Old Top Gear: Fast And Furious 2 VHS (2000)

I can always watched if I mean he is fantastic and prodigiously talented in these Villette ik routines with motorcars he is the only person in the entire civilized world that I know that can do an 18-second powerslide and then stop bang absolutely exactly in front of the camera with all the badges on the wheels pointing the right way up I can't do it I cannot do and even if I practiced for a thousand years I couldn't drive liked if does and it's funny because you can go and talk to other racing drivers Damon Hillman people and they will actually say no we can't drive like TIFF does either Tiff's drive is just superb it's absolutely brilliant here's a complete storm I mean I just I would crash I would just annihilate an entire suburb before I came to respite TIFF TIFF he is the man respect I'm Amy well what attires for except to be worn out and over the last few years top gear have let me get through a set or to all the name research of course lights camera action ladies and gentlemen welcome to our main bout of the evening a heavyweight contest in the 40,000 pound two-seater sports car class and presenting in the red corner the TVR Chimaera the British bulldog with 5-liter v8 horsepower has got a reputation for a big punch and in the blue corner the Challenger from Munich Germany the M Roadster they'd an Pretender the German wolf found let's just moved up from lightweight to middleweight and now with a three point two litre straight-six the heavyweight division let's get ready to rumble onto the track for the first round back all-important blast from naught to 60 wearing my blue shirt I am the BMW in red I'm the TVR got that little whippersnapper beaten here I've got 320 horsepower met v8 under the bonnet and I've got three hundred and twenty foot pounds of torque look at him all knows and thunder I bet he doesn't even realize I've got 320 horsepower as well from my sophisticated highly tuned straight six ain't my dust okay okay you've got the edge of me there but then you're built light I'm carrying an extra 300 kilos which makes me stronger let's move on to round 2 and see how will you break there's the meat that ha he hasn't got abs watch this 80 bars layer I think I win that one okay clever clogs what about top speed I'm good for 167 miles an hour unfortunately I do have to concede this round because those do-gooders have had me restricted to just 155 miles an hour but I grew up on the autobahns of Germany and 140 miles now to me it's just an everyday cruise and that noise so found three goes to the TVR but it's all pretty close on to Round four getting your roof off that was all a bit of a palaver got just stop watch ready one two three four okay okay now let's get down to the meter test let's go out onto the handling circuit handling wise I've got a bit of a reputation as being something of a beast but taken sensibly I've got power steering nowadays around this long corner the balance is nice and neutral Oh that's a bit of a problem having my 320 foot-pounds of torque when the rear end breaks away it does it pretty quick it's a room but it's one my turn I think my big plus points are this lightweight control was the steering's nice the gear chains nice and going into this third gear corner I can break in with my abs power out with mild understeer just gradually strength up no drama so that torque is all very well for acceleration but that's what makes your rear wheel spins and suddenly I must confess I'm a bit disappointed with the engine though they've given me I put about a bit more of a roll but this handling is a joy so the BMW takes round five round six style and accommodation the retro style of the roadster provides plenty of chrome and two-tone leather but boot space is a major weakness the TVR has a more traditional and very luxurious interior the golf club simply drop in the boot and I think you'll find the driving position in my TVR very comfortable it's got all the right leg room and arm room and plenty of nice padded leather around round six to the TVR and the judges are left with a difficult decision three rounds have gone to the Challenger BMWs M Roadster and three rounds have gone to the five litre TVR Chimaera the result an honorable draw if you like you're driving to be a bit more high-tech than this the last few years have seen an influx of Japanese super cars stacked full of gizmos that can be a long wait for UK buyers but patience as its reward it seems hard to believe that it's now over two years since Nissan Motor GB finally gave in we could joke we argued we baked and eventually they brought their wonderful skyline gt-r to brick the r33 skyline arrived with an awesome reputation claiming to the fastest ever production car around the classic Nurburgring circuit but type-approval restrictions mention this and were only able to bring 100 into Britain within nine months they were all sold and now listen have decided to import a hundred slightly different models smaller slimmer more aggressive and even faster than the old ones these are 34 will be the only skylines officially imported into Europe and unlike the grey imports they'll have a three-year warranty and three extra oil coolers to cope with a speed limiter up from 112 155 miles an hour darling to play got the same 2.6 litre straight-six apart producing the