT much slower. I admit
that much makes all the difference.
LAUGHTER
However, Audi has now
released a new faster version.
This is it, and it looks pretty
much the same as the original.
However...
The standard R8 has a 4.2-litre V8.
THIS has a 5.2-litre Lamborghini V10.
That means 518-brake horsepower...
enough torque to tenderise an elephant
and a top speed of about 200mph.
0 to 60 is dealt with in
3.7 seconds. That's there -
80, 90, 100, 110,
120, 125 in eight seconds.
This thing is phenomenal!
The handling is pretty epic as well.
As a driver's car, this
is...spectacularly good.
It's like Scarlett Johansson's lips
- or the roof of Paddington Station.
Absolutely faultless.
Oh, God, it's good!
Oh, mmmmm!
r!
And unlike most super-cars, it's
not even desperately impractical.
You get a boot, which is big
enough- for three medium-sized goats.
You get a useful shelf behind the seats,
and you get room inside to move about
- and breathe.
There are a couple of mistakes, I admit.
If, for instance, you have a can of
- tangy, refreshing drink here
in the cup holder, and
you go to change gear,
your elbow's going to knock
it and that's annoying.
And as far as I can work out,
the trip computer isn't working.
I don't like to say that because
it would have been installed by
a German who will be shot
at dawn for his mistake,
but it...it doesn't.
And then there's the biggest mistake of them all
- the price.
It's £100,000. And
that's just the start.
If you want ceramic brakes, £7,000.
Flappy-paddle gearbox, £5,000.
If you want the boot
lined in fake suede,
£1,600.
Bucket seats
- £2,350.
Colour co-ordinated
seatbelts - 750 quid!
If you want these panels,
here, finished in carbon fibre,
you're mad, mad as a Mexican's dog.
They even charge £500 if you want to
pick the car up from the factory yourself.
That's like charging someone
£10 extra for a bottle of wine
if you tread the grapes yourself.
I'd tell them to get lost.
Strangely, however, it's not the money
that would stop me buying this car.
The trouble is... is
it's a bit too joyless.
A bit too like Scarlett
Johansson's lips.
You can...never imagine
this thing smiling.
I mean, look what happens,
OK, if I hit this button here.
"Sport mode on," exclamation mark.
What's it got an exclamation mark for?
You put the sport on in a
super-car? You mad, crazy fool, you!
Look at the sat-nav, OK.
It can take you to a bank or a
bowling alley or a bus station.
I'm sorry? Golf course.
Historical monument.
Yes, I've got a super-car,
but I'm going to stop off
and look at this Neolithic fort!
The R8 V10, then, doesn't really do fun.
It doesn't do pantomime, so if I
was spending £100,000 on a car,
I'd think very seriously
about buying something worse.
This is the Corvette ZR1,
which is extremely fast.
This has a super-charged
6.2-litre engine,
which is a turbot compared to
Audi's 5.2-litre un-supercharged cod.
Put it in a drag race with the
R8 and the results are inevitable.
I have got 120 more
horsepower than the R8...
and because the Corvette
is made from plastic,
it's lighter as well.
If only America could win
its wars so convincingly.
However, there are a few problems.
I tested one in America
last year and, erm...
after three days, it was starting to
fall apart, and then on the fourth,
it refused to start.
It's also insanely vulgar.
It's only available
with left-hand drive.
The luggage cover looks
like a motel shower curtain.
It's much too wide and in the
corners, it's a complete mad man.
Oh.
When I drove this thing
in California, I loved it!
But I think it might have
been a holiday romance,
because here on our track it's,
it's... Well, let's be kind,
let's say difficult.
Remember, I've got more
power than the Ferrari Enzo.
Oh, my God. Come on!
Get in a straight line!
I may have more firepower, but
trying to keep up with the Audi
is like trying to win the Grand
National whilst riding a lion,
that's made out of teeth and jelly.
It sort of wobbles about and
then if you're not careful,
it bites your arm off. Aaahh!
Oh, no! I'm gone!
The thing is, though, despite the
waywardness and the terrible danger,
the Corvette is more fun.
It's disintegrating already, I'm
being strangled by my own seatbelt
and the end's come off! Get on!
Be in no doubt, then
- the Audi is a better car.
It's better built, better
to look at, better to drive,
more comfortable, easier to
park, and, in the real world,
faster.
You'd have to be bonkers
to buy the Corvette.
And that is why you should.
APPLAUSE
It's that exclamation mark that
says everything about that car.
You want Sport Mode?! Sport Mode!
Sport Mode!
Oh, now, ah-ha...
I have got an apology to make.
I said in that film that the Audi's
- trip computer was broken.
It isn't, OK? It turned out I hadn't
pressed the reset button properly.
LAUGHTER
We did actually ring Audi
to confess to what he'd done,
but it was too late. The man
responsible had...shot himself.
Yeah. He had.
Anyway, it's now time to put both cars
in the hands of our tame racing driver.
Some say that he has some terrible
plans involving the moon...
LAUGHTER
..and that he was turned down for a place
on I'm A Celebrity because he IS one.
LAUGHTER
All we know is... he's called The Stig!
CHEERING
They're off! A genuinely
interesting battle, this,
because the Corvette is
faster in a straight line,
but it needs an extraordinary talent
to get it round corners
without crashing.
Look at that.
And there is the talent.
MUSIC: "When I'm Cleaning Windows"
Oh dear, Stig continues to make
each lap into a Cockney knees-up.
Ooh, did you see that? Weirdly,
it's the Audi going sideways.
Through Chicago. What'll
happen in Hammerhead?
Let's have a look here.
Again it's the four-wheel
drive R8 that's out of shape.
The 'Vette in the Stig's
talented paws clinging on.
A wiggle on the way out, but that's it.
MUSIC CONTINUES
Right.
Follow-through -
this is where the
Corvette's super-charged V8
can really deliver some shock and awe.
The tyres
- they are both quick through there.
It's the in-bred lunatic versus
a car with no sense of humour,
and they're pretty much
neck-and-neck, just Gambon to go.
Both sigh through there,
and they cross the line.
And now we have the times... APPLAUSE
Audi.
The Audi first?
It did it in 1:21.6, which
puts it... That's for the Audi.
1:21.6? That was sort of a damp-ish-
lap, as well. That's quick, OK.
However, Corvette did it in 1:20.4.
- What?!
No... But the thing is, I reckon
you or I could get the Audi round
in roughly that time, OK?
But there's no way we could make the Corvette go round in that.
- Literally, I would
be five minutes dead. ..AND dead. Five
minutes AND dead is what it would be.
Anyway, now it is time to put a
star in our reasonably-priced car,
and my guest tonight is an actor.
He has played Kenneth Williams,
who is no longer with us,
he's played Brian Clough,
who's no longer with us,
and he's played Tony Blair, who, um...
LAUGHTER
..IS still with us.
Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Sheen!
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
How are you?
Have a seat. Lovely.
I thought you were going
to look like Tony Blair.
I... It's my day off
today. Cos it's weird -
when I watched The Queen,
obviously when you WERE Tony Blair,
I remember thinking, "God, they did very well to find an actor
- who looks so like him."
But you're much better looking!
LAUGHTER
It's not hard, is it? Do people
think you're going to look like him?
In America people think I'm
a Tony Blair look-alike, yeah.
But you're not. I don't do
work as a Tony Blair look-alike,
although I do have
look-alikes in my family.
My dad is a Jack Nicholson
look-alike. Is he?
He is indeed. Cos I was looking
back at your family history
and it was all very weird, because
nobody's done anything conventional
since the dawn of human
history... That's true.
Your great-grandmother was... She was the first
elephant and lion- tamer in Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Right...! LAUGHTER
Her name was Nanny Blower, and God bless her,
she was talented, but she wasn't a looker.
She had her left breast mauled off
by a lion, and the claw of that lion
is on a chain somewhere in our family.
Seriously? Yeah.
And it's at this point you go,
"And we have that lion for you now!"
I wish I'd known. I
would have looked into it.
There was your... Not grandfather...
Great-grandfather. Who was the one who got drunk a lot?
Yeah, my great grandfather was a bit
of a waster in the town, in Port Talbot,
and the story goes that he was lying in the gutter
one night, having been chucked out of the pub,
and the moon appeared through the clouds, and
God spoke to him through the moon and said,
"You must mend your ways. Save up money and buy the
disused tin mine in the mountain." So from then on
he never touched another drink and he
saved his money. Everyone thought he was mad
cos there was no tin left. They
discovered a new vein of tin,
he became the richest man in Port Talbot
and became a street preacher from then on.
