And so, at precisely 11 minutes past eight
in the morning, the race began. Look at them. They look like ramblers. We now had 25 minutes to get into town,
find the station and catch our first train. Those two have got so many
connections to make, so many forms of transport to go on, the chances of them making it
without a single mistake are nil. And if they do make a mistake, that's it. -Have you seen these manhole covers?
-No. They're fantastic. A boy from Birmingham and a man
with no sense of direction, in Japan won't win... the end. -Here we go.
-What? You don't know what that says! But there's a red dot.
That must mean, "You Are Here." Look, the ice-skating man
with the picnic table. That's a man on skis
playing a harp next to it, which probably doesn't mean
train station. I want to adjust the scale on the sat nav,
but it's all in Japanese. I daren't touch it in case at all just
goes off and then I'd be doomed. Konichiwa. The station? The thing is, you see,
all Japanese cars... Help! To deal with the language problems, we'd all been given
speaking translator machines and, at the station, we fired ours up. Ticket... This isn't going to take long. He knows you want a ticket.
It's a ticket office. -That's a good point.
-He won't assume you're asking for shoes. Sorry, that's wrong.
That was, "Is this seat taken?" -How do I go back? I've forgotten.
-It can't be difficult. Sorry. Now the road has opened up. Here we go. Don't try and match the symbols.
I know you are. Okay, I've got a 3.8 litre, twin
turbocharged V6 engine, which produces... Actually, I've no idea how much horsepower
because each one is handmade. Nissan say
it's around 470 brake horsepower, but an American magazine
tested the one they had and it was producing 507 horsepower. Morning. It's like being in a black-and-white film. Morning. But the best thing about it
is that each gear box is tailored to work with a specific engine. This one wouldn't work in any other GTR. Not even NASA do that
with the Space Shuttle. They're not just hanging around.
Look, there's a line. You have to walk
through the lines onto the train. What a brilliant looking train. Okay, here we go. The motorway network. Now we can be a bullet car! The Datsun would cross Japan by motorway,
go through the centre of Tokyo, under Tokyo Bay
and up a mountain road to the finish line. We would take four trains and a bus
to the bay, cross it on a ferry and then get to the finish on a cable car. Our route was almost 150 miles longer,
but we would have no jams or delays. 87% of normal trains in Japan are on time. But, for them, being late is anything
over a minute behind time. So, that's a late train, if it's a minute. But in the UK, to be late,
it's got to be over ten minutes late. And if trains are late,
you get a free rail journey. So, if this is late, we don't pay, and we get a little pass that explains
to your employer why you're late! He's had it. There are a lot of speed cameras
on the motorways, but they've put signs up saying,
"It's in 300 metres, 200 metres, 100 metres, there it is." The only trouble is
the signs are all in Japanese. However, I'd come up with a cunning plan. In Japan, a simple photograph
of the number plate isn't enough. They have to also have a photograph
of the face to know who was driving. So, what I've done, is I've made this.
It's a Bill Oddie face mask. So, he's going to be sitting
in a badger hole somewhere and he's going to be collecting points
in Japan on his licence. -Hammond.
-Yes? Was your train late? No! Nothing's late. It left to the second on time.
You've had it. We're going. We're on the way. -There's a man.
-We're being shouted at. Hang on, mate. There's a man
shouting at me. What? Mate, I've got to go, I've got to go. I like it when there's an emergency
like that in his voice. You know something's gone wrong
in his world. I think it might be rude
to use the telephone in the train. Unable to talk to my rivals, I started
to fiddle with the GTR's buttons' All the graphics on the system
were done by the same company that does the graphics for
the Gran Turismo PlayStation game. This is amazing. Engine oil temperature, water temperature,
engine oil pressure, boost! And that one gives me
my acceleration and braking in G. Steering G. There it is. I can't understand the answers. -Exactly, it's pointless.
-That's the problem. Two fried eggs, that's not what I want. I do that. Oh yeah, that was... "Yeah, sorry officer, I was trying
to get half a G while changing lane." Speed camera coming up! There we are. As James and Richard
trundle towards Kyoto, I was hurtling up the west coast of Japan. Or was I? I'm definitely in Switzerland. I've gone wrong. Somehow, I've gone
through North Korea, Russia, Poland, Germany and I'm in Switzerland.
How have I done that? The mountains were staggering,
but sadly, I couldn't look because the Japanese had tunnelled
through every single one of them. Finally, I'm out of the tunnel. I can... Sunlight! It's gone again. Two hours into the race
and our train, bang on time, was already
two-thirds of the way to Kyoto. For Jeremy, however,
things weren't going so smoothly. -Hello?
-Get out of the way man. Come on! Come on!