same 218 horsepower but there are new twin bearings ceramic turbochargers from guaranty in engine and a new 6-speed Getrag gearbox to make the most of it watch really makes the Skyline GTR stand out from the rest of the crowd is the fact that it's not a four-wheel drive nor is it rear-wheel drive it has the benefit of both systems here let me show you with the very impressive multifunctional display set to show the torque spit between the front and rear wheels in gentle driving no power at all is going to the front xre hard though on all of a sudden 7.1 kilogram meters of torque has been set to the front wheels to help the traction but it's only really when you come to a corner that the gauge begins to come alive that's got some kilogram-meters on it now oh yes and there's one other little special on these 100 British cars they've unlocked the G meter display so that if we come to a halt select the G meter will show us just how clever we are under acceleration angle show us how much G we can pull during cornering I think that gave it something to think about but the GTR wasn't intended to be just another lightweight racer it wants to be considered as a genuine all-rounder built at a solid 1600 kilos it's certainly more BMW m5 than Porsche 911 so when it's road manners be as impressive as its on track performance after the public roads it's suddenly far more important to keep your eyes on the speed meter rather than the G meter because whatever gear you're in the skyline provides real crushing acceleration of course you wouldn't expect the GTR to have a rolls-royce smooth ride but it doesn't even have the comfort of a 911 that 11 the m5 the car jiggled all over the place the ultra low-profile tires are pulled this way of that by the surface of the road but it's something I can soon live with and happily except for the awesome grip that the car provides and the GB cars have a little bit of extra comfort because the racing seats are clad and cuddly leather to comfort you but perhaps the most important test for a car with a price tag of about fifty four thousand pounds is whether or not it can hold its head high amongst what is after all a pretty classy field it accepts the club's the question is will the club accept the car I certainly think it should and if it doesn't I'll just have to do a pass I didn't demonstration in the 18th green if you can't afford the fifty four thousand pounds for the skyline rallying has brought us a string of superb cult cars you can even fit the family in from all reasonable 30,000 pounds you could have this Mitsubishi Evo six built by their motorsport division Ralliart last year I tried out the Evo five and quickly became a big fan of the theory of evolution if you want to drive around feeling just like world's champion Tommi makinen you can buy a Lancer that looks just like is because Mitsubishi still compete under old production-based rules that mean they have to build at least two and a half thousand evolution models every time they want to add new bits and this is the Evo 5 with the Evo 6 jus in a showroom near you any day now the Evo 5 brought to the Lancer a wider track which meant it also got that big adjustable wing at the rear and increased ducting to the all-important intercooler to the front now whilst at 276 horsepower four-wheel drive valonqar might sound like a ferocious beast out on the public roads this bits of Bish's as hard as you want it to be of course if you stir the gearbox and open the throttle there's an awful lot of acceleration available indeed this Mitsubishi will accelerate from thirty to fifty and fourth gear as fast as a Ferrari three five five so in effect you've got a four-door saloon with the same sort of performance as a Ferrari or a Porsche 911 and all for relatively modest 30,000 pounds but to really appreciate the performance of a car like this you really need to join a club and get not only if you've got that fantastic four-wheel drive traction you've got these competition abs brakes which enable just turn into a corner on the brake hopeful get very suck waste and still recover this really is a toy and a half but this is a wedding car what we need is some hair pins view some handbrake turns Tommy will do it that's better up to the next little left-hand corner power in another hairpin more handbrake and out Oh incredible things sitting inside this larger is that the dials and dashboard you could be in a sort of executive or a rec movie I'll even but underneath you the 7000 revs available and it just covers ground faster than you can believe and if you don't want to be Tommi makinen if you want to be Richard burns for the same sort of money and with the same sort of performance you can have one of these a Subaru Impreza STI on the other hand if you've got an extra 15 grand to spend and you want to do the full monty you can have one of these based on the pro drive prepared world rally cars this is the STI 20 to be Subaru go rallying under the new world rally car regulations which don't demand outlandish road cars to be made but they just couldn't resist building 424 of these replica races now in these politically correct times subaru have decided to claim that this 22b only has 280 horsepower about the same as the Mitsubishi but anyone who gets me under wheel and throws it can feel awful lot more and in fact 350 horsepower