in this week's program Jeremy Clarkson driving a pair of new but old sports cars Tony Mason on a wintery rally in the forests of Cumbria and Quentin Wilson on why now is the right time to buy an old Golf GTI this was one of the most popular spots for senior motor industry executives last year as the sales figures rolled in they've come down and practiced their swallow diving usually when the tide was out everybody knows the car market was down 21% but some manufacturers did even worse than that Porsche were down 40% Jaguar sales were nearly harmed and the problem for these motoring minnows is they can't afford to invest their way out of trouble they can't afford the billion dollars also that it takes these days to design and develop an all-new car so what they have to do instead is practice the art of evolution evolving existing models rather than revolution starting again with a clean piece of paper every decade has its fashion accessories and with the passing of the 80s we can wave goodbye to all sorts of things we can wave goodbye for instance to Ray Ban sunglasses to file faxes to electronic personal organizers you can say goodbye to stripy shirts we could even say goodbye to the mobile phone but we can also say goodbye to the yuppies most prized accoutrement the Porsche 944 except this isn't a 944 this is what Porsche is calling the all-new 96 8 but that stretching things a little bit because apart from those 9 to 8 style headlamps you have to admit it does look just like a 944 at the back there's another minor styling change and new lowered boot floor so that you can now get inside a kite and a briefcase inside it's pretty much identical to the old 944 still beautifully made and still completely under equipped the most exciting gizmo I've got in here is the heated rear window like the 944 before it to the nine 680 uses a 16-valve 3 liter engine but now it has much trickery in the camshaft department so much in fact that it's the most powerful engine of its type in the world top speed is 156 miles an hour and it'll haul itself from naught to 60 in six and a half seconds but thanks to the new six-speed gearbox it will do get this more than 30 mpg Mormonism still Porsche say that in a smoggy city like Los Angeles or Athens the fumes coming out of the exhaust are actually cleaner than the air going in through the engine yes and I'm a Hobgoblin now in the days of the old 944 people wanting to get on the Porsche ladder could choose between the soggy s2 or the hard charging turbo well as the line 6/8 has such a welly full of clouds there's no need for a turbo so the only choice you get is with the suspension in this one which is running on ultra wide tires and has a sport setter every bumpy road leads inexorably to the osteopath the joy of a car like this is that it combines varga Neri and germanic build quality with more practicality than you might think remember at the end of the day it is a hatchback it's also a thrill a minute to drive on these twisting turning country lanes it's absolutely sensational I think if my colleague Tiffany Dell were to thump this around a racetrack he'd emerge wearing a grin the size of Cheshire the old 944 turbo was always regarded as one of the world's best handling cars and I have a sneaking suspicion that this new 968 is even better but all the qualities that make it such a superb racer make it a complete pain in the neck for normal drivers like myself not only is the ride horrid but the tyres Rumble like distant thunder and indulge in the dangerous practice of following the camber of the road no matter what the driver does with the wheel it's absolutely fine for the enthusiast but for everyone else it misses the mark by about 76 miles the standard suspension is far far better but as we've come to expect from Porsche neither is going to be what you'd call a bargain I have it on very good authority that when this car is launched in May it's going to cost 40,000 pounds now last week I drove it in a back-to-back test with innocent 300zx I'll admit the Nissen was less well engineered that it was faster it was more striking to look at and it was every bit as well-made it was also 10,000 pounds cheaper so I'm afraid as far as the 9 6 8 is concerned it's thank you but no thank you at 30,000 pounds it would be just fine but at 40,000 it's starting to play games with the big boys and they don't come much bigger or better than this big Brit bruiser I am biased I adore the XJS even when like this one it costs 48,000 pounds I love its Britishness I love the way it can make a thousand miles seem like a hundred it may not be that hot in a Cornish fishing village but it's pretty much the definitive grand tourer I even love its looks but I'm not stupid I will admit it's not exactly fault free and if you're going to start talking faults you really have to kick off with its size even though the extra s is 16 feet long the interior is no place for the fat if you do find somebody sitting in the back he will answer to the name of Colin Moynihan secondly though this is one of the new models with the smart new rear windows and this much improved instrument binnacle it still looks like the designer simply threw all the switches at the dashboard and screwed them down where they landed it's entirely possible for instance to activate the cruise control when you want to lower the electric windows and speaking of windows they're so slitty sometimes get the impression that