This is fantastic. Then your dad
was a Jack Nicholson impersonator...
A Jack Nicholson look-alike, not an
impersonator. Look-alike. There is a difference.
He's a genetic freak,
not a talented actor.
LAUGHTER
And now you're Tony Blair and David Frost... And Kenneth Williams
- and Brian Clough.
This is... Can I just,
first of all, can I just take a moment
to congratulate you on Frost/Nixon.
That was amazing. Thank you
very much. Rocky is what it was.
It was Rocky for interviewers. Instead
of fighting, it was interviewing Nixon.
Brilliant film, I adored that.
And I was just wondering, why
do you choose parts predominantly
Now, the new film, Twilight
- it's New Moon, isn't it, from the Twilight series?
which you did this presumably because
you've got a 10-year-old daughter.
Yes. I have a 10-year-old daughter who
is obsessed with the books. As have I.
Completely besotted. And I always
say to her, "What are they about?"
rl,
"and she's in love with a werewolf, but she
was..." and I say, "What are you reading?!"
It's sort of this great love story,
- it seems,
and also, you know, they sort
of tap into something about...
particularly a teenage
girl's experience growing up.
So you're a v... I am a vampire.
So was it Peter Mandelson this time
- you modelled it on?
Yes, absolutely, completely
modelled it on Peter Mandelson.
Now, cars - you spend a lot of
time- living there in Los Angeles,
so I would assume you
have some form of hybrid.
It
It was
It was a
It was a Datsun Sunny and a Ford
Orion. I am not one who spends a
lot of money on cars. You spend a
lot of time in Los Angeles. I would
have assumed you would have some
form of hybrid. No, not really.
There is a lot of pressure. It is
the way for a. It is. I am going to
get a Jaguar. -- the way forward.
I'd like to get a green one.
So when you go on American chat shows
and they say, "You got a hybrid?"
You can say, "No, I have
a Jag." "I have a Ja-a-ag."
So what do you use in England?
I nip around London on a scooter.
I once rode one of those across
Vietnam. It tried to kill me.
Did you ever fall off?
They're fantastic. In fact,
when I first got the scooter, it was just
before I started playing Kenneth Williams
in this film I did, Fantabulosa!
And I was desperately trying to lose as
much weight as I possibly could to play him,
so I went on the cabbage soup diet
for the last ten days. Which is great,
I lost ten pounds, but I did used to lose consciousness as well.
- I was so faint.
So I was driving around on
this scooter around London,
which was scary enough as it was,
but I was also constantly farting.
My stomach was making terrible noises,
and whilst I used to drive it
I used to practise the voice,
so if anyone saw an Aprilia going
past them around the Clapham area
with a slightly sepia-looking
visor- and a smell coming behind it
and a voice going "mrr-rr-rr-rr"
as it was going along, that was me.
Did you ever fall off it?
No, I never fell off it.
I kept the stabilisers on, obviously.
Anyway, obviously you
came here, I have to say,
Los Angeles, THIS morning...
I came from the airport
straight here and into the car.
So you're... Well, what are
we, ten hours out... Yeah.
I have no idea what time...
I'll tell you what time it is. It's
- 6:30am, so it's time you were up.
I think there should be a new category,
which is, instead of just "W" for "wet",
there should be "JL" for jet lag. Jet lag.
And I believe... Was it damp out there as well?
It was damp-ish.
So that's jet-lagged and damp. And there
were people shooting bows and arrows.
Shooting bows and arrows. Many, many
things we have to write down. Many.
Jet-lagged, damp, bows and arrows.
And I'm Welsh. And you're Welsh.
LAUGHTER
In fact, who are the other
Welsh people on there?
Have I got a chance
of being top Welshman?
Alan Davies, is he Welsh? Or does he
just have a name... He's not Welsh.
Rob Brydon. Rob Brydon
- where's he?
Tom Jones. It would be good to beat
- Dame Helen Mirren, wouldn't it?
She's here. Tom Jones did. Tom Jones is on
top of Helen Mirren, not for the first time!
There's Rob Brydon,
just below Keith Allen.
This is kind of Little Wales, here, this
area. So this is where you're aiming for.
I want to be the fastest
boy in the village.
That's Little Britain.
I've just got that.
I'm there! See, even
jet-lagged, I'm on form, Jeremy!
LAUGHTER
Who'd like to see the lap?
ALL: Yeah! Let's have a look at this.
Oh, dear Lord...
TYRES SCREECH
Nice, smooth gear change.
'He's really ruined that.'
So here we go, coming up to
the first corner... Ooh, I say,
that's a vigorous turn in there.
Right, so we're not going
for the smooth approach.
Brake, you BLEEP, brake!
LAUGHTER
I like the hands on the
wheel there. That's wide!
This really is...
Don't go into fourth, Michael,
go into second, try that!
Well, one'll do! No, you're
supposed to LOOK slow,
so that you're actually...
That's not looking slow.
That's looking wide again.
The Stig did say,
well, he communicated...
Textbook. Absolute textbook.
LAUGHTER
That's not what The Stig
said. He said "clunky".
"Clunky but brave" is how he
described you. Clunky but brave!
It's not healthy, that's
not healthy, Michael!
Looking very Welsh.
That's pretty quick!
Oh-oh! Yes!
Now you go... Look...
Holy cow, that's quick!
That's very quick!
Now, what about Gambon?
Bloody hell, look at that!
And across the line! That was amazing.
CHEERING
I have here... Mm, mm,
mm-mm-mm mm-mm-mm... LAUGHTER
If it's under Roger
Bannister's mile, I'll be happy.
Under four minutes.
So you want to be somewhere down...
- The top of the Welsh zone.
It would be nice if I was, you know, above
Helen, and I would love it if I was above Rob.
So they're all around the one...
Rob's 1:51.7, but that was wet.
Michael Sheen, you
did it in one minute...
Yes...
..forty...
..six, point three.
Good Lord!
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
Seriously.
How did that happen?
That was a brave lap.
Gordon Ramsay just committed suicide.
I'm sort of mystified.
That was very fast. You can see it,
- cos you were doing a million down the straight.
I heard that Tom Jones
didn't want to come in,
and it must be something Welsh,
cos I didn't want to stop,
I wanted to keep going. I could
have beaten Jay Kay. Help yourself!
There's still 20
minutes of daylight left.
Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Sheen!
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Now, earlier on, we built
an electric car called Geoff,
and he was...a disaster.
Now, I'm not one to apportion blame,
but it was entirely James' fault.
Why?
Well, because...Jeremy's
body was brilliant...
Er, not Jeremy's actual
body, cos that's horrible.
The one on the car. My
chassis was brilliant,
and your battery system was
terrible. Well, it wasn't! Well...
it was. And, as a result, Geoff
ended up crashed into a wood.
We didn't give up. We decided
to go back to the drawing board,
and build Geoff II.
Back at the Top Gear Technology Centre, I fitted
narrower wheels which would reduce friction.
And James, mercifully,
found some more batteries.
I've also devised a
very, very clever way
of recharging them
while we're on the move.
Meanwhile, in the mood
room, Jeremy had decided
Geoff should no longer be called Geoff.
Hammerhead.
Hammerhead Shark. That's a dolphin.
I know, but it's like
a hammerhead shark.
Not really. It lives in the sea. Yeah...
I'll tell you the other thing
we've got to have, is the letter I.
Why? Because if you put
little i, not capital I,
little i with a little dot on it,
it tells everyone who
sees it that it's eco,
and that's OK. Doesn't. It does,
cos ecomentalists are stupid.
After many days of development,
ournew, improved car was finally ready.
But Jeremy, you haven't done anything.
You can't improve on perfection.
Anyway, I have done something. Look.
An energy-absorbing front end.
You can have massive accidents
and no damage will be caused.
You could run this into
a wood at top speed -
nothing would happen.
Then James unveiled his
radical new propulsion system.
Look at this! Batteries as before. But a few more
of them for extra power. Here's the clever bit.
They're recharged by that.
That is a diesel generator.
That charges the batteries? Yeah.
that a generator just from a shop?
Yeah. So, we've made a hybrid?! Yeah, sort of! No, because a hybrid
- uses a normal engine
that drives the wheels. A hybrid is
- a normal car for fools.
This just charges the battery. a diesel electric.
I got the idea from old railway locomotives.
So you just run the generator. means that
you'll never run out electricity. Exactly. Yeah.
Uses a tiny amount of fuel.