is being quoted as the average figure and I can certainly believe that it's also lighter than the exhibition in 90 kilos lighter in fact almost the same weight as the World Rally Car that burnsy is driving the thing about this Subaru is it's a bit stiffer than the Mitsubishi it doesn't really inspire the same instant confidence it understeers and then snaps it doesn't see the flow across the road as nicely and neatly they can even in rally mode a handbrake is open much sharper put on the Mitsubishi out on the public roads the extra stiffness of the Subaru is even more obvious when so much lowdown grant from that turbocharged engine you don't really need to use the 8,000 revs on offer but with this close ratio gearbox you seem to be forever changing gear but the bitter I really like about cruising in this Subaru is that look at the bonnet the look of that big power bulge that we've seen so often going on board with colin mcrae over the past three or four years and now our void burnsy there's no doubt it's the Subaru that gives the bigger adrenaline rush and scores top marks for macho image but if I had to use one of these two cars as everyday transport it would be the Mitsubishi since their classic l'amour battles of the 50s Jaguar and Aston Martin have been waging war constantly leapfrogging ahead of each other in their battle for supremacy as top British sports car and when Jaguar supercharged this xk8 to create their XK are they eclipse their rivals dv7 but not for long now Aston are fighting back they've launched a range of works prepared options take your db7 to Newport Pagnell they'll fit for new wheels some improved elliptically grooved disc brakes six new hi-tech Coney dampers and mount your steering rack on bits of pressed illan which all helps it to do well I think we will start with the traction control off this wide-open airfield really is a place where I can find out just how good this works prepare db7 is Oh when the dv7 first came out I have to say I wasn't that impressed with its handling it rolled too much wasn't a feedback to the steering the brakes from its squirming they say lead and I'm happy to say that Aston really looked all these points and these new coney shock absorbers give the car a whole new poise so you can turn in I could feel what's happening football catch the slides pair it out your trust in the car is enhanced by the all-important feel of grit being greatly improved by the new more pliant rack mounting material now those elliptical grooves the discs aren't just for good looks they do the same job as the cross drilling normally seen in competition discs but the point is they look more quietly so now the db7 has got very effective non failed disks but it's not just a handling and braking this has been improved because you can add this body kit as well to give the dv7 a much more aggressive and sporting look of course all this doesn't come cheap the body kit alone is the best part of nine grand and the full suspension work over an extra 17 pushing the price of this db7 up to a whopping 115 thousand pounds now the engine hasn't been tweaked the tools it's still not gonna be faster in a straight line than the more powerful XKR but at least it has got a manual gearbox for the enthusiastic driver to enjoy but the main thing is the handling of the dv7 it's now something the Aston Martin lovers and rightly be proud of okay so you can almost buy two xkr-s for the price of this works prepared db7 what you now get with this Aston is a card you're not only far more exclusive but one which now out handles the big cat under what Jaguars answer to this is going to be well funnily enough that is what jag has also been substantially upgraded okay it's a 25 year old model but the modifications on this put the Aston to shame you get two new engines giving a 25% increase in power GPS terrain reference navigation oak and a thermal imager and if you fancy one the upgrade package alone will set you back a few million pounds this is the jugular t2b Staffing loop of gizmos into these 25 year old playing may see the ventline footage to CD multi changer in an Austin server but in reality it means to get 50 viable from my vices for another 10 years for a fraction of the price of Manchester United oK you've got the right stuff they'll actually pay but don't even think about it if you're looking for an easy ride machine will be tips its the freeze when it comes performance because I have a top speed of seven hundred pound an hour I've also got thirty thousand pounds of thrust and control six G in a band which makes it a four bit having seen that the after unlucky tips yes yes that's all very well up there in the air but bring that Jaguar down here on the road and I'll sort it out a straight drag race Vicky and her Jaguar grand tourer against me and my dinky little db7 give it your quest you've got 90 oh boy thank you okay time to go pulling away 20 haha me in a Nissan Micra well yes is Allah mm nestling high in the French Alps a fabulous place to dabble in a spot of downhill fun ah the fresh mountain air now what will it be today such as skiing or perhaps I'll try that snowboarding no never be dangerous mind you isla does offer another winter sport ice racing this is the sport chosen by Nigel Mansell for his latest come back at the shamon II 24-hour event I caught up with a Nissen