you're driving a postbox then there's the heater which is are they useless or deafening the wipers which look like pencils and are about as effective as nowhere really to put my left foot to the steering wheel isn't on straight you can't see half the dials and the CD player mounted in the boot as an aggravating habit of jumping so maps that even Beethoven begins to sound like MC Hammer but throughout the Jaguar 17-year life that have always been niggles this car however has added a new one to the list you see this is not an XJS this is the new Jaguar Sport XJ RS so-called because under that beautifully sculptured bonnet which is so long you could have an accident and not even know about it is a 6 liter v12 at oh I'm sorry could you just excuse me for a second right now were worried yes sorry 6 litre v12 engine now this churns out are not inconsiderable 333 horsepower even though it's mated to a rather archaic three-speed automatic gearbox this car will still out accelerate the 96 8 it also has a top speed of I don't believe this um I'm sorry Murphy is dominant now what was I going on about yes it'll go at 163 miles an hour that is very very fast but here's the rub that is my average mpg it's enough to make your teeth itch now you're probably wondering how I can defend a car that is this flawed we'll look at it this way you could buy a brand new house with triple glazing and all mod cons or you could go for a seventeenth-century Manor cost you a fortune to heat you bang your head all the beams and the plumbing would be from the dark ages but me I'd take them out of house stop stop hold everything I knew I shouldn't have pushed the porter off a cliff I knew they'd be trouble and sure enough there is you see Porsche GB has a new Managing Director and he agrees that 40,000 pounds is too much for the 968 he reckons 34,000 is nearer the mark now that puts it on a level with innocent 300zx here the one I talked about earlier now if they do cost about the same the battle for supremacy in the coupe a market becomes as fierce as the battle for supremacy and the polling booth oh damn so there wasn't going to mention the election sorry if you get out of the woods today you're in for a big surprise and that surprises hundred-mile-an-hour rally cars competing on the Pirelli International the second round of the Mobil 1 top gear British Rally Championship here in the borders and these particular woods are like no others in Britain this is the dreaded Kielder the biggest man-made forest in Europe for this rally there were just four monster stages totaling 75 miles but what did the drivers think of it all I can gather you can get lost in there so hopefully we won't do that I don't really know why there's a good a bad reputation because it's it's not really any different to any other forest it's absolutely fantastic because everybody else goes off in there just as on the first round of the championship Colin McRae was making it look oh so easy Subaru was taking everything in its stride but being first car on the road meant Coleen have to find the correct line through the bends difficult enough any time but with touches arise to catch out the unwary it's a major challenge the Trevor Smith in the Sierra Cosworth life was a little easier he could follow Colin's tracks but despite his great experience at Kilda he was a full 45 seconds behind the Flying Scot on this first 13 mile stage all I'd never been here in his life before Kenny McKinstry from Northern Ireland was going like a train he was third fastest here and didn't seem to worry about the varying conditions that were on offer but killer kill there was already claiming its victims group n contender robbie head crashed into a snowy ditch and in fact only half the field would survive 23 year old mika Solberg from finland moved to London so he could compete in British but he's not the only foreigner who's tempted to enter Britain's premier championship Ola stromberg from Sweden is an ice racing champion so he must be happy about the wintry conditions in Kilda yeah I'm a little bit afraid about the weather I don't like the snow you don't have any snow banks from much further afield Jim Gleason had Jackie didn't to show the Palms how to go rallying out in Australia what do you know about keel the forest only that it's pretty rough and there's about 40 rally cars that went in there over the last 12 months that I'd only give ever come out so I hope those rumors I'm talking about being international and Sumi Yoshida is a gynecologist in Tokyo and actually enters the rally his team gyno don't walk under par and Cobh better status than you old man through there 19 dogs dog well that's death and kayo me knew I knew when he went up there Yoshi is no stranger to our forests as he competed on last year's Lombard RAC but he still had a lot of learning to do as it only have two days to get to know his British co-driver Dave kameena so there could be communication problems to say the least the Ola Stromberg who'd come to Cumbria from Sweden via the Lebanon it was a long way for very little he solve retired after 12 miles with a broken gearbox Australian Jim Gleeson thought he was driving into a Billabong after his 10,000 mile trip from Sydney it was literally an early bath a drowned engine and the first flight home after just five stage miles just to rub it in Peter Stevenson showed us all plain sailing although several of us came to grief here McKinstry