Episode 4! In this episode, Jeremy Clarkson uses a machine, James May writes on a blackboard, and Richard Hammond throws fruit into a caravan. Spoiler alert ahead.
Jaguar XKR-S
Jezza kicks the show off with the idea that Jags used to be all about comfort and restrained performance, placing his track test subject into perspective – the Jaguar XKR-S. The car is the most powerful road car Jaguar has ever made (even more powerful than the speedy XJ220). The retuned supercharged V8 dishes out 542 hp that’s sent to the rear wheels. It is quite fast, loud, and back-end happy around the corners – and that’s enough to make to make Jezza smile. The body also gets aero bits to differentiate it from the ordinary XKR. Jezza’s not too happy with the red brake calipers and frowning nose. Inside, the car gets leather and no hint of wood and the speed and nimbleness gets traded for a harsher ride. The £97,000-price tag doesn’t help it’s case too. To provide contrast, Jezza then brings out the…
Nissan GT-R
Yes, the Nissan GT-R to answer the question if you can do better than the Jag. The new model gets some tweaks to make the car even more grippy. The 3.8L twin-turbo, the suspensions, the transmission are all linked to computing systems to make it go around tracks quicker than before. So how does it stack against the more powerful Jag? In a drag race, it demolishes the Jag. Around corners, the Jag can only manage 84.8 mph around coming into the follow-through. The Nissan takes it at 93.3 mph. Jezza, once again illustrates how much grip the Nissan has – with his floppy face getting mangled by the g-force. Fans will remember how the old GT-R broke Jezza’s neck when he drove it in Japan.Around the track, it manages a 1:17.8. The Jag does it in 1:23.3. It is, truly “an instrument of speed.”
News
In the news, they discuss the idiocy of launch control, the new Range Rover Sport, people’s accents, the Fiat Punto Abarth esseesse and the crate that comes with it.
Car Train Challenge Part 1
The boys take on the cost of trains as public transport. Trains are expensive to build, run, and cost just as much for commuters. So the boys decide to convert cars into trains. They buy an old red Jaguar XJS convertible and set on to convert it to run on tracks. After “working” on it, they come out with the car running on train tracks thanks to steel wheels. Amazingly, the car works perfectly creating the point that they made a train at not even a 1000th of the cost. Now that they had the locomotive, it’s time to slap on the carriages. To save on costs, they take caravans, fitted them with steel wheels and attached them to the Jag. One problem though – with the weight and the Jag’s rear-wheel configuration, the Jag just spins off its back wheels and goes nowhere.
Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car: Rowan Atkinson
The iconic British comic (Mr. Bean, Blackadder, Johnny English) is finally on Top Gear. Atkinson’s a total petrolhead, owning a Honda NSX and even a McLaren F1 among a bunch of other sports cars. They get to talk about cars, the new Johnny English, the Rolls-Royce Phantom with the 9L V16, making car-related terms sound funny, commenting on cars with facial expressions, and racing. Around the track, Mr. Bean blasts it with the fastest (so far): 1.42.2.
Car Train Challenge Part 2
Back to the train challenge. They now solve the problem by taking a four-wheel drive Audi as a locomotive. For its trip, James takes on the role of engineer while Hamster acts as steward to take care of the passengers in the luxury, economy, and scum classes. Meanwhile, Jeremy continues his idea with the Jag as a “sport” train, complete with an open-top carriage with a passenger from Rail Express magazine. As always, the challenge features a whole lot of mess (with the food carriage in May and Hammond’s train burning down and Jezza even overtaking the other train to get to their destination first).