team testing at isla and my ski instructor was jean-pierre now share welcome dima one ice racing you oh dear driving on ice it's something very special very acrobatic and you have to turn very early for each corner and very order because something very wrong is an undersea rege if you want to avoid understeering you have to do something like that you transistor like that you turn very strong and then you put certain flat and use gearbox for certain four and five fifth gear on ice breaking is also very difficult on God Oh so there you have it an introductory lesson and not one mention of the snowplow technique and it's all done sitting in a nice little user-friendly Nissan Micra however instead of having a 75 horsepower 4-cylinder engine in the front this micro has got a 410 horsepower version of the QX v6 in the back it's also got a space frame tubular chassis it's got permanent four-wheel drive it's got four-wheel steering and the only way to get grip on ice is is these skinny spiked tires my turn to drive I'll talk to this ready and step into the unknown I've never driven on starts before never driven rear-wheel steering before by their walk to expect initial responses got a lot of greatness these snow walls that look friendly I like solid ice five rhymes with tree contraction and for power one way that by the way power the son brights are actually surprisingly good my first speed amazingly it will also be my last although I did wipe out a headlight on one bank and a rear bumper on another the concentration required to keep the constantly backing and weaving micro off the snow walls was absolutely maximum but the satisfaction of getting it just right was superb yes you can forget about skiing ever wondered why my helmet is orange well I started my racing career in powerboats where it's compulsory for maximum visibility in the water indeed my father was a boat designer who organized the first-ever offshore powerboat racing Europe back in 1961 and in those days they used everyday cabin cruisers but nowadays the top level is contested by these out-and-out racing boats complete with their fighter plane cockpits all far removed from my dad's original ideals but there is still one formula so I think he would approve of it's called ozr offshore circuit racing touring car racing on water for reaction ski boats over 18 feet long with 2 liter outboard motors four seater open cockpit monohulls that can be resold as fun boats when they're faced days are over the Irish round the championship is being held just outside the harbor here at Bangor Northern Ireland now this is serious racing so there's no way they're going to let me drive one of the boats however open hours have two seats because each boat needs a navigator and unfortunately Paul Scott both a 65 has gone on fillet which means fortunately though my driver Ian Sanderson is the reigning ocr'd champion but despite the professional briefing as race time approached OCR was definitely showing its DIY origins race is any better are away there's a bit of panic on the team because my man here there's a coach with the expert has just discovered they instead of being a 12 left race it's actually 19 let race and he hasn't got enough petrol yet to complete them how long's and race in its well I'm not sure if it's 12 or 17 laps good I'm glad to have always been a man for detail right yeah planning is all part of winning isn't it school the 7 P which is preparation planning and practice prevents piss-poor performance so base we've got a standard ski boat standard engine and what sort of speed does that produce and the top speed this boat it's about 81 miles now 81 NS a rating on water offshore an 18-foot boat as you prefer yeah it's quite hairy mmm no arguing with that the worst thing is technical term is stuffing in stuff what's that stuffing which means you come up with two three waves and the stern gets pushed up and your boat next wave bow down when you go scrape it away oh joy and the panic continues you see as I'm the navigator I'm going to talk to the driver but my racing intercom didn't fit is boating into common the one he bore oh because you can't buy spare sets isn't working properly and I'm sure I better hearing that some stage in the race like testing two three can you hear me can you clear - give me volume volume down we were almost ready just run through jobs again try the main job is the approach a boy you've got to look around and say your water all clear on the other nerve is somebody behind you might say my side his corner either know that I can't cut in I'm gonna go car wide and then get Roy out fast in the trivet try and keep ahead of him it's gonna be quite a hairy race it's much rougher yesterday just what I wanted to know as the starters flare shot up and 26 boats went on a cavalry charge towards a first corner now we're start you're right and that one ahead of our right this was making us wet and nearly 60 miles of this still to come I'm on the lead sorry boat lengths good miles to go I feel naked already our holes oh if only this was the last set of five more having led since lap two we were now into lapping some of the slower boats so there was never a moment to relax and my body just wish the punishment could stop now I think we should be back together Jacket flagman don't trust me after an hour of hanging on I was