Episode 3 Top Gear: Extra Gear

Hi, I'm George Lewis. Welcome to Extra Gear.

What a great show we have in store for you tonight.

We show you how to keep up with a DB11

screaming down the Dunsfold runway.

We find out where Rory's love of the hatchback started.

My first-ever car was in 1978 Fiesta.

Sabine drops by to tell us how much she enjoyed

scaring the crap out of Rory on the Green Hill.

So much power.

And Chris takes the driver's seat in our reasonably fast car

and shows us what it can really do.

That's right, this is Extra Gear.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

So, tonight may have featured secret agent Le Bond

and the terrifyingly badly dressed Doctor No Hair,

but the real star of the show was the DB11.

With a top speed of 200mph,

it's definitely more than just a pretty face.

And it is a very pretty face.

But when a car is travelling that fast, how do you film it?

Hello, I'm Alex Renton, series editor of Top Gear.

We've got our first day of the new series down at Dunsfold.

It's good to be home.

We're testing the Aston Martin DB11 with Matt LeBlanc.

So, everyone's back, everyone's raring to go.

The idea of the kit we've got here

is just to track the fast DB11

and try to get some very fast tracking shots.

Normally, we have a cameraman

in the back of the car, and when he's in the back of the car,

we can only go quite slow speeds.

And it doesn't show fast cars at their best.

So, today we've got ourselves a nice fast car, this R8,

and we've got a pan-and-tilt head with zoom capabilities

on the front edge of this

and a low-level to try and accentuate the speed.

So, by using this rig,

we can pan, tilt, zoom and focus as we're travelling.

So the two cars can jockey for position

and capture some very interesting high-speed shots.

We got covered in a lot of rubber then.

-Yeah, it was good fun, that.

-Yeah.

Cameras, cut.

Now, let's bring on two men

that are all too familiar with filming fast cars.

It's Chris and Rory.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I loved that film because you watch this amazing driving footage,

but you don't really think about it, but obviously there's

going to be another car that's got to go equally as fast to film it.

-How clever you are.

-Yes! I worked it out.

But, the DB11, they used an R8.

Why's that the car of choice, Chris?

I think it's a very clever car because it's four-wheel drive.

The Aston is two-wheel drive, so it's got a traction advantage,

which means, when you're following close,

you really need a faster car than the car you're following.

Which is a big ask when you've got a 600 horsepower Aston Martin.

So the car's got the performance, it's got the traction,

its handling is fantastic, we know that.

But of course the whole thing's pointless

-unless you've got a great crew working with the car.

-Yes.

Yeah, you must have a specialist crew because there's so many things

they've got to handle really delicately

cos there's the speed, the distance, the presenters.

Yeah, absolutely. We saw in the video

that one of our mini-cam specialists,

he has to spend so much time making sure

everything is perfectly secured to the car,

cos if you're going 180mph and something flies off,

A, the camera is broken,

and B, that turns into a high-speed projectile.

You've got to factor in things like

when they rig is on the front of the car,

it becomes a longer car or a wider car,

depending on how you mount it.

Also, the aerodynamics of the car change as well.

So if you're doing 180mph, you've got to factor in

the difference in handling that that kit provides to the car.

So they're tuned into it, they're dialled into it,

they understand how the car is going to react.

They understand how the star car driver is going to react

-in every given situation.

-When you get it right, it's a great feeling.

Because it is quite high-risk stuff. And it's not CGI.

When you watch the current films with computer generated stuff,

I love the fact we go out there and do it properly and it looks better.

Those shots, close cropped onto that Aston wheel, how good do they look?

That's real.

Bits of tyre flying off, that's really visceral, exciting stuff.

The Aston looked amazing, and this is an important car.

Aston Martin say that this is the most important car

in their 100-year history.

Do you agree with that?

I think car companies always say that. Don't they always say that?

The turbo engine, that's a big move. Are you for it?

I think, for this application, this is a fast GT car,

it's not an out-and-out sports car.

So it's more of a cruiser than it is a kind of scalpel.

So I think, for this, it works.

It's got good torque, works well with the transmission, so I'm a fan.

But we know it's only going one way, and it's turbo-charging all the way,

which ultimately I think is a shame. But in this application, it works.

-Story?

-It's not a shame at all.

Turbo-charging brings benefits.

-There's no drawback to turbo-charging.