Yeah! Seriously, credit where credit's due!
That's not something you hear often on Top Gear.
Or ever, even! That's actually
quite a good idea. Thank you.
And this will go like stink.
And it did!
Well, that's brilliant! It's
a hybrid! We've built a Prius!
You don't think the producers are
messing with the subtitles, do you?
No! They wouldn't do that!
Since our amazing Eagle i
Thrust Head had cost £1,000 less
than a G-Wiz, we
decided it was brilliant,
and that we should put it on
sale to the general public.
However, before you can do that, it
must pass a series of stringent EU tests.
So we took the Eagle Thrust to
the motor industry's top secret
proving ground, just off the A5 between
Atherstone and Hinckley near Fenny Drayton.
When we get out, remember, be
positive, be positive! Yes! Positive!
Everyone's a customer!
We started with one of the biggies.
- A crash test.
We've all seen these. A car
is loaded up with dummies
and fired into a concrete block,
whilst super slow motion cameras
record the impact.
I, however, am so confident about
the Hammerhead-i Eagle Thrust,
that we will be using a
different sort of dummy.
Don't worry, we're coming as well.
There you go. Done. Can
you paint one on my face?
Why do crash test dummies have
these things? I don't know.
For the slow motion camera that records
the impact. It gives you a datum point.
Oh, I'm not interested in datum points... I didn't
think it was fashion amongst crash test dummies.
Are you sure about your
new bumper design? Yeah.
Thank you very much.
Hang on.
We were a bit frightened
when we saw the concrete crash block,
because we had to
crash into it at 30mph.
But then Jeremy had a brainwave.
Remember what I told you.
It's a very, very good plan this.
OK. Now, let's see the
slow motion crash footage.
We're going to
cra-a-a-a-sh.
Ohhhhhh!
Ohhhhhh!
Ow...my...chest.
Do you think we fooled them? Yeah!
Yeah. We're alive! We're alive! Wow!
We sur... That was...
It's not even marked! Oh, man,
that was, oh...! Staggering!
I think this is very convincing.
Shush, shush, OK, it's now time to watch
that crash at the speed it actually happened.
We're going to crash!
Ooh! Oh, my nose!
Oh! Oh! Ow, my chest!
And there we are, a superb
result in the crash test.
So, let's move on, shall we
and do...the pendulum test!
This is designed to measure
how a car will stand up
to being side-swiped
by a bus or a truck.
Frankly, it was hard to see how we could possible
pass this, but then James came up with a plan.
We need a camera. Yeah.
A plan that would fool even
the most astute EU bureaucrat.
Action! Wow! Wow! Wow! THEY LAUGH
Pendulum!
TOU KOOL!
Oh, right. So, now our car is going
- to face the fearsome pendulum test.
SPEECH IS REVERSED
PENDULUM CLANGS
Wow! Wow! Wow!
Wow indeed! Another pass! And happy
- that our car was completely safe,
we lined it up for a drag race.
We would be up against a Toyota Prius.
Chris Hoy's next-door neighbour.
Hannah...the fastest girl in our office.
And our main rival, the G-Wiz.
This was the quietest starting line
- in drag racing history.
ENGINE STARTS
Until Hammond started the generator.
OK, this is it! The future is here!
Three, two, one!
Did he jump the start? No.
I am so in the lead, straight away!
Oh! The Toyota's gone!
Where's the G-Wiz? I am all over it!
Come on!
This is brilliant! I'm going to win,
- I'm going to win!
Yes! Yes! Yes!
JEREMY LAUGHS Yes!
He beat the G-Wiz! By a mile!
He beat the G-Wiz!
And as ever, Hammond
was gracious in victory!
Yeah! Ha, ha, ha, ha!
Oh, yeah!
What do you think of that, then?
With your stupid little plastic gerbil!
Next we had to drive on
the fearsome Belgian Pave,
in a test designed to measure
both comfort and build quality.
VEHICLE CLANGS ALONG
THEY SHOUT WITH DISCOMFORT
Oh! Haw, haw, haw!
The chassis is smashing into the ground. It's
his generator weighs too much for my suspension.
Ow!
James! What?! The chimney's come off!
Oh! Oh! That's quite...
Quite a lot of smoke in here!
THEY COUGH It's all
collecting in my Pope box!
VEHICLE CLANGS AND CLANKS Ow!
But we're still going!
Yeah, we're hammering now!
Ow!
Oh! Has one of the doors fallen off?
No! No? Well then we
passed! I think we have.
It's an EU regulation. Is it? It actually
says if the doors are on after doing this,
then you've passed!
Well, they're still on!
Although we'd been a bit
gassed, the torture wasn't over!
So we re-attached the stove pipe and
went to see how the Eagle i-Thrust
would perform in the fearsome steep
- hill test.
OK, we're off!
GRILLE CLANGS Come on!
Come on.
I think we've passed this! Yeah!
Well done, everybody, that's good!
Yeah, we've passed. I bet the
G-Wiz wouldn't get up here.
I bet it wouldn't! No!
In the interest of fairness, we decided
to see how the G-Wiz would get on.
Using, of course, an
independent test driver!
Is he good, this guy?
He's independent, that's
the important thing.
It's £1,000 more than our
car, this. Hard to believe.
Will it go 1,000 feet higher
up this hill? Let's see!
Oh! It... Uh...
It's struggling!
Now that's a failure! Yeah, there
you go! Right there, that's a failure!
The Ham Head Eagle i was sailing through
every test the EU could throw at it!
But then it was time to
head to the wind tunnel
where we could measure the
aerodynamic efficiency of that body.
Where's Hammond? I'll call him.
Hello, lads. We gonna get
on with this? THEY LAUGH
Let's get going. What?! That
works! What? What? Nothing! Nothing!
Well come on, then, how does it work?
I don't know. How hard can it be?
Ready! FANS START
FANS WHIRR Yes! Look
at this! Oh, my God!
There we go, 12. 13. Here
we go. Look at the speed!
28mph. I'm gonna take
this baby up a bit!
When the body work ripples like
that, it does look beautiful.
It looks like a fish!
A really square fish with wooden ears.
It's also moving. It's moving.
Did you put the handbrake on?
Now, that's... Stop it or it'll go
in the fans! No, make it stop now!
Stop! Stop it, Jeeves! Stop it!
How do you stop the bloody fan?!
CRASHING
Despite the slight issue with the fans,
we decided that our car had passed.
So we moved on to what
would be the final hurdle.
The i-Ham would be
driven round the clock,
flat out on the proving ground's
test track, to measure it's range.
Obviously, in these conditions,
it's damp, there's a bit of drizzle
in the air. The concentration
required to do this,
is just immense! It's too demanding, we
couldn't do that. No. But we know a man who can!
He's not the Stig, but he is
the Stig's vegetarian cousin.
# All the leaves are brown
# And the sky is grey
# I've been for a walk... #
What's he called? His name
is...Janet Stig Porter. Oh!
Right! Fire up that generator!
ENGINE STARTS
Go!
Look at the speed of him.
James, how long, realistically, are
- you expecting that to keep going?
Well, I've topped up the
geni-tank,- so that's eight hours
on the generator. And that fully
charges the batteries as well,
so you get another hour out
of those, just the batteries.
So realistically, you're looking
for nine hours of running? Yeah.
SIRENS WAIL
What's happened there is...
Well, the Stig's died. Yeah.
And that's because the
stove pipe came off.
Now if we re-attach that stove I think
I'm right in saying, am I not, gentlemen,
that the Thrust i Eagle Hammer Head
- is ready for its road test. Yes. It's ready.
Obviously, we couldn't do
that, because we'd be biased,
so we decided to lend it to Britain's oldest
motoring magazine for an independent review.
They test all the latest cars
and innovations and to make sure
they didn't realise who were the
brains behind the Eagle Head i Hammer,
we had it dropped off
by an anonymous driver.
Hello, how can I help you?
All we could do now was
wait for their verdict.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Now, we have been sent advanced copies
of the magazine that has reviewed our car.
Here it is! HE GASPS
We're on the cover! We're on the cover!
We have! Right, where is it?
The Eagle... Right, here we go!
LAUGHTER
Erm...it says in the ride and handling section
where they deal with things like the chassis,
that to all intents and purposes, the Hammer Head
Eagle i-Thrust has no ride and handling as such,
instead it lurches around
almost uncontrollably.
LAUGHTER
Oh, God Almighty, no, it
gets worse! Listen to this.