exhausted a chiropractor but it's amazing how quickly the elation of victory can lift your spirits and after the luxury of an OCR budget dinner when it comes to party time the boat boys leave the car racing milk monitors floundering in their wake this Lotus Elite was Colin Chapman's first ever closed car and nowadays they've become collectors items but his legendary 50 sports car the seven lives on thanks to Caterham cars last year British rival Westfield produced their featherweight FW 400 which raised to 60 in just 3.6 seconds nearly half a second quicker than Caterham superlight are so this year it's caterham turn to up the ante these super light are 500 still isn't as light as the carbon-fiber westfield but what page have done is that squeeze an extra 40 horsepower out of the Robo power plant to give the 500 of power to weight ratio of 500 bhp per tonne which means it can launch itself from nought to 60 in just 3.4 seconds doesn't mean good acceleration it made simple now to put all this power-to-weight ratio to some sort of perspective just imagine that at four hundred and sixty kilos this little Caterham is just half the way to a Ford Fiesta equivalent to about five well-built rugby players a Ferrari 550 Maranello may well have nearly 480 horsepower but it weighs over 1,600 kilos the same as the whole rugby team put together which is what it going to get from nought to 60 in 4.9 seconds indeed even if you could cram that glorious five and a half liter v12 Ferrari engine into this little tiny Fiesta it still wouldn't have a better power-to-weight ratio then the little Caterham from the outside it looks little different to any other seven continuing the windscreen free super light tradition but adding lighter magnesium alloy rims body-hugging racing seats and a carbon-fiber dashboard with a rev counter redline at nine thousand two hundred rpm the seven has come a long way since its birth forty years ago you this Caterham is surprisingly happy to total on it slow speeds but this is no shopping car at 32,000 pounds or just under 30 if you build it yourself it's a Caterham flagship and you can have almost as much fun in a 10,000 pound basics the Jaguar e-type perhaps the most sensational sports car shape ever and it's something that Jaguar have recently rediscovered with their show-stopping concept cars unfortunate of course concept cars don't usually run but sometimes they do deert if this is our Jaguar XK 180 you may recall it was on your stand at the Motor Show we're very proud of it and we're wondering if you'd like to try it love Jaguar yes please be gentle it doesn't come out every day we've only got two they've got us 1 million pounds to build be gentle me what do they mean to celebrate 50 years of XK series engines the 180 was built in record time by Jaguars special vehicle operations stylist Keith helfet who also penned the Easton db7 drew inspiration from the 50s lamorne d-types keeping a watchful eye on their baby were two more of the 180 team Mike Massey and Gary Albrighton in theory the aluminium bodied roadster is just another concept car to showcase their talents but then I've never driven a concept car that you can do this with underneath that gorgeously handsome bonnet is the same 4 litre supercharged v8 that powers the XJR saloon and the XKR sports car for this one instead of having 370 horsepower I've got 450 and 445 pounds foot of torque which is serious grunt you can hear that glorious supercharged whining away the chassis is based on that of an X K R but it's had five inches cut out of the wheelbase that's the distance between the front and rear wheels it does lost eight inches off the front and rear overhang so it's going to show wheelbase all the way to the middle and it means I can just have some fun around the god oh joy of joys just testing comes out of an XK are it's the same five speeding Mercedes unit but the J gate has lost its third leg so when you want to go for manual up-and-down changes you have to use these little buttons on the steering wheel which make it even more fun up on the Left down on the right bit of heel and toe down up or down to three down two to put it into the corner gets up back to go out the XK 180 is named after its theoretical top speed and on May the 30th it will be part of a Jaguar Jamboree that visits the Belgium motorway where the XK 120 lived up to its name in 1949 but surely all this isn't just for show surely they'll build road cars for sale well apparently not too costly they say but they could change their minds couldn't make in that case I'll just have to send Quinton around to see them next week to persuade them otherwise in the meantime I think I'll go for another little Drive as long as there have been cars there have been speed records to be broken Campbell Cobb Seagrave noble and now in a small way need L because in 1999 Top Gear decided to go for the record for the fastest lap of a UK circuit in a production car there was only one car up the job a McLaren f1 complete with central driving position and a 627 horsepower 6 litre v12 sitting right behind you all yours for a cool half a million pounds well if you have to use a standard production car you might as well use the fastest production car in the world the machine that I borrowed is MacLaren's own development model that had just set a new straight-line speed record