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Series 11 |
| 105 :11x01 - Series 11, Episode 1 (Jun/22/2008) | The intrepid trio are tasked with finding better vehicles for the Police than the Astra.
After spending their allotted cash, they are required to complete certain Police tasks (clearing a crash scene and stopping a fleeing vehicle) against which they are rated.
Jeremy takes a spin in a Ferrari Scuderia. | | Starring Roles: Jim Dowdall as Top Gear Stuntman, | Guest Stars: Justin Lee Collins as Himself, Alan Carr as Himself | | | |
| 106 :11x02 - Series 11, Episode 2 (Jun/29/2008) |
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On Ski Sunday Top Gear, Hammond got to grips with the world's most powerful estate car. Jeremy accidentally drove to Wales. James introduced another health-and-safety-defying display of bravery from Top Gear Stunt Man. And round ten of the car world's longest running grudge match kicked off on the test track.
Audi's new RS6 Avant is basically a practical family estate car with a faintly ridiculous 572bhp engine wedged under the bonnet. To test its sporting credentials, Hammond took it to the French ski resort of Les Arcs for a race against a pair of goateed French extreme skiers. Richard had to negotiate 22 miles of twisting, icy roads to reach the finish line, while the skiers would be taking a more direct route - straight down the side of a mountain. Despite the Audi's awesome performance, the chalet maid-bothering Frenchmen won.
Mercedes has taken its elegant, if slightly uninspiring, CLK coupe and sent it to supercar boot camp. The result is the CLK 63 AMG Black Series. That means a lot of badges, but then this is a lot of car. Jeremy loved it so much he just kept driving until he ran out of British Isles.
James May got his slide rule out in an effort to recreate one of film's most beloved car stunts: the spiral jump from The Man with the Golden Gun. In the film, an AMC Hornet is seen jumping off a ramp, making one complete revolution in mid-air, and then landing on its wheels on another ramp. What looks relatively simple on-screen actually involves some incredibly complex equations, and the genuine possibility of a horribly messy death for the driver. Enter Top Gear Stunt Man.
Unfortunately, James misplaced a couple of decimal points, so the attempt ended in a huge and painful-looking crash.
Rivalries don't come any more bitter and protracted than that of the Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Evo. Previous versions of these cars have slugged it out on Top Gear several times before, and it's always been very close. But with the Evo X, Mitsubishi has finally delivered the knockout punch. To take the boxing analogies to breaking point, it really is Mike Tyson to the Subaru's Frank Bruno.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/episodes/series11episode2. | | | |
| 107 :11x03 - Series 11, Episode 3 (Jul/06/2008) |
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On la-mia-macchina-non-va Top Gear, our presenters achieved motoring manhood by buying their own Alfa Romeos, and Jeremy drove the world's most expensive smoke machine.
We've always said on Top Gear that you can't really call yourself a petrolhead until you've owned an Alfa Romeo. The experience can produce profound happiness and utter heartache in equal measure, as these often beautiful Italian cars aren't exactly up there with Lexus in the reliability stakes.
Unperturbed, our three presenters set out to prove Alfas are worth the repair bills by each buying one for less than £1,000. Jeremy turned up in a ragged 75, which is one of the few Alfas that looks like it was designed in the dark. James managed to find a mid-90s GTV, but sadly not the sonorous V6 version. Finally, Richard bagged himself a Spider like the one from the Graduate. Unfortunately, his was more Tony Robinson than Mrs Robinson.
The presenters were set the usual barrage of challenges designed to test their cars' performance, reliability and looks. And, yes, bits dropped off, clutches seized, gearboxes disintegrated, and major components - like, say, engines - ceased to do the job they were designed to do. But other things happened, too.
The bickering stopped. Laughter was shared. Problems were overcome, and Jeremy, Richard and James forgot they were competitors and began to work as a team. Men bonded with machines and what started out as a mere journey became an odyssey.