They say that in the Highway Code, they say the stopping distance from
- 70mph is 215 feet.
if you buy a G-Wiz,
plainly you are not interested
in style or comfort or speed
or practicality or driving pleasure
- or safety or your dignity.
LAUGHTER
And that got us thinking. If all
you want is a battery-powered box,
why spend £8,500 on one of these?
Why not simply build one yourself?
I mean, how hard can it be?
Keen to get cracking, we went to the Top
Gear Technology Centre and set to work.
It's all very simple, really.
I am in charge of the batteries
and the electric motor.
Clarkson is in charge - God help
us - of the bodywork and interior,
and Richard Hammond is in charge
of the chassis and the brakes.
If you are going to build your owncar, there's no
point just throwing the chassis together yourself
cos you'll get caught up in 20 years
- of red tape trying to get it registered to use on the road,
so what you need to do is use
the chassis from another car.
But there is a problem, because most
modern cars don't have a chassis as such.
It's all kind of built into the body,
so you need to choose from an older car.
Specifically, you've got a choice of
either a Land Rover, a Lincoln Town Car,
or this, a TVR Chimaera.
I bought this one for £5,000, and I
was going to remove its body and engine
and then use its chassis as
the backbone of our new car.
James, meanwhile, was preparing to
cannibalise something a bit less sporty.
I shall be using the electric motor
- from this, which just leaves me with the problem of the batteries.
Now, the Tesla - that
American electric sports car -
uses 6,831 batteries,
but that seems a bit excessive
to me, so to save weight,
and money, I'm going
to use two batteries.
Like all great car designers,
I'd created a mood room,
hung with images from which
I could draw inspiration.
Big cats, jet fighters,
the actor Peter Bowles,
and pretty soon, I was
ready to start work.
It's a lovely material to work
with, aluminium, because it bends.
Car makers could learn a lot from
this simple system I've adopted.
Ow! BLEEP! Ow!
And there is the precious chassis.
That is the basisof everything
we're doing. A doddle!
In terms of construction, I've
taken my lead from shelving.
You've simply got the
uprights, which I've got here.
There it is.
The bolt goes through there.
Damn it!
How simple is this?
One piece, another piece,
bolts holding them together.
With the milk float dismembered,
my power system was taking shape.
That's 100 quid's worth of
batteries, a 20 quid milk float motor,
and watch this. MOTOR WHIRRS
Hear that?
Is that turning round now? Don't put
your finger on it. I'm not going to.
As long as you two keep the weight
of your body and chassis down,
that'll go like a
stabbed rat. Are you sure?
Well, it'll be a damn
sight faster than a G-Wiz.
'While May wired up his batteries and
Hammond prepared his chassis...' It's free!
'..I retired to the mood room to
seek further design inspiration.'
OK. We're removing
ancient history here. Guys!
Is he...? Yes?
Has anyone ever done a car
with a moustache? No. No.
Having finished their jobs, Hammond and
May left me alone to complete the bodywork.
Beautiful.
Our masterpiece was ready.
Well, credit where it's due... I can't see
any of the nail heads. I mean, it's all right.
You're pleased? Very. Amazed.
I have to say, this isn't actually it.
Oh. Oh.
There you go!
FANFARE PLAYS
That is the worst-looking
car in the whole world.
I'd rather look at one
of your dingleberries.
What is the matter exactly?
Everything is straight.
Everything is doable
on your kitchen table.
Jeremy, is that a section from
a garage door? Yes. Oh, OK.
What's more, I'd fitted a tape
player, and, rather brilliantly,
three-abreast seating.
Who's going to sit here? You
haven't given them any head room.
Hammond can sit in the middle. Oh, God.
Careful of my roof!
You're bending my roof!
It's bending my spine! You
really need to change the roof.
That's no good. All right, all
right! Back to the drawing board.
'While Jeremy modified the roof...'
Out. Out! '..Hammond and I
'started to think about
a name for our creation.'
I hate it when eco-cars are given a
really pious name like Intelligentsia.
So we want to give it a more aggressive
name? Like Mustang, Tiger, Leopard, Panther.
Or Vixen. Vixen!
'Sadly, though, Jeremy
had beaten us to it.'
"Geoff".
MECHANICAL GRINDING
And after some more styling tweaks,
- Geoff was ready for the road.
I feel like the Pope
with his head in a box!
It works!
THUD! Ow.
LOUD DRONING What is that
noise? It's the motor.
It sounds like they're
filming an episode of Bonanza.
It's an amazing racket.
Don't knock it. It's working.
Open it up, James. Open it up.
Yeah, go on. Give it some
beans! I have. Is that it?
Is that full speed? Uh, yeah.
How fast is that? Nearly ten.
You've built a car that
will only do 10mph?!
It... Yeah.
'Actually, that wasn't such a bad thing
'on account of the design flaw
with Jeremy's shiny bonnet.'
Ah, I'm blind! My head's being
cooked in a box! That's quite bad.
I'll tell you what, though
- it works. It does work.
I mean, it's going along. We're in an electric
car. Which we made. It's fantastic. £6,000.
Can you put three
people in a G-Wiz? No.
'In fact, we were so proud of Geoff,
we took him for a drive into Oxford.'
Now, you do realise Oxford
loathes the motorcar?
Not this one. But this
one will be welcome.
They will think it's the
second coming! A hippy!
See the happy hippies?
Did you see the cyclist smiling at us?
'However, as we neared the city centre, James'
power system started to develop some issues.'
I'm not going to indicate.
It seems to slow it down.
You're not telling me that the
indicators affect the charge?!
There's something not quite right with the
way it's wired. I felt a drop in power as I...
Why did you not fit
more than two batteries?
Because I wanted to save
weight. Stop picking holes in it!
'To take our minds off the power
problems, I found some music.'
Belinda Carlisle.
MUSIC PLAYS
'Sadly, though, James doesn't
like Belinda Carlisle.'
Off! TURNS MUSIC OFF
James, James, we aren't allowed to
drive down this street. Yes, we are.
No, we aren't. We are.
'I was right. We weren't.'
Oh, God!
Well, you're going to have to
turn round. That's a dead end.
Hang on. It's packed up. Oh, no. DRONING
Don't tell me it's died. HORN BLARES
Sorry. Why is it doing that?
HORNS BLARE
You designed the engine. It's working!
James, wait! The cyclist!
There's a Peugeot! Sorry, mate!
Mind the cyclists.
'Then it stopped again.' Sorry.
Sorry. It's got a bad connection.
It just cuts out. HORNS BLARE
I feel silly now.
Oh, there's a policeman!
'Every time we reversed,
the motor cut out,
'so we had to go forwards into the
buses-only zone.' Excuse me, Hammond.
Sorry. Sorry.
# You say that it's complicated... #
Sorry. Belinda Carlisle!
What do you think of that?
'Having annoyed the people the centre of Oxford,
we drove on and ended up annoying the people
'in the outskirts of Oxford.'
Have we got anyone behind us? Yes.
Oh, yes! Yes, we have, yes!
This is embarrassing. HORNS BLARE
'And then it got a
bit more embarrassing.'
James, this isn't... Why
are you stopping? Oh, God.
James? Why...?ENGINE SPLUTTERS
We've run out of juice. But...
HORNS BLARE
'While James and Richard
directed the traffic round Geoff,
'I went in search of some
electricity.' DOORBELL RINGS
HORNS BLARE A tiny, tiny bit left.
That'll do. You've got room on the left.
Nobody in.
Wait, wait, wait. Just
go back a little bit.
HORNS BLARE
I thought everybody was unemployed!
So it's left a bit. A bit more.
No, no, no! Left. That's right.
This'll be an old people's home. They
won't have electricity. HORNS BLARE
Guys, we're going to have to get the
electricity from this side of the road.
Nobody is in there. OK.
Thank you.
Sorry, everybody. You are so kind.
When you run out of fuel in the future, this will be your life
- undoing spaghetti.
We're in!
There. That works.
Sorry. Sorry.
James, how long does it take
to charge an electric car?
Well, to charge it fully would take a good
six or seven hours, but in two hours...
Whoa! Six or seven HOURS?!
My arm's aching already. Those are the
facts of battery-powered cars. We know that.
'Still, much to the
relief of everyone...'
CRUNCH! No! '.. Geoff was ready to go.'
Let's see. Yes! MUSIC:
Theme from "Rocky"
'Sadly, though, he was
just as slow as before.'
James, you're being
overtaken by children.
A lot of children coming past.
There's a bicycle coming by. With two
people on it. Another bicycle coming by.