-We're talking about engines, not your hairdryer.

Turbo-charging only brings benefits, there's no drawbacks whatsoever.

You start with a massive V12 engine,

you add a couple of turbochargers to it, and suddenly, more power.

Also you get the benefit of increased efficiency,

so the car uses less petrol.

Have you ever driven a naturally aspirated Aston?

You watch the petrol needle and it just drops

with every application of your right foot.

Whereas with this thing...

It drops with every application of your right foot.

But slightly, slightly slower than it would normally.

I'm going to ask you about a phrase you just said then.

There are no downsides to turbo-charging.

-Not if it's done right.

-Anyone here disagree with Rory Reid?

-Turbo lag.

-Yes, you see? Turbo lag.

Two turbos, one going off early, one going off late,

-no turbo lag.

-Going off?

-Fact.

It's the technical...description. Firing.

Is that what they say?

We saw you driving a Mercedes S63.

And can I just say, by the way,

what an amazing performance from Chris as the evil villain.

It was the role he was born to play.

Absolutely haunting. Oh, there it is.

So, they hijacked me three hours before we went to shoot that.

They said this is what you're wearing. I mean, look at it!

It was made of material that was one worse than polyester.

It would just remove skin from your neck.

-The car, that Mercedes, is just fantastic.

-Yeah.

But what it doesn't do, the only thing it doesn't do,

is it doesn't pander to the vanity of the marketplace.

Because it doesn't have a badge, and actually,

to the untrained eye, it looks like a C Class Coupe, doesn't it?

Well, I think that's the problem.

If you buy a car with 550-plus horsepower,

you want people to know about it. Right?

I love the idea of just smoking along and no-one really knowing

until they see it go boom past them.

There's one thing you haven't mentioned,

which is the headlights, the Swarovski crystals.

Did you ever find out what they were for?

No. Absolutely no idea.

-I did.

-Can you enlighten me?

-Yes.

-Go on.

According to Mercedes, it's to provide striking visual highlights

and emphasise the unique nature of the vehicle.

-What? So they do nothing.

-Obviously.

-They do nothing.

Chris, I think you've got a little treat for us, haven't you?

I do indeed, George.

So far in this series, you've seen eight celebrities

get behind the wheel of our reasonably fast car.

Even with the traction control on,

the GT86 is a twitchy little number.

This week, it's my turn to get behind the wheel.

But this time with the traction control turned off.

This thing's only got 200 horsepower, weighs 1,250 kilograms,

so the numbers aren't massive.

But the rear tyres are straight off a Prius.

So it's got very little grip.

It's been designed to be a bit unruly,

that's why it's the perfect car for our celebs.

So if I turn in here now, I'm already...

look, we're sliding already.

God, that's a nice feeling!

But I have to say, it's a real challenge

because you have to balance the throttle quite accurately.

I think it's a wonderful car.

Because you can get on the gas early like that

and then just ride it all the way out.

But they use the traction control quite heavily there.

In fact, being honest,

they use the traction control everywhere cos they're leadfoots.

All of them are quite fearless. Look at the Hammerhead now, here we go.

If I gas it here, already we're fully, fully...

TYRE SCREECH DROWNS SPEECH

Much, much more difficult than a cee-d or something like that.

Yeah, James McAvoy was quite lairy through there.

And through this right-hander, he was, I have to say, quite fearless.

Oh-ho-ho!

95mph drift. Probably a bit much for our guests.

The follow-through, even safe, pretty much flat out.

Let the car right out to the outside

and then just trail-brake it in.

David Tennant nearly...

He was a worried boy.

But then you hit this really slippery tarmac

on that last corner, Gambon.

Gambon.

Oh, that was quite lairy!

-Scary?

-Now, on account of me liking living,

-traction control will stay on for all the guests from now on.

-Yes.

Now, Rory, when people see you and I together, they think,

these guys have probably got nothing in common.

One's cool, stylish, great at driving.

And the other is Rory Reid.

LAUGHTER

As it turns out, we're not that different.

This is the Ford Fiesta ST200.

It will do 142mph,

0 to 60 in 6.7 seconds,

and that makes it the fastest Fiesta ever made.

Look, it's no secret that I'm partial to a hot hatch.

Come on!

But there's a special place in my heart for the Ford Fiesta.

My first-ever car was a 1978 Fiesta.