of 240 miles an hour in Germany so I thought I'd better drop in to their service centre to get it prepared it's here that customer versions are refet 'old and you begin to realise why these cars cost so much to build when you find an engine bay lined with gold because that is quite simply the best material to reflect the heat generated by the awesome BMW v12 powerplant Mike I want to go and break this speed records I've brought the car in for a bit of special tuning this car doesn't need any special treatment if we might come along and hold your hand pop the tires up otherwise it's ready to go ready to go indeed the only special preparation was a light beam onto the ground linked to some highly complex computer gadgetry in order to precisely and independently log the cars real speed and the first job were to get this calibrated on the mild straight at the Millbrook Proving Ground the location for our record attempt as with any record breaking conditions really do need to be perfect you need the right weather window and today we haven't got it still least I've got an opportunity to go out and have a look at the track you the Millbrook bowl is a perfect two-mile circle and like any bank circuit it's got a Pens free speed and this depends on the radius of a corner and the angle of the banking and here at Mill Brook the hands-free in the top lane is about 95 miles an hour so you get to 95 and you take your hands on you can drink the newspaper of you wanted to and it'll sit there all day long start to push over that to me though up to the hundred mile an hour now hold it away from that nasty looking guardrail and at the speed close the corner force rising seriously well that was a nice little warmer but the track is very wet probably banking is it's very hard to fill a limit of adhesion you don't really want to push it and this conditions are perfect I think we'll come back tomorrow the next day dawned dry and sunny with our only enemy being a cold northerly wind gusting it up to 20 miles an hour to break the record we needed two independent witnesses paramedics a fire crew and the McLaren team they were already all that was needed was someone to boldly go tires were the biggest worry these michelin's are good for 250 in a straight line but heat build up with the constant cornering was something that we had to closely monitor we had just one hour of track time available the planning was over now it was down to me we are doing a pair 177 and it feels great I feel a bit like an astronaut heading into the unknown you're quite sure it's going to happen next this is very quick just try to look as far ahead as possible relax and feel it kicking even a win there as you turn on that one of the quarter-mile it's raining the crosswinds is going to cause us any problems the day and of course that ever-present risk of overheating the tires time to have them checked before firing up that fabulous v12 once again to go out for a crack at the record right hundred seventy-five wasn't too bad let's try near that one eighty mark we need to exceed to break this record the computer agrees with me that's a new record average speed 180 3.0 you've done it well done sir a hundred of 83 we'd broken the record by nearly three miles an hour and the card only felt slightly unstable during the change in wind direction I knew there was more speed available but how much more for the first time I nailed the throttles the floor in Top Gear feel the car rolling around down the wind together we were local sensitive now I beg and hang on to complete the lap but the back end was beginning to wander badly all was not well and a quick inspection of the rear tyre revealed why but what was the official speed average speed one hundred and ninety five point three miles per hour maximum speed maximum speed 200 point eight and the blisters on the tire proved we'd reached the limit the shape may look familiar but 1998 brought a radical rethink to the Porsche 911 at the front it took on the looks the new Boxster at the rear a water-cooled engine which with 300 horsepower propelled it to 174 miles an hour fast enough well not for racing and Porsche enthusiasts loved to go racing so as usual they produced a stripped out version the gt3 and this time Porsche have left a few luxuries behind the gt3 s got the same sexy dashboard as the basic Carrera it still got aircon a radio even a CD and electric windows but the plash electric seats have been replaced by racy body hugging Recaros and in the rear they've gone completely the difference is on the outside are a bit more obvious as a stylish least sculptured rear wing some snazzy side skirts and a front spoiler that leaves the gt3 sitting just three inches off the ground throughout their history Porsche have constantly snubbed the creed that racing does improve the breed racing cars have become road cars Road cars have become racing cars they've even had success off-road but the new Carrera has upset a few of the diehards their beloved air-cooled engine is now killed by water and the handling has lost its characteristic nervousness so will the gt3 put a smile back on their faces you bet it will the standard Carreras flat-six 3.4 liter engine and in has car made race bred non turbocharged version of the 3.6 liter unit the power horses and with lightweight titanium con-rods there's now 7800 