'On balance, we thought it best to leave Oxford
and get back to the Top Gear Technology Centre,
'but then James took a wrong
turning...' Left! Left there!
What? '..with terrible consequences.'
HORNS BLARE James, this is the A34!
Oh, God! This is a road
with a speed limit of 70mph.
A lot of traffic now! Can
you drive with the hazards on?
Yeah, but it might slow
us down a bit. Oh, my God.
James, get off the dual carriageway.
That sign says "Motorway 6". I
don't want to go on the motorway!
James, do not... Is there
a junction before that?
Look at the traffic jam. I can't.
It's too embarrassing.
Look at the traffic jam.
I can't! I've got my head in a
plastic box, and everyone can see me!
HORNS BLARE Do you know what we've done?
We've made something
worse than a G-Wiz.
Don't say that. We have.
I disagree. It's slower. Yes.
He's being cooked. Yes.
It's rubbish.
MUSIC PLAYS SLOWLY: "Heaven Is
APlace On Earth" by Belinda Carlisle
# We'll make heaven a place on... #
Eventually, we ended
up in the countryside
where at least we couldn't
get in anyone's way,
but unfortunately, the A34 had had a
catastrophic effect on our performance.
We're hardly
moving!HIGH-PITCHED DRONING
I wouldn't mind it going slowly. I
just wish it wouldn't make that noise.
James...
Oh, God! What?
ENGINE WHINES
Please tell me that... ENGINE STOPS
You bloody idiot!
Why did you think two batteries
was the right solution?
Tesla used 6,800 batteries for a reason.
Oh, great(!) We're actually holding
people up here. Sorry. Sorry!
THEY STRAIN Come on, Geoff.
Come on! I'll tell you what, James.
What? There's loads of houses
around here where we can get
some more electricity(!) James, seriously, why
didn't you put more than two batteries in it?
I didn't want it to weigh too much.
- Batteries go flat. This is important consumer information.
Stored electricity is
like a caged animal.
You should have used more than two.
- Well, next time, I know and we know.
Tell me that isn't happening.
Tell me that isn't happening.
CRASH!
I... I don't want to...
The lonely walk
confirmed our worst fears.
Geoff was dead.
Don't applaud. Don't
applaud. Geoff is dead!
It was the saddest moment. As
it hit the tree, my heart broke.
They're obviously all from
Oxford, that's what it is.
Yeah.
Anyway, we could have given up
at that point, but we didn't.
We went back to the drawing board
and later on you'll be able to see
the results of our frankly brilliant
effort. But for now, it's the news.
It is indeed and we start with this.
As we know, Formula One has always
been the most glamorous sport
in the world, hasn't it? Yeah? But
not any more. Not from next year.
There's four new teams joining in,
OK. One of them, Manor Grand Prix,
is based in Sheffield.
How glamorous is that?
Strictly speaking, it's actually
between Sheffield and Rotherham.
If we're going to be pedantic, it's
between Sheffield, Rotherham and Worksop,
in a place called
Dinnington, which I know well.
And it's exactly like Monte
Carlo...apart from in every single detail.
It does take the shine of it a bit.
I can't wait to see their new car.
I don't why you bother with all that
carbon fibre, I made mine out of steel.
Stainless steel. If that
Fernando Alonso hits our car,
his Ferrari will be knackered.
I'll tell you that for nowt.
It's funny, me dad worked in pit and
now I've got a job in pit and all.
They're replacing Toyota and
they've signed Timo Glock,
who presumably is currently learning
why it's important to punch anyone
who looks at him funny.
Is anyone from Sheffield?
Yeah. Are you? Whereabouts?
You're from Sheffield?
Cos I'm just thinking,
they're using Cosworth engines,
or I should say, Sheffield, Cozza.
Cosa? No, Coz-za. You've got to have-
a stroke halfway through the word.
Coz-za. So your face falls.
Coz-za.- Coz-za. Your face falls off.
You're from Sheffield, just
practise it, just show us.
How do you say it? Cozza.
There you go!
I think it's fair to say that
that team is probably Top Gear's
absolute favourite F1 team.
I want them to win everything,
so on the podium they're gonna
have a big brass band at the end.
Abide With Me. Ain't that a national anthem? We'll
have Abide With Me on a brass band, be lovely.
Now, criminals, would you like
to get away with your crimes?
Are you capable of running
more than 100 yards?
Well, good news, because the police
- are thinking of using these now.
It's a Mitsubishi electric.
They say it's helping
them crack down on CO2.
I don't want the police
to crack down on CO2.
I want them to get my
bloody television back,
because it's been six
years since that was nicked,
and I haven't heard a peep out of them whilst
they've been going on about cracking down on CO2.
I'll have to buy
another one at this rate.
What were you stopped for
the other day, by a policeman?
It was some motoring misdemeanour.
You just turned around and said,
"Oh, good. This must mean
you've found my television."
If I was a policeman and my chief
freemason came into the office
and said... I mean Chief Constable.
- I always get them muddled up.
And he said, "Right, you've got
to do your beat in one of those."
I would drink my own pepper spray.
I'll tell you what, this is a
slightly interesting one, OK.
There was a survey recently
about the effects that a nice car
can have on a male, the human male, OK?
What they did was they got 40 young
- guys and they made them drive
up and down the street in a Toyota
Camry and then drive up and down
the same street, in the
same manner, in a Porsche 911
and then they measured their
testosterone after each drive.
And after driving the
Porsche, it had shot up.
So it had an actual physiological
effect on them? Yeah.
I'm amazed by that. I think that
makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
Cos whenever I drive a really nice,
- exciting car I always get
like a nice little fizzing sensation.
No, it's not... Where is
this fizzing sensation?
It's not actually in
my penis, but it's...
but it's sort of just behind it.
A fizzing sensation
just behind your penis?
Yeah. So, isn't that
the pit of your stomach?
No, no, lower down than
that, sort of right...
That's your prostate, mate.
You've sat on the gear.
Does anybody else have a fizzing
sensation just behind their penis...
Am I the only person... Ah! Thank
you, sir. You have? Good man.
Or do you just want to be on television?
Come here. Do come here.
It's just got a lot worse! James May, a
man in a moustache has come on the stage
and wishes to meet you to discuss...
Please, have a seat. ..your fizzing penises.
That's the end of the news. Oh, God!
APPLAUSE
I'd like to commend you
on being brave enough,
especially as you've grown
a moustache for charity,
to come on the stage and admit that
- you too have been bestowed
with this great gift from the
gods of a slight fizzing sensation
somewhere behind your penis but in front of
your prostate when you drive an exciting car.
What sort of car are you
driving when you feel it?
Citroen AX.
Honestly, no, seriously...
we really must invite you to...
go back over there. Thank you.
I think some of us are just
more fortunate than others.
You must have had this on
a motorcycle. No, never!
I'm just gonna stand. I don't
even want to use that seat now.
Now, we have to just touch on
something, don't we, before we go,
because... LAUGHTER
No, we don't, no. No, no, no. Argh!
The news has gone wrong this week.
I'd rather chop them off.
I'd rather slice them.
Thing is, next week
we're doing this item
on which car company has produced
the largest number of great cars.
This is GREAT cars? Yes, GREAT cars.
- So, any thoughts on which
car company's made the
biggest number of GREAT cars?
See, Aston Martin isn't...
I don't think Aston has made a single
great, GREAT car. They make some lovely...
DB5 was only great because of
JamesBond. It's actually a bit rubbish...
Exactly. Anyone else got any thoughts?
Who said Ferrari? Somebody said Ferrari
over there. That's a good call, but...
It's a good call, but if you think about
it, they've made a lot of rubbish cars too.
Their 348 was rubbish, the
Testarossa was rubbish...
Mondial was rubbish. The F40
was a great car. That was great.
But what about mainstream
manufacturers, though? Ford.
They did the Model T, that's
kind of an important car.
Mustang... GT40 is a great car.
This, I think, is an interesting
debate that petrol heads can have.
We genuinely would like to
hear what you have to say,
so do please go on our website,
which is on the internet,
and then write something on... I don't
know how you... Write something on it,
which car firm you think has produced the largest
number of great cars. If you write that down
on our internet...we'll read it.
LAUGHTER
Now, last year I drove an Audi R8,
and I thought it was the knees of
the bee, but in a straight line, at
- least, it was a little bit slower
than a Porsche 911.
Yeah, quite a lot slower
than a 911, actually.
It was about THAT much slower. I admit
that much makes all the difference.