No other car can do this. Nothing else can bring you such soaring joy and such deep frustration. Only in an Alfa Romeo can the simple act of turning the key and backing off your driveway become an adventure.
The new Bentley Brooklands has a traditional two-door coupe layout, but after this all comparisons with normal cars come to an end. For a start, it's so massive it actually generates its own gravitational pull. It has so much torque from its ancient V8 engine that if you drove in a easterly direction it's entirely possible you'd make the Earth stop spinning. On top of this, it costs £240,000, without options, and takes several thousand man-hours to bring into being.
Of course, applying Jeremy's usual power test-driving style to a car the size and weight of the Parthenon was always going to produce dramatic results. In this case, a detonating tyre brought filming to a shuddering but spectacular halt.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/episodes/series11episode3. | | | |
| 108 :11x04 - Series 11, Episode 4 (Jul/13/2008) |
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On domo-arigato-Mr-Roboto Top Gear, the presenters jetted off to Japan for the latest of our world-renowned epic races, Jeremy took a rolling art exhibit for a spin on the test track, and a pair of newsreaders drove our reasonably priced car.
In creating the 193mph GT-R, Nissan has gone to extraordinary lengths. For example, to ensure there are no imperfections, the engine was built in the sort of laboratory normally used for the study of infectious diseases. The tyres are filled with nitrogen because normal air is considered too unstable. And, Nissan has spent more than six years making absolutely sure the finished product will soundly thrash a Porsche 911 Turbo in a race around the Nurburgring.
Plainly, the GT-R deserved special attention, and what better way to test its capabilities than by having a race?
The starting point was a small beach on Japan's west coast, while the finish line was a monument to the Buddha of road safety which is located half-way up Mount Nokogiri-yama, some 400 miles to the east. Jeremy would be piloting the Nissan along a network of motorways, before having to navigate his way through Tokyo's rush hour traffic. Richard and James meanwhile had to negotiate their way onto a series of trains, buses, and even a cable car, to reach their destination. So, while Jeremy was busy trying to break the sound barrier, the other two had to contend with the language barrier instead.
Despite the best efforts of Japan's incredible public transport system and its 200mph bullet trains, Jeremy and the Nissan won. But only just.
Style is a subjective thing. One man's meat is another man's poison, and so on. But if you don't think the Alfa Romeo 8C is by far the best-looking car around, then might we suggest you have your eyes tested and look again?
Jeremy took to the test track in the 8C to see if the driving experience was anything like as good as its looks. Sadly, the answer was a big fat 'no'. But, as Oscar Wilde once said: 'All art is useless' - so maybe Alfa has just created the world's first V8-powered sculpture.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/episodes/series11episode4. | | | |
| 108 :11x05 - Series 11, Episode 5 (Jul/20/2008) |
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On Tally-ho Top Gear, we found a novel way around the fox-hunting ban, Jeremy and James put a pair of ageing luxury barges through their paces, and the Nissan GT-R returned to give Clarkson a massive neck injury.
Fox hunting is an ancient pastime, full of tradition, with many strict rules governing things like dress-code and behaviour. It was therefore something of a surprise when the Ledbury Hunt agreed to let Clarkson and Hammond join in for a special Top Gear version of the event.
Jeremy took on the role of the fox, or rather the Diahatsu Terios he was driving did. And, thanks to a special paint job, it looked almost exactly like a real fox. A 12ft long four-wheel drive one admittedly, but still.
Meanwhile, Hammond and the rest of the hunt simply had to track and catch Jeremy and the Diahatsu before he made it to the finishing post.
The hounds managed to corner Jeremy after a tense game of hide and seek, but unfortunately, due to Government legislation, they weren't allowed to eat him.
Car magazines are filled with articles extolling the virtues of picking up a mangy second-hand supercar for 'Mondeo money'. For the most part, they're absolute rubbish and will usually result in some poor sucker investing in a rust-riddled Ferrari Mondial and getting a pile of epic repair bills in return. However, Jeremy and James have both recently spent their own money on a pair of slightly ancient but bargain luxury limos, so we set them a series of challenges to see if this is something you should all consider doing.