glorious revs on tap when you get to that magic mark you've got 360 horsepower under your right foot but this gt3 isn't just about a 911 with a different engine as for about handling because the current car is to sanitizing to understeering felt this gt3 let's not the trouble is that the worryingly is about the tail end because you give the throttle too much you can reference our fire this steering is incredibly responsive it spat at tad on the light side what's feeling heavy of a track use in fact much the feel the cars riding wonderful Recaro seem that really hold you to make a part of the car it's real genuine speak to the feds driving or this is a sort of guard looking a smile on my face ball day along it is a little too while the rear end but part of the gt3 is the management adjustable anti-roll bars and an adjustable rear spoiler so I wanted to I could perhaps tweaking them to make it a little bit more neutral in handling but hey I'm not complaining with a price tag of 75,000 pounds just 40 of the 1,500 or so gt3s to be made will be right-hand drive to take their car on track to have a bit of fun we can get their hands on this gt3 version fine they get an awful lot more fun for the extra 10 grand of course our tire burning collection wouldn't be complete without a Ferrari they haven't always been as gorgeous as this 246 Dino but there were no worries with the new 360 moderner there are days when you get to drive good cars days when you get to drive bad cars but only very very rarely do you get to drive the best car in the world and the last five years nearly everyone has agreed that the Ferrari three five five has held that title perfectly proportioned not too large not too small just the right amount of power beautiful to look at and beautiful to drive but now there's a new Pretender to the crown the Ferrari 360 moderner and it's instantly more beautiful even better proportioned more powerful and hopefully if it's possible even better to drive even before you drive off just sitting behind this badge evokes memories of a motoring heritage like no other prices start at just over 100 1000 pounds the top speed is 183 miles an hour and it's awright from naught to 60 and four and a half seconds but bald figures are just the start Ferrari president Luca the waters a Malone wanted a car to take Ferrari into the next millennium it had to be lighter faster easier to use every day than the fantastic 355 and on top of all this it had to give a heightened sense of driver involvement this is the f1 version of the 360 with the second generation of Ferraris 6-speed pedal gear change but for me I've already rather missing that beautifully tactile gear leave of the fantastic slotted Ferrari gear change all part of that emotive joy of driving a Ferrari but having said that this automatic up change is very effective very smooth up of the paddle on the right to help with the pedals on the left very smart there's Formula One style technology in the injured as well with a fly by wire throttle and reduced internal friction helping to boost the power of the 3.6 liter v8 to a magical 400 bhp the 360 is also 80 kilos lighter with aluminium replacing steel wherever possible and extruded sections forming the bulk of the chassis there are beautiful castings where the suspension is fitted and that aluminum as well with double wishbones both front and rear and all that hidden beauty is matched by stunning looks for me the true measure of whether or not I like the shape of a car is if I want to wash it a my 360 would be forever spotless styled by Pininfarina it's a stunning riot of curves that have been honed here in Ferraris wind tunnel Ferrari spent over 5,000 hours in the Windtunnel perfecting this glorious shape creating all the airflow through to cool the engine but at the same time they were creating extra underbody airflow to increase the ground effect the pressure that forces the car into the road in fact they managed to quadruple the downforce that the three five five had it still isn't actually that much you won't feel it on these public roads leaving at 180 miles an hour through six years still only got 180 kilos of downforce on a car that weighs nearly 1,400 kilos that's not a lot indeed at a more modest 60 miles an hour that downforce tails off to only around 50 kilos but I guess every little helps more impressive however is how everyday usable the 360 is there's loads of room inside the instruments are perfect and unlike the 355 the steering wheel adjusts for both rake and reach but does this practicality come at the expense of the performance that created the legend time to switch off the traction control put the suspension in sports mode and put the handling to the test on Ferraris own allow the up changes are a bit janaki with it everyone walks it something I think you have to slightly lift off to it's not a flat shift but it's the damn change that it's so impressive with the war a bullet from paradise second burst every flippin down James perfect so we can get that Marron and immediately the chassis on a racing circuit is just balanced enjoy the steering feeds ever and she just could not have a better handling car is the combination of 400 horsepower really why talk man that makes this car so drivable you can pick this one of course when compared to a racing carding 360 suspension even its sports