LAUGHTER
However, Audi has now
released a new faster version.
This is it, and it looks pretty
much the same as the original.
However...
The standard R8 has a 4.2-litre V8.
THIS has a 5.2-litre Lamborghini V10.
That means 518-brake horsepower...
enough torque to tenderise an elephant
and a top speed of about 200mph.
0 to 60 is dealt with in
3.7 seconds. That's there -
80, 90, 100, 110,
120, 125 in eight seconds.
This thing is phenomenal!
The handling is pretty epic as well.
As a driver's car, this
is...spectacularly good.
It's like Scarlett Johansson's lips
- or the roof of Paddington Station.
Absolutely faultless.
Oh, God, it's good!
Oh, mmmmm!
r!
And unlike most super-cars, it's
not even desperately impractical.
You get a boot, which is big
enough- for three medium-sized goats.
You get a useful shelf behind the seats,
and you get room inside to move about
- and breathe.
There are a couple of mistakes, I admit.
If, for instance, you have a can of
- tangy, refreshing drink here
in the cup holder, and
you go to change gear,
your elbow's going to knock
it and that's annoying.
And as far as I can work out,
the trip computer isn't working.
I don't like to say that because
it would have been installed by
a German who will be shot
at dawn for his mistake,
but it...it doesn't.
And then there's the biggest mistake of them all
- the price.
It's £100,000. And
that's just the start.
If you want ceramic brakes, £7,000.
Flappy-paddle gearbox, £5,000.
If you want the boot
lined in fake suede,
£1,600.
Bucket seats
- £2,350.
Colour co-ordinated
seatbelts - 750 quid!
If you want these panels,
here, finished in carbon fibre,
you're mad, mad as a Mexican's dog.
They even charge £500 if you want to
pick the car up from the factory yourself.
That's like charging someone
£10 extra for a bottle of wine
if you tread the grapes yourself.
I'd tell them to get lost.
Strangely, however, it's not the money
that would stop me buying this car.
The trouble is... is
it's a bit too joyless.
A bit too like Scarlett
Johansson's lips.
You can...never imagine
this thing smiling.
I mean, look what happens,
OK, if I hit this button here.
"Sport mode on," exclamation mark.
What's it got an exclamation mark for?
You put the sport on in a
super-car? You mad, crazy fool, you!
Look at the sat-nav, OK.
It can take you to a bank or a
bowling alley or a bus station.
I'm sorry? Golf course.
Historical monument.
Yes, I've got a super-car,
but I'm going to stop off
and look at this Neolithic fort!
The R8 V10, then, doesn't really do fun.
It doesn't do pantomime, so if I
was spending £100,000 on a car,
I'd think very seriously
about buying something worse.
This is the Corvette ZR1,
which is extremely fast.
This has a super-charged
6.2-litre engine,
which is a turbot compared to
Audi's 5.2-litre un-supercharged cod.
Put it in a drag race with the
R8 and the results are inevitable.
I have got 120 more
horsepower than the R8...
and because the Corvette
is made from plastic,
it's lighter as well.
If only America could win
its wars so convincingly.
However, there are a few problems.
I tested one in America
last year and, erm...
after three days, it was starting to
fall apart, and then on the fourth,
it refused to start.
It's also insanely vulgar.
It's only available
with left-hand drive.
The luggage cover looks
like a motel shower curtain.
It's much too wide and in the
corners, it's a complete mad man.
Oh.
When I drove this thing
in California, I loved it!
But I think it might have
been a holiday romance,
because here on our track it's,
it's... Well, let's be kind,
let's say difficult.
Remember, I've got more
power than the Ferrari Enzo.
Oh, my God. Come on!
Get in a straight line!
I may have more firepower, but
trying to keep up with the Audi
is like trying to win the Grand
National whilst riding a lion,
that's made out of teeth and jelly.
It sort of wobbles about and
then if you're not careful,
it bites your arm off. Aaahh!
Oh, no! I'm gone!
The thing is, though, despite the
waywardness and the terrible danger,
the Corvette is more fun.
It's disintegrating already, I'm
being strangled by my own seatbelt
and the end's come off! Get on!
Be in no doubt, then
- the Audi is a better car.
It's better built, better
to look at, better to drive,
more comfortable, easier to
park, and, in the real world,
faster.
You'd have to be bonkers
to buy the Corvette.
And that is why you should.
APPLAUSE
It's that exclamation mark that
says everything about that car.
You want Sport Mode?! Sport Mode!
Sport Mode!
Oh, now, ah-ha...
I have got an apology to make.
I said in that film that the Audi's
- trip computer was broken.
It isn't, OK? It turned out I hadn't
pressed the reset button properly.
LAUGHTER
We did actually ring Audi
to confess to what he'd done,
but it was too late. The man
responsible had...shot himself.
Yeah. He had.
Anyway, it's now time to put both cars
in the hands of our tame racing driver.
Some say that he has some terrible
plans involving the moon...
LAUGHTER
..and that he was turned down for a place
on I'm A Celebrity because he IS one.
LAUGHTER
All we know is... he's called The Stig!
CHEERING
They're off! A genuinely
interesting battle, this,
because the Corvette is
faster in a straight line,
but it needs an extraordinary talent
to get it round corners
without crashing.
Look at that.
And there is the talent.
MUSIC: "When I'm Cleaning Windows"
Oh dear, Stig continues to make
each lap into a Cockney knees-up.
Ooh, did you see that? Weirdly,
it's the Audi going sideways.
Through Chicago. What'll
happen in Hammerhead?
Let's have a look here.
Again it's the four-wheel
drive R8 that's out of shape.
The 'Vette in the Stig's
talented paws clinging on.
A wiggle on the way out, but that's it.
MUSIC CONTINUES
Right.
Follow-through -
this is where the
Corvette's super-charged V8
can really deliver some shock and awe.
The tyres
- they are both quick through there.
It's the in-bred lunatic versus
a car with no sense of humour,
and they're pretty much
neck-and-neck, just Gambon to go.
Both sigh through there,
and they cross the line.
And now we have the times... APPLAUSE
Audi.
The Audi first?
It did it in 1:21.6, which
puts it... That's for the Audi.
1:21.6? That was sort of a damp-ish-
lap, as well. That's quick, OK.
However, Corvette did it in 1:20.4.
- What?!
No... But the thing is, I reckon
you or I could get the Audi round
in roughly that time, OK?
But there's no way we could make the Corvette go round in that.
- Literally, I would
be five minutes dead. ..AND dead. Five
minutes AND dead is what it would be.
Anyway, now it is time to put a
star in our reasonably-priced car,
and my guest tonight is an actor.
He has played Kenneth Williams,
who is no longer with us,
he's played Brian Clough,
who's no longer with us,
and he's played Tony Blair, who, um...
LAUGHTER
..IS still with us.
Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Sheen!
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
How are you?
Have a seat. Lovely.
I thought you were going
to look like Tony Blair.
I... It's my day off
today. Cos it's weird -
when I watched The Queen,
obviously when you WERE Tony Blair,
I remember thinking, "God, they did very well to find an actor
- who looks so like him."
But you're much better looking!
LAUGHTER
It's not hard, is it? Do people
think you're going to look like him?
In America people think I'm
a Tony Blair look-alike, yeah.
But you're not. I don't do
work as a Tony Blair look-alike,
although I do have
look-alikes in my family.
My dad is a Jack Nicholson
look-alike. Is he?
He is indeed. Cos I was looking
back at your family history
and it was all very weird, because
nobody's done anything conventional
since the dawn of human
history... That's true.
Your great-grandmother was... She was the first
elephant and lion- tamer in Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Right...! LAUGHTER
Her name was Nanny Blower, and God bless her,
she was talented, but she wasn't a looker.
She had her left breast mauled off
by a lion, and the claw of that lion
is on a chain somewhere in our family.
Seriously? Yeah.
And it's at this point you go,
"And we have that lion for you now!"
I wish I'd known. I
would have looked into it.
There was your... Not grandfather...
Great-grandfather. Who was the one who got drunk a lot?
Yeah, my great grandfather was a bit
of a waster in the town, in Port Talbot,
and the story goes that he was lying in the gutter
one night, having been chucked out of the pub,
and the moon appeared through the clouds, and
God spoke to him through the moon and said,
"You must mend your ways. Save up money and buy the
disused tin mine in the mountain." So from then on
he never touched another drink and he
saved his money. Everyone thought he was mad
cos there was no tin left. They
discovered a new vein of tin,
he became the richest man in Port Talbot
and became a street preacher from then on.