meanwhile was charging ahead and lapping up the worse that killed that could offer having taken second place splitting the McRae brothers forcing young Alistair in the shell scholarship Sierra down to 3rd position which he was to hold happily to the end not bad for a 21-year old on every rally was always a local ace who can mix it with the best on this occasion it was dougie Watson Clark from nearby Carlisle who is having the drive of his life and up in fourth place but there were problems just around the corner there's a very fast downhill straighten it sort of fourth and fifth gear and we just hit a depression and broke this wrist and the wheel came off and everything like that you know so brain yeah meanwhile our friend Yoshi was pedaling along happily in the team gyno Mitsubishi but things look more than a little hectic on board but you can summon help in any language yeah India Lydia as the day wore on Colin McCrea was looking quite uncommon but if it's any consolation to yo she showed that even he can be caught out luckily he chose the right place to go off once again there was a fierce battle in the Junior Championship or where richard Foster had crashed out our Keegan's was well in control of his works nova only seconds separated him from Johnny Milner and Chris wood in that private Peugeot 205 there's competition in the junior section to win a coveted drive in November's lombard RAC and it was on last year's event that we last saw the winner of the top gear rally quest competition Francine bog from home she's now back in action as a privateer I wondered if Yoshi was happy with the day I'm asked what I wasn't sure about was he talking about the forest or another off-road excursion sorry you won't get out of that one Yoshi like Tokyo in Vanessa's a long way from Kela the greyman monroe's journey was worthwhile fourth overall Britain's best-known woman driver Louise Aiken Walker was driving as smoothly as ever on route to fifth place even she had her moments but usually Trevor Smith had had a whole chapter of mechanical problems to make six so after two events Colin McCrea in the Subaru is now firmly gripping top place in the championship and looks as though he'll take a lot of catching in the Lombard junior championship it's not the same story at all although Milner leads by two points Higgins isn't likely to let him out of sight now the back markers are trembling over the finished ramp having their moment of glory and we can see that keel ders lived up to his reputation again regrettably among those beaten by the forest and are three overseas visitors the next round is Welsh International Rally and that is a two-day event four words eagerly awaited uptown hold all the New Granada estate arrives in the showrooms next week with a two-liter for pot and 2.9 v6 the cheapest big granny is eighteen thousand four hundred going all the way out to a tad under twenty two grand for the full house leather clad Scorpio new or not we reckon discounts will be the order of the day take these two 16-valve golf GTI's ones an 87 ear edge with 60,000 up the other a few months old with just a handful of miles on the clock put them on the Bruntingthorpe test track safely away from the public roads bury the throttles and watch the difference some cars drill disgracefully but the GTI loosens up in its middle age and just gets better and better for all its miles the older car goes like a banshee at the end of the two mile straight there's a clear six car lead for the silver machine limited but rarely better the mark 2 Golf GTI still remains the longest lasting and best handling car in its class at 60,000 miles this 16-valve feels like it's just running for 4000 pounds what this one cost here's a car which can chew the coattails of supercars five times the price this is an early not to GTI in 84 be in a car like this today would cost between two and two and a half thousand and most of them look as straight and as original as this body stripes and alloy pea wheels distinguished the earliest marked twos along with what the Germans considered to be a cheerful interior but amazingly they still had left-hand Drive wipers by late 1987 the wipers were the right way round the pea wheels alas became an option and side body moldings appeared to the interior however was a lot less garish legi 87 start at 3000 rising to 4 nab it for a really proper car good value when you think an F reg cavalier would relieve you of nearly 6 grand and the mini wonder wagon the 16-valve offers the best value of the lot capable of 30 to the gallon and 125 miles an hour 16-valve spotters will be keen to note the forged alloy wheels slightly lower ride height rakish li angled roof aerial and these little catch me if you can 16-valve badges on its bottom the interior is gloomy and the non assisted steering heavy but the multi valve GTI has to be the performance car bargain of the year this 30,000 miler will give you change from 5 grand and you can forget the rumors of unreliability basically the 16-valve does use oil when it's brand new and it will use oil if it's used you know i revs all the time an ish aliy the rings don't seal until they've done about 10,000 miles but we found a 16 valve that's probably done 80,000 you use no oil at all as for the grim subject of insurance we got it down to four hundred and seventy pounds fully comprehend Leicester and that's for the 16-valve er 1990 16-valve cars come with BBS wheels rounded