mode is still relatively soft there's quite a bit of body roll but that allows the car to be very easily controlled I think I prefer to have a manual change and be doing these blips myself because part of the satisfaction of performance rhyming is having complete control I'm sure Ferrari don't really want this car back I mean jusnow these tires don't be worth anything I really really didn't want to give the 360 back if I had a hundred thousand pounds to spend of any car there would be no choice this is the new best car in the world the king is dead long live the king sorry I just couldn't resist it and there is only one item left to go mind you it is one in which I use more rubber in one day than the average driver needs in a decade all thanks to a car that BMW said they can never make when the new 5 Series BMW arrives back in the spring of 1996 its met with universal acclaim it set new standards for its competitors in virtually every respect yet all the enthusiasts wanted to know was when the m5 version would arrive and the answer was not what they wanted to hear there wasn't going to be one BMW decreed that the 540 with 286 horsepower and a naught to 60 time of 6.2 seconds was quite fast enough indeed the BMW boss at that time stated that the 540 had reached the physical limit of acceleration but of course he was wrong just 18 months after the 5-series launched the 370 horsepower version of the supercharged 4 liter Jaguar XJR arrived and wafted to 60 in just under 6 seconds although the rind quality is excellent even on this old airfield surface the handling is an exactly pin sharp and nor is the feedback through the steering but then this is an English gentleman's car you're not supposed to switch off the traction control and drive like a hooligan so here goes but it wasn't just the British you upset the pmw applecart because six months later their great German rivals Mercedes came out with the e55 the ultimate eClass created by their tuning specialists AMG the normally aspirated 5.4 liter v8 only has 354 horsepower but it's lighter than the J and it's got more torque so it's faster from nought to 60 by almost half a second a slightly firmer ride and more road noise make the Merc less comfortable in the Jag but it also makes it a better handling car we now have not only traction control but the very latest in driver aids automatic skin control or ESP in Mercedes case that's the individual wheel breaking that helps counteract any understeer or oversteer and in when it's switched off the Mercedes still keeps its traction control but only at speeds under fifty miles an hour all of a sudden the 540 wasn't quite top dog in the executive car park eclipsed by both Jaguar and Mercedes pressure for a new m5 increased and the reply wasn't long coming like its predecessor the new m5 has few external features to distinguish it from the rest the five series it's a classic wolf in sheep's clothing were little to give away the power that lurked beneath yes it's got a more aggressive front spoiler more aerodynamic door mirrors and a tiny spoiler on the boot lid but it's only really the 18 inch double spoke Chrome shadow wheels the four stainless steel tailpipes and yes this little badge that really give the game away with a 5 liter v8 pushing out 400 horsepower the BMW leaps back to the front of the pack threatening to crash to 60 in just 5 seconds for the sort of high-tech engineering you'd expect from its motors for breeding it's a car for new millenium when BMW returned to the Grand Prix the the m5 has the most technically advanced Road car engine in the world and like a racing engine it needs to be warmed up gently warning light suggest changing gear below four and a half thousand revs until the engines up to temperature and even then a six and a half thousand warning remains before the 7000 limit is reached complete with a slick six-speed manual gearbox as standard you get all this for a fiver under 60,000 pounds just over five hundred less than the Merc but nine grand more than the Jag BMW stability control system is called DSC and like the mercs it has an uncanny ability to try and help the clumsiest of drivers from getting himself into trouble you can steer and viciously and you can feel the brakes coming on individually as the car tries to slide the cars sensors detect the problem they take the power away from the engine and they actually put the brakes on the wheels it's absolutely incredible what these modern systems can do of course in the end when given an empty airfield even in these appalling conditions you do have to switch it off just a little bit or fun this car is so beautifully balanced it's like putty in my hands the threat from Jaguar and Mercedes has been washed aside even when I demand the impossible the 360 degree spin is easily controlled this car really does take you back to the future indeed it's so much fun I'm going to go back to the beginning of the program and do it all over again you

Channel: Bruno M

Views: 461,000

Rating: 4.7584629 out of 5

Keywords: Tiff Needell (Formula 1 Driver), Top Gear (TV Program), Fast And Furious 2, 2000, Vicki Butler-Henderson, Jeremy Clarkson, Porsche 911, McLaren F1, BMW M3, Ferrari 360 (Automobile Model), Mitsubishi Evo, VHS

Id: KclIM7Xzho4

Length: 72min 3sec (4323 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 28 2014