This is fantastic. Then your dad
was a Jack Nicholson impersonator...
A Jack Nicholson look-alike, not an
impersonator. Look-alike. There is a difference.
He's a genetic freak,
not a talented actor.
LAUGHTER
And now you're Tony Blair and David Frost... And Kenneth Williams
- and Brian Clough.
This is... Can I just,
first of all, can I just take a moment
to congratulate you on Frost/Nixon.
That was amazing. Thank you
very much. Rocky is what it was.
It was Rocky for interviewers. Instead
of fighting, it was interviewing Nixon.
Brilliant film, I adored that.
And I was just wondering, why
do you choose parts predominantly
Now, the new film, Twilight
- it's New Moon, isn't it, from the Twilight series?
which you did this presumably because
you've got a 10-year-old daughter.
Yes. I have a 10-year-old daughter who
is obsessed with the books. As have I.
Completely besotted. And I always
say to her, "What are they about?"
rl,
"and she's in love with a werewolf, but she
was..." and I say, "What are you reading?!"
It's sort of this great love story,
- it seems,
and also, you know, they sort
of tap into something about...
particularly a teenage
girl's experience growing up.
So you're a v... I am a vampire.
So was it Peter Mandelson this time
- you modelled it on?
Yes, absolutely, completely
modelled it on Peter Mandelson.
Now, cars - you spend a lot of
time- living there in Los Angeles,
so I would assume you
have some form of hybrid.
It
It was
It was a
It was a Datsun Sunny and a Ford
Orion. I am not one who spends a
lot of money on cars. You spend a
lot of time in Los Angeles. I would
have assumed you would have some
form of hybrid. No, not really.
There is a lot of pressure. It is
the way for a. It is. I am going to
get a Jaguar. -- the way forward.
I'd like to get a green one.
So when you go on American chat shows
and they say, "You got a hybrid?"
You can say, "No, I have
a Jag." "I have a Ja-a-ag."
So what do you use in England?
I nip around London on a scooter.
I once rode one of those across
Vietnam. It tried to kill me.
Did you ever fall off?
They're fantastic. In fact,
when I first got the scooter, it was just
before I started playing Kenneth Williams
in this film I did, Fantabulosa!
And I was desperately trying to lose as
much weight as I possibly could to play him,
so I went on the cabbage soup diet
for the last ten days. Which is great,
I lost ten pounds, but I did used to lose consciousness as well.
- I was so faint.
So I was driving around on
this scooter around London,
which was scary enough as it was,
but I was also constantly farting.
My stomach was making terrible noises,
and whilst I used to drive it
I used to practise the voice,
so if anyone saw an Aprilia going
past them around the Clapham area
with a slightly sepia-looking
visor- and a smell coming behind it
and a voice going "mrr-rr-rr-rr"
as it was going along, that was me.
Did you ever fall off it?
No, I never fell off it.
I kept the stabilisers on, obviously.
Anyway, obviously you
came here, I have to say,
Los Angeles, THIS morning...
I came from the airport
straight here and into the car.
So you're... Well, what are
we, ten hours out... Yeah.
I have no idea what time...
I'll tell you what time it is. It's
- 6:30am, so it's time you were up.
I think there should be a new category,
which is, instead of just "W" for "wet",
there should be "JL" for jet lag. Jet lag.
And I believe... Was it damp out there as well?
It was damp-ish.
So that's jet-lagged and damp. And there
were people shooting bows and arrows.
Shooting bows and arrows. Many, many
things we have to write down. Many.
Jet-lagged, damp, bows and arrows.
And I'm Welsh. And you're Welsh.
LAUGHTER
In fact, who are the other
Welsh people on there?
Have I got a chance
of being top Welshman?
Alan Davies, is he Welsh? Or does he
just have a name... He's not Welsh.
Rob Brydon. Rob Brydon
- where's he?
Tom Jones. It would be good to beat
- Dame Helen Mirren, wouldn't it?
She's here. Tom Jones did. Tom Jones is on
top of Helen Mirren, not for the first time!
There's Rob Brydon,
just below Keith Allen.
This is kind of Little Wales, here, this
area. So this is where you're aiming for.
I want to be the fastest
boy in the village.
That's Little Britain.
I've just got that.
I'm there! See, even
jet-lagged, I'm on form, Jeremy!
LAUGHTER
Who'd like to see the lap?
ALL: Yeah! Let's have a look at this.
Oh, dear Lord...
TYRES SCREECH
Nice, smooth gear change.
'He's really ruined that.'
So here we go, coming up to
the first corner... Ooh, I say,
that's a vigorous turn in there.
Right, so we're not going
for the smooth approach.
Brake, you BLEEP, brake!
LAUGHTER
I like the hands on the
wheel there. That's wide!
This really is...
Don't go into fourth, Michael,
go into second, try that!
Well, one'll do! No, you're
supposed to LOOK slow,
so that you're actually...
That's not looking slow.
That's looking wide again.
The Stig did say,
well, he communicated...
Textbook. Absolute textbook.
LAUGHTER
That's not what The Stig
said. He said "clunky".
"Clunky but brave" is how he
described you. Clunky but brave!
It's not healthy, that's
not healthy, Michael!
Looking very Welsh.
That's pretty quick!
Oh-oh! Yes!
Now you go... Look...
Holy cow, that's quick!
That's very quick!
Now, what about Gambon?
Bloody hell, look at that!
And across the line! That was amazing.
CHEERING
I have here... Mm, mm,
mm-mm-mm mm-mm-mm... LAUGHTER
If it's under Roger
Bannister's mile, I'll be happy.
Under four minutes.
So you want to be somewhere down...
- The top of the Welsh zone.
It would be nice if I was, you know, above
Helen, and I would love it if I was above Rob.
So they're all around the one...
Rob's 1:51.7, but that was wet.
Michael Sheen, you
did it in one minute...
Yes...
..forty...
..six, point three.
Good Lord!
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
Seriously.
How did that happen?
That was a brave lap.
Gordon Ramsay just committed suicide.
I'm sort of mystified.
That was very fast. You can see it,
- cos you were doing a million down the straight.
I heard that Tom Jones
didn't want to come in,
and it must be something Welsh,
cos I didn't want to stop,
I wanted to keep going. I could
have beaten Jay Kay. Help yourself!
There's still 20
minutes of daylight left.
Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Sheen!
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Now, earlier on, we built
an electric car called Geoff,
and he was...a disaster.
Now, I'm not one to apportion blame,
but it was entirely James' fault.
Why?
Well, because...Jeremy's
body was brilliant...
Er, not Jeremy's actual
body, cos that's horrible.
The one on the car. My
chassis was brilliant,
and your battery system was
terrible. Well, it wasn't! Well...
it was. And, as a result, Geoff
ended up crashed into a wood.
We didn't give up. We decided
to go back to the drawing board,
and build Geoff II.
Back at the Top Gear Technology Centre, I fitted
narrower wheels which would reduce friction.
And James, mercifully,
found some more batteries.
I've also devised a
very, very clever way
of recharging them
while we're on the move.
Meanwhile, in the mood
room, Jeremy had decided
Geoff should no longer be called Geoff.
Hammerhead.
Hammerhead Shark. That's a dolphin.
I know, but it's like
a hammerhead shark.
Not really. It lives in the sea. Yeah...
I'll tell you the other thing
we've got to have, is the letter I.
Why? Because if you put
little i, not capital I,
little i with a little dot on it,
it tells everyone who
sees it that it's eco,
and that's OK. Doesn't. It does,
cos ecomentalists are stupid.
After many days of development,
ournew, improved car was finally ready.
But Jeremy, you haven't done anything.
You can't improve on perfection.
Anyway, I have done something. Look.
An energy-absorbing front end.
You can have massive accidents
and no damage will be caused.
You could run this into
a wood at top speed -
nothing would happen.
Then James unveiled his
radical new propulsion system.
Look at this! Batteries as before. But a few more
of them for extra power. Here's the clever bit.
They're recharged by that.
That is a diesel generator.
That charges the batteries? Yeah.
that a generator just from a shop?
Yeah. So, we've made a hybrid?! Yeah, sort of! No, because a hybrid
- uses a normal engine
that drives the wheels. A hybrid is
- a normal car for fools.
This just charges the battery. a diesel electric.
I got the idea from old railway locomotives.
So you just run the generator. means that
you'll never run out electricity. Exactly. Yeah.
Uses a tiny amount of fuel.
Yeah! Seriously, credit where credit's due!
