Grosser vs. Corniche: Old Car Challenge Part 1 - Top Gear - BBC

now if you want a comfortable well-equipped four-seater for around 25,000 pounds there are currently 30 different models on the market but these two being bold and odd decided none of them were good enough and instead they wanted to buy cars from the pages of history now I should stress that what we've got coming up now isn't the usual top gear cheap car challenge because these really are their cars they're stupid it's a nicer 70 to a rolls-royce Corniche fix head with coach work by HJ Mulliner Park ward and is everything I look for in a classic luxury car it's quiet its supremely comfortable and it's quintessentially British frankly if you have 25,000 pounds to spend on classic luxury and you don't buy one of these you're an imbecile see what I mean rice Marshall Goering has arrived Morgan this James as I'm sure you know is Mercedes 600 grosser which was in 1963 the most expensive car in the world overpriced then like most Mercedes no does your car have a hydraulically operated sunshine roof no hydraulic windows hydraulic seats hydraulic doors hydraulic boot lid no while you are is it you just got a Ford Zephyr with a chrome nose this is a coach built hand-built car and built it's just another way of saying the Doral formal what's this called rolls-royce Mulliner Park ward a shame er than apart Ward it just sounds like a plumber's convention can I just say something familiar mmm see these little windows here do you know what they're for so that when you're in the back and the window is down this stops the draught messing your hair up and you've seen this as well has your car got these curtains curtains no they're going caravans are you ready for this yes okay ready that's brilliant actually I have to concede that because what I've always found really difficult is this plainly this had to be settled in the only way Top Gear knows so we headed for the test track what the grocer did was cement Mercedes's reputation for engineering integrity I think the only reason they didn't make it out of Donovan's is because they're too weak and brittle and then there's the ride just completely irons out bumps James will be saying the same thing in that Ford Zephyr of his I know he will absolutely nothing is allowed to compromise the quality of the ride in fact I like to believe that if you worked at Rolls Royce in the 1970s and you ever used a word like handling or sporty you'd have been fired this was a car for heads of state dictators if I'm honest people who have a 600 almost always have access to an air force that's why many cars it up partly because it's got the loudest horn in the world and also because I can call on an air strike at the track our producers had laid on a series of tests the first inevitably involved north stick okay surprise me as you can see the Stig is currently driving a 1.1 litre Highland IIE Oh Dennis it's a great tank you will attempt to beat his time in your much more elaborate and sophisticated cars here he comes it's a proud and Noble car that is with the Stig's marker laid down the rolls went first if this car had a monocle it would fall out I can't older cattle it's all a dignified spectacle this was ridiculous maybe sick okay so that ironed I did it in twenty four point four six seconds and James that's not good mate I had good reason to imagine the greengrocer would do better this is my secret weapon mm-hmm pull it down and it increases the pressure in the shock absorbers to 3000 pounds per square inch cool it is cor ittle bit like an f1 racer going down there it wasn't but unlike the rolls it's turning circle was less than the width of the runway well that's quite good actually I'm gonna bear in mind if you've got a dictator in the back and terrorists come you got to get away quickly Oh captain slow so with first blood to the Mercedes it was time for our next challenge they will now be a quarter-mile drag race between the two of you but it says the only thing is you aren't allowed to use your engines right it says old cars break down a lot and you should get used to pushing them out of harm's way what a quarter-mile pushing race I've put my back out just thinking about doing this you're trying to get out of it just say go are we ready [Music] I'm moving I'm not and I was already ahead pressure on these shoes how much does yours actually weigh two point two tons mine's 2.8 hang on you're getting ahead Oh Oh heart attack I've won that yes oh you have all you've won for I was still going mercifully the next test did involve our engines which car could achieve the highest top speed reached five but the thing I've got eighty the radar trap was set ninety good God the trim was coming off but with a six and three-quarter litre v8 the final results should be impressive it wasn't children come out of the womb faster than that before James had stopped I fired up the six point three litre big top speed of this car in 1969 was a hundred and twenty-eight thirty hundred sixty there it is a hundred miles an hour [Applause] my brakes are on fire we can see the smoke it didn't stop and now it's on fire still stop better than me I have to say yeah your stopping distance is rubbish

Channel: Top Gear

Views: 5,947,691

Rating: 4.8885074 out of 5

Keywords: BBC, BBC Worldwide, Top Gear, Grosser Mercedes, Rolls-Royce Corniche, Motoring, Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson, Classic Cars, James May, Top Gear (TV Program), Challenge

Id: aVDKztQ-n1U

Length: 8min 13sec (493 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/damonish]

season 11, ep 5 btw.

[u/ThatAustrian]

Reichsmarschall Göring has arrived!

[u/omgu8mynewt]

Watched the whole thing, its split into two videos on youtube. Dad came to watch it with me I was giggling so much.

[u/IshouldDoMyHomework]

My own favorite part is when James is having a look at the Clarksons repair bill. "aiiii"!?

[u/Thats_absrd]

"Don't blow your horn or else I'll blow mine back and then your ears'll bleed"

[u/wuersterl]

Thanks for this great clip!

[u/Hiei2k7]

I watched Part 2. I WANT THE HORN FROM THAT MERC!!!!