James plumped for a Rolls-Royce Corniche coupe, while Jeremy opted for a Mercedes 600 'Grosse'. These cars were the Phantom and Maybach of their day - the chosen transportation of oil potentates and swivel-eyed dictators. Both bought for the sort of money usually associated with a medium-sized family saloon.
First, we took them to the track, with predictably hilarious results. But it was only when we made them drive into central London that the fun really began. They're so huge that parking proved to be literally impossible, while the reception they received from the general public was less than hospitable. Oh, and James managed to run out of fuel, bringing central London to a standstill. However, the real punch-line came when Jeremy revealed that his first service bill for the Merc had come to over £15,000.
So, should you buy one yourself? Well, yes actually, because they're absolutely brilliant.
When Jeremy drove the mighty Nissan GT-R on Japan's motorway system last week, he barely scratched the surface of its awesome potential. So this week he unleashed it on a proper race track, where its ferocious cornering ability promptly tried to snap his head off.
Fortunately, the Stig doesn't have a neck as such - so in his hands the Nissan put in a storming power lap.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/episodes/series11episode5. | | | |
| 110 :11x06 - Series 11, Episode 6 (Jul/27/2008) |
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On for-queen-and-country Top Gear, we tried not to lose on penalties in a massive motoring shootout against the Germans. James drove a couple of oddball cars from Japanese motoring-misfit Mitsuoka. And, Hammond sampled the raw power of the world's ugliest supercar.
Our old friend Sabine Schmitz has recently been on television presenting a sort of German version of Top Gear. Seeing as it's now been quite some time since the Brits and Germans had a good scrap, we thought it would be a good idea to challenge Sabine and her co-hosts to a contest of driving prowess.
We decided to meet up in that traditional location for Anglo-German disagreements - Belgium. Or, more precisely, the Zolder circuit - Belgium's second most famous race track. Jeremy, Richard and James made a typically understated entrance in a trio of Supermarine Spitfires.
After several explosive challenges, it all came down to one head-to-head race around the track. As the only two people left who hadn't competed in an individual event, James would be facing off against professional racing driver Tim Schrick. Oh, dear.
Ever the perfectionist, James prepared for his final challenge by losing four stone, cutting his hair and wearing his lucky white race suit and helmet. The unsportsmanlike Germans had the temerity to claim we'd replaced James with the Stig - and they were still complaining when Sti… er, James beat their driver into a cocked hat. Victory in the bag, our boys turned tail and headed for home.
You've almost certainly never heard of Mitsuoka - Japan's tenth largest car manufacturer. So, in an effort to educate you, James went for a drive through Tokyo in a couple of its cars. First up was the Orochi, a mid-engine supercar with madly swooping bodywork, which was slow, quiet, and really rather comfy. Naturally, James loved it.
Next was the Galue saloon, which is a sort of modern, low-cost homage to Rolls-Royce. As a cut-price rival to the Phantom, it was pretty hopeless. But, for the Japanese businessman who doesn't take themselves too seriously and just wants a bit of fun, it's in a class of its own.
Some supercars are automotive artworks, designed to make fat businessmen more attractive as they trundle down the King's Road. Others are designed to go fast first and look good a distant second. The new Gumpert Apollo is very much of the latter school. You're unlikely to impress any supermodels in one, unless they're major fans of big spoilers, awkward vents and chicken wire. But if you want to lap racetracks very quickly indeed, look no further.
This point was proved by the Stig as he propelled the Gumpert to the top of the power lap board.
Also, Jay Kay made a welcome return to the studio for another try in our reasonably priced car and managed to knock Simon Cowell off the top spot in the process.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/episodes/series11episode6. | | Guest Stars: Jay Kay as Himself | | | |
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