That's not something you hear often on Top Gear.
Or ever, even! That's actually
quite a good idea. Thank you.
And this will go like stink.
And it did!
Well, that's brilliant! It's
a hybrid! We've built a Prius!
You don't think the producers are
messing with the subtitles, do you?
No! They wouldn't do that!
Since our amazing Eagle i
Thrust Head had cost £1,000 less
than a G-Wiz, we
decided it was brilliant,
and that we should put it on
sale to the general public.
However, before you can do that, it
must pass a series of stringent EU tests.
So we took the Eagle Thrust to
the motor industry's top secret
proving ground, just off the A5 between
Atherstone and Hinckley near Fenny Drayton.
When we get out, remember, be
positive, be positive! Yes! Positive!
Everyone's a customer!
We started with one of the biggies.
- A crash test.
We've all seen these. A car
is loaded up with dummies
and fired into a concrete block,
whilst super slow motion cameras
record the impact.
I, however, am so confident about
the Hammerhead-i Eagle Thrust,
that we will be using a
different sort of dummy.
Don't worry, we're coming as well.
There you go. Done. Can
you paint one on my face?
Why do crash test dummies have
these things? I don't know.
For the slow motion camera that records
the impact. It gives you a datum point.
Oh, I'm not interested in datum points... I didn't
think it was fashion amongst crash test dummies.
Are you sure about your
new bumper design? Yeah.
Thank you very much.
Hang on.
We were a bit frightened
when we saw the concrete crash block,
because we had to
crash into it at 30mph.
But then Jeremy had a brainwave.
Remember what I told you.
It's a very, very good plan this.
OK. Now, let's see the
slow motion crash footage.
We're going to
cra-a-a-a-sh.
Ohhhhhh!
Ohhhhhh!
Ow...my...chest.
Do you think we fooled them? Yeah!
Yeah. We're alive! We're alive! Wow!
We sur... That was...
It's not even marked! Oh, man,
that was, oh...! Staggering!
I think this is very convincing.
Shush, shush, OK, it's now time to watch
that crash at the speed it actually happened.
We're going to crash!
Ooh! Oh, my nose!
Oh! Oh! Ow, my chest!
And there we are, a superb
result in the crash test.
So, let's move on, shall we
and do...the pendulum test!
This is designed to measure
how a car will stand up
to being side-swiped
by a bus or a truck.
Frankly, it was hard to see how we could possible
pass this, but then James came up with a plan.
We need a camera. Yeah.
A plan that would fool even
the most astute EU bureaucrat.
Action! Wow! Wow! Wow! THEY LAUGH
Pendulum!
TOU KOOL!
Oh, right. So, now our car is going
- to face the fearsome pendulum test.
SPEECH IS REVERSED
PENDULUM CLANGS
Wow! Wow! Wow!
Wow indeed! Another pass! And happy
- that our car was completely safe,
we lined it up for a drag race.
We would be up against a Toyota Prius.
Chris Hoy's next-door neighbour.
Hannah...the fastest girl in our office.
And our main rival, the G-Wiz.
This was the quietest starting line
- in drag racing history.
ENGINE STARTS
Until Hammond started the generator.
OK, this is it! The future is here!
Three, two, one!
Did he jump the start? No.
I am so in the lead, straight away!
Oh! The Toyota's gone!
Where's the G-Wiz? I am all over it!
Come on!
This is brilliant! I'm going to win,
- I'm going to win!
Yes! Yes! Yes!
JEREMY LAUGHS Yes!
He beat the G-Wiz! By a mile!
He beat the G-Wiz!
And as ever, Hammond
was gracious in victory!
Yeah! Ha, ha, ha, ha!
Oh, yeah!
What do you think of that, then?
With your stupid little plastic gerbil!
Next we had to drive on
the fearsome Belgian Pave,
in a test designed to measure
both comfort and build quality.
VEHICLE CLANGS ALONG
THEY SHOUT WITH DISCOMFORT
Oh! Haw, haw, haw!
The chassis is smashing into the ground. It's
his generator weighs too much for my suspension.
Ow!
James! What?! The chimney's come off!
Oh! Oh! That's quite...
Quite a lot of smoke in here!
THEY COUGH It's all
collecting in my Pope box!
VEHICLE CLANGS AND CLANKS Ow!
But we're still going!
Yeah, we're hammering now!
Ow!
Oh! Has one of the doors fallen off?
No! No? Well then we
passed! I think we have.
It's an EU regulation. Is it? It actually
says if the doors are on after doing this,
then you've passed!
Well, they're still on!
Although we'd been a bit
gassed, the torture wasn't over!
So we re-attached the stove pipe and
went to see how the Eagle i-Thrust
would perform in the fearsome steep
- hill test.
OK, we're off!
GRILLE CLANGS Come on!
Come on.
I think we've passed this! Yeah!
Well done, everybody, that's good!
Yeah, we've passed. I bet the
G-Wiz wouldn't get up here.
I bet it wouldn't! No!
In the interest of fairness, we decided
to see how the G-Wiz would get on.
Using, of course, an
independent test driver!
Is he good, this guy?
He's independent, that's
the important thing.
It's £1,000 more than our
car, this. Hard to believe.
Will it go 1,000 feet higher
up this hill? Let's see!
Oh! It... Uh...
It's struggling!
Now that's a failure! Yeah, there
you go! Right there, that's a failure!
The Ham Head Eagle i was sailing through
every test the EU could throw at it!
But then it was time to
head to the wind tunnel
where we could measure the
aerodynamic efficiency of that body.
Where's Hammond? I'll call him.
Hello, lads. We gonna get
on with this? THEY LAUGH
Let's get going. What?! That
works! What? What? Nothing! Nothing!
Well come on, then, how does it work?
I don't know. How hard can it be?
Ready! FANS START
FANS WHIRR Yes! Look
at this! Oh, my God!
There we go, 12. 13. Here
we go. Look at the speed!
28mph. I'm gonna take
this baby up a bit!
When the body work ripples like
that, it does look beautiful.
It looks like a fish!
A really square fish with wooden ears.
It's also moving. It's moving.
Did you put the handbrake on?
Now, that's... Stop it or it'll go
in the fans! No, make it stop now!
Stop! Stop it, Jeeves! Stop it!
How do you stop the bloody fan?!
CRASHING
Despite the slight issue with the fans,
we decided that our car had passed.
So we moved on to what
would be the final hurdle.
The i-Ham would be
driven round the clock,
flat out on the proving ground's
test track, to measure it's range.
Obviously, in these conditions,
it's damp, there's a bit of drizzle
in the air. The concentration
required to do this,
is just immense! It's too demanding, we
couldn't do that. No. But we know a man who can!
He's not the Stig, but he is
the Stig's vegetarian cousin.
# All the leaves are brown
# And the sky is grey
# I've been for a walk... #
What's he called? His name
is...Janet Stig Porter. Oh!
Right! Fire up that generator!
ENGINE STARTS
Go!
Look at the speed of him.
James, how long, realistically, are
- you expecting that to keep going?
Well, I've topped up the
geni-tank,- so that's eight hours
on the generator. And that fully
charges the batteries as well,
so you get another hour out
of those, just the batteries.
So realistically, you're looking
for nine hours of running? Yeah.
SIRENS WAIL
What's happened there is...
Well, the Stig's died. Yeah.
And that's because the
stove pipe came off.
Now if we re-attach that stove I think
I'm right in saying, am I not, gentlemen,
that the Thrust i Eagle Hammer Head
- is ready for its road test. Yes. It's ready.
Obviously, we couldn't do
that, because we'd be biased,
so we decided to lend it to Britain's oldest
motoring magazine for an independent review.
They test all the latest cars
and innovations and to make sure
they didn't realise who were the
brains behind the Eagle Head i Hammer,
we had it dropped off
by an anonymous driver.
Hello, how can I help you?
All we could do now was
wait for their verdict.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Now, we have been sent advanced copies
of the magazine that has reviewed our car.
Here it is! HE GASPS
We're on the cover! We're on the cover!
We have! Right, where is it?
The Eagle... Right, here we go!
LAUGHTER
Erm...it says in the ride and handling section
where they deal with things like the chassis,
that to all intents and purposes, the Hammer Head
Eagle i-Thrust has no ride and handling as such,
instead it lurches around
almost uncontrollably.
LAUGHTER
Oh, God Almighty, no, it
gets worse! Listen to this.
They say that in the Highway Code, they say the stopping distance from
- 70mph is 215 feet.