'Introducing Fiesta. Now imported from Germany by Ford.'

It was the mid-'90s and it was a crucial time for the hatchback.

Back then, these cars didn't roll off the production line

with 17-inch alloys, Recaro seats and mad body kits,

they were affordable and begging to be tweaked.

Back then was the dawn of the modified car scene.

And I was hooked.

I started going to cruises,

which were clandestine gatherings in empty lots or car parks

where people would gather to show off their modified cars.

And this wasn't just in South London,

it was happening all over the country,

including in Stockport, where a young George Lewis

was pottering around in his own majestic Fiesta.

I certainly was, Rory.

-Hello.

-Hiya, mate.

So what made yours so special?

Mine was a '95 Fiesta, third generation,

and I got it for 100 quid off my mate Dougie.

But then I had to spend the money on the mods as well,

-so that was another 50 quid.

-OK. 50 quid's worth of mods?

-Oh, yes.

-So you had some special stuff on there then, clearly.

Er, yeah, I had stick-on vents on the bonnet.

I also had a flashing blue gear stick.

-So, just stuff that would make me go faster, really.

-Right.

I've never, ever heard of a flashing gear stick

-helping anyone change gear faster.

-I thought you were into cars, mate.

Well, clearly you know more than I do.

Did you find yourself going to cruises?

I went to cruises, but I found them pretty scary places.

You know, you turn up and there'd be an air of menace.

I'd always be worried the police were going to turn up

and for some reason they'd arrest me.

THEY LAUGH

The guy with the flashing blue knob, he's gone too far.

Nowadays, kids have it so easy.

You can kind of perv on your favourite car using the internet.

-Right, yeah.

-But that then, to find a car you really lusted after,

-you'd have to go and see it.

-Yes.

-But are there still cruises then, do they still exist?

-I think they do.

I think they're out there,

you just have to look really hard to find them.

-I know a guy who used to write for Max Power magazine.

-Oh, yeah.

His name's Dan and he said that there was

a semblance of a cruise happening not too far from here, actually.

-So, if you want to go and check one out?

-Yeah.

-We can.

-OK.

-I'm up for it.

-Cool, let's go and check one out.

We're off to the Ace Cafe, which at the height of the cruise scene,

was the ultimate hang-out for car enthusiasts and boy racers.

I wonder what it's like today.

-Here we are.

-Yep.

-Where are all the Novas?

Everything's a bit less bright blue than I remember.

-Right, Dan, we're looking for Dan.

-Let's go and find him.

Dan Anslow is a former feature writer and photographer

for car mag Max Power.

In its heyday, it was the go-to resource

for performance tuning and modification.

Dan himself was a boy racer who got himself up to all kinds of mischief.

Today, he's a little different.

All right, chaps?

-Dan.

-Rory.

-Hello, fella. Long time, no see.

-I know, mate, too long.

-This is George.

-Hi, Dan, good to meet you.

-Nice to meet you. All right?

What are you rolling in today? A little Nissan?

-Popped down in the R32 GTR.

-Nice, nice.

It's my weapon of choice tonight.

You've got a classic blue on gold colour scheme going on.

Yeah, she's nice, she's pretty.

But she's not that wild, bit like tonight, really.

Speaking of which, it's been 20-odd years since the cruise scene

was at its peak, and this is what it's become.

Yeah, well, I guess last time I was at the Ace Cafe

having a full-on cruise was about ten years ago.

Thousands of people here, cars everywhere,

smoke from burn-outs, doughnuts, flames out of exhausts.

It was wild, yeah, it was totally wild, it was the Wild West,

-it really was.

-It all seems a bit tamer now, doesn't it?

Yeah, it's quiet tonight, it's sanctioned, it's nicely organised.

I quite like this, that it's nice and welcoming now.

It's like a family day out, you know what I mean?

I think the guys have got a really good selection of cars out.

You've got some real enthusiasts.

I saw something quite nice as I drove in,

it was a Sierra RS Cosworth over there.

Yeah, nice, a classic cruise-mobile, that is, mate.

That was a unicorn for me. Shall we go and have a look?

-Yeah, let's go.

-Let's do it, man.

Mick, Rory. Nice to meet you.

I remember back in the day rocking up to cruises in my Fiesta

or Astra and seeing these things, and these were the daddies, man.

Fair play. How long have you had this thing?

About