bumpers and power steering as standard if you can run to its 7,000 buys a fine Jeep later don't skimp on tires though Michelin mxv is just grip and grip and grip be on your guard for stolen recovered GTI's is quite a fear than floating about now while they're not the end of the world and usually it's just the creation of a missing radio may be missing seats and wheels you can always tell a sterling recovered by the fact that we'll have more than one key because the ignition lock and the doors have been forced this one is a rather radical example it's been picked clean but it'll probably go back on the road again because it's fundamentally a straight shell it's far better than something like this which is a damaged repaired GTI and has just come out the paint shop when you're buying a second-hand GT I think accident and there are certain places on the car which can tell you if it's had any drama or not down here where the wing meets the bulkhead is a favorite if it's had a frontal Biff you'll see creases where the wings hit the screen pillar check the door gaps - you could drive a coach and four through this one opinions vary on body kits but I reckon they're often there to hide a multitude of sins under the bonnet is where you'll find most of the clues if we look under this one the first thing that alerts my suspicions is that little yellow sticker down there belongs here which means that the bonnets been painted look a bit closer and we can see it's a very orange e pili finish and then in this little hole I can see signs of the original tornado red which means that this this bond has been put on and resprayed inspect the inner wings and the bulkheads for signs of distortion flaking paint and recent repairs these white stains are signs of rubdown filler and tatty insulation like this means someone's been here before you now I have nothing against damage repair balls per se on two conditions the first is that you know it's a car that's been repaired so you pay damage repairable money and secondly the job has been well done in the case of GTI is they need to be jigged and if it hasn't been jig properly it will never ever handle or corner right jigs are used to align a distorted body shell to a precision of millimeters say walk away from anything that's been botched of the half a million golf sold in Britain a hundred fell and have been GTI's so there's a huge infrastructure of independent specialists will service the thing for around eighty five quid a throw if it's a 16-valve uh run it on super unleaded with synthetic oil and changed the cam belt every sixty thousand miles if like me you find your local Volkswagen Audi parts department can't help with sensibly priced trim parts panels bumpers light clusters and wheels and some of them really are mad money I know a man who can this place may not look much but it's stacked to the rafters with secondhand GTI parts all of them perfectly usable and less than half price he's called Horace and his grills cost forty five pounds against VW's 140 150 quid buys you a tailgate VW want 172 a seat will make you sit up at 700 pounds Horace says it's yours for 25 parts which you should buy from v AG and mechanical things like exhausts now this is a copy exhaust but the original exhaust is fitted to the GTI's capable lasting up to four years and 80,000 miles so it's a false economy to fit anything else cheaper ones don't last as long affect the performance and make more noise and if it's performance you're after the GTI lends itself extremely well to specialist tuning this 16 valve is bought out from 1.8 to 2 litres developing an extremely healthy 179 brake horsepower to you and me that means a highly illegal 135 miles an hour judging by their image on the street most people reckon they're plenty quick enough in standard tuned are the street image of the GTI always this cool way out it's got nothing you know they've got sick survivors in no class with any other car on the road Astra 16-valve xr3i XR two's iris turbos you know the image of the 16-valve is way out compared to them the mileage on mine is a 35 36 thousand dangers just loosely not now ready right now I don't want anything else quite happy with a 16 well time was you had to pay serious money for a Golf GTI but since grown inspiring insurance premiums have all but decimated the hot hatch market they're all over the place here we are at a Midland auction site and with falling over things there are five in here and eight outside today this pretty ear edge eighty-seven fifty thousand mile 8-valve GTI has sold for very cheap 2850 my guess is that they won't stay this cheap for long so now's the time get out there and get amongst it well it's just about time for me to leave Cornwall now and head back to the 1990s but before I go just a couple of things first of all we didn't really push the Porsche off the cliff and secondly well that's about the Jaguar now there's a lot of people who'd like to see it replaced with something lighter and more fuel efficient and more spacious inside well presumably these are also the sort of people who'd like to see Blenheim Palace pulled over and replaced with something in concrete and mirrored glass they have preservation orders for buildings and monuments and if ever a car was deserving of one this is it next week house say for Britain's top 10 cars a road-going sports car that looks like a racing car and the history of the car the daddy used to take away you
