Top Gear - The Challenges 1
Robin Reliant Space Shuttle: Combining cutting edge amateur
rocketry, British Grit, and truly intergalactic levels of messing
about, Richard and James try to put a Reliant Robin into space.
Building Amphibious Cars:Can the lads create a vehicle equally at
home on land and water? Will they even make it across the
reservoir without drowning or catching hypothermia?
Building a Limo: The boys are up against it, making their own
stretch limos from everyday cars. But the challenge has only just
be. There are some high-profile celebs who need a lift to the
Brit Awards...
Building a Convertible: Attempting to turn a Renault Espace into
a fashionable 'drop top', the team prove that trying to make your
own convertible is a bit like trying to cut your own hair... you
can do it, but you probably shouldn't...
Parkour vs Peugeot 207:They may wear silly trousers but these
parkour (the barmy sport of leaping across rooftops across the
city) lads are serious competition for Captain Slow's Peugeot 207
in a race through Liverpool.
Veyron Race from Alba:It's Top Gear's most dramatic race yet.
Jeremy's in the Bugatti Veyron - the fastest, most lavish
supercar ever - while Richard and James are in a flying washing
machine - with Captain Slow at the controls!
Crap 70s Supercars:They were once state-of-the-art Italian
supercars - the Maserati Merak, the Ferrari Dino 308GT4 and the
Lamborghini Uracco. Now, all the lads need to do is try to drive
them from Bristol to a "gentleman's" club in Slough.
Top Gear - The Challenges 2
Amphibious Cars: The Sequel - The magnificent return of the
homemade amphibious cars, as the lads drive their vehicles to
Dover and across the Channel. Well, that was the plan…
Bugatti Veyron vs Eurofighter - Place your bets. A mile and back:
vertically and horizontally; Hammond in one of the world’s
fastest cars, the RAF in a fighter plane with a maximum speed of
900 mph.
Race Across London - James in a massive Mercedes, Hammond on a
bicycle, the Stig on public transport (!) and Jeremy in a racing
speedboat. Of course the car will make it across the capital
first. Won’t it?
Motorhome Racing - The rules are ‘quite’ strict: it’s a
no-contact race; drivers must overnight in their camper
vans before the race and be able to drive home afterwards. So,
how come there’s a kitchen unit on the track?
The Greatest Driving Road - Scouring the Alps for the perfect
road – beautiful scenery, pure pedal-to-the metal driving and a
rush of adrenaline – in light-weight supercars – have the boys
died and gone to heaven?
Fiat 500 vs BMX - The Fiat 500 has been reborn as a city runabout
for fashionable and sexy young people. James May is none of these
things, but surely he can beat a pair of scruffy erts on
titchy bikes around Budapest?
The 24 Hour Race - The Britcar 24-hour race at Silverstone is a
gruelling test of driver stamina, skill and car reliability – so
guess who’s entering a BMW 3-series powered by bio-diesel that
they grew themselves?
Top Gear - The Challenges 3
CHEAP ALFAS - The boys try to prove that old Alfa Romeos are
proper petrolheads' cars by buying sub-£1,000 Italian rustbuckets
and completing a series of challenges. Well, when we say
‘completing’…
BRITISH LEYLAND - Challenge General consensus is that British
Leyland never made good cars. We disagree. So to prove that 40
years of BL is worth celebrating, the boys shell out for a BL
classic and attempt the dreaded water test.
RACE ACROSS JAPAN - Jeremy and a Nissan take on James, Richard
and the world’s greatest public transport in an epic race across
Japan. Yes, it’s GT-R versus bullet train and it’s a close call.
TOP GEAR VS THE GERMANS - The boys take on the presenters of the
German Top Gear telly, makes you think Fawlty Towers could have
tried harder with the war jokes to be honest.
THE LORRYING CHALLENGE - Jeremy and the boys wonder how hard it
is to be a truck driver – and ponder for long enough to buy three
lorries and take on the mother of all lorry challenges.
RICHARD’S F1 CHALLENGE - It’s the Renault that Fernando Alonso
won the world titlein, but Richard’s not quite on the pace. Put
it this way: the tyres needed warming up again after he’d done
his laps…
FOX HUNTING - The boys invent a new rural sport, pitting a pack
of hunting dogs against a Daihatsu Terios. Jeremy gets stuck in a
river and Richard proves surprisingly good on a horse.
BUS RACING - Boris Johnson wants to know which bus is the best
for London. To find out, we get a bunch of touring car drivers to
race them round a gravel circuit. Very scientific...
Top Gear - The Challenges 4
Train Race What would Top Gear have been like in 1949? To find
out, Jeremy took a newly built steam train, James an old Jaguar
and Richard a legendary – if painful – motorcycle for a race from
London to Scotland.
Electric car The question – could Top Gear build an electric car
for less than the cost of a G Wiz? The answer was yes, but it
looked like a robot’s tool shed.
Ice Racing Proper petrolheads reckon you can’t have fun in a car
unless it’s rear-wheel drive. Take three rear-wheel drive coupes
on a trip across France, for some unexpected ice racing.
cars Top Gear set about finding British bobbies the
perfect disposable cop car, thereby allowing them to make us
proud on the world stage of ! Action! Kill! programming.
Classic rally Jeremy, Richard and James had never bought classic
cars at auction before. How hard it could be? Cue distinctly
mixed purchases on a Majorcan odyssey.
Commie Cars Did the Communists ever build a good car? To find
out, Jeremy and James got together a load of funny looking
vehicles and tested them at that great symbol of Cold War
Britain, Greenham Common airbase.
Ken Block To find out more about rally driver - and internet
video clip sensation – Ken Block, James was sent to America for
an eye widening passenger ride with the man himself. Good job he
packed spare underpants.
Portofino The Riviera was the cool place to be seen in the 1960s.
But the congested glamour hotspot now is best negotiated by boat
according to James. Richard disagreed, so he got himself a 1960s
Ferrari Daytona to have a sun kissed race.
Fiesta test Top Gear received a letter from a man called Mr
Needham asking why the programme didn’t ‘test cars properly any
more’. Stung by this criticism, Jeremy set out to perform the
most thorough road test possible.
Audi vs skiers The Audi RS6 is a fast estate car, but is it
faster than two irritating lithe Frenchmen who spend their days
pretending to read poetry books so they look more attractive to
chalet girls? Richard went to France to find out.
McLaren F1 vs Bugatti Veyron Is Bugatti’s mighty 1000 horsepower
Veyron faster than McLaren’s legendary F1 hypercar? Richard went
to Abu Dhabi, persuaded the local to close a long straight
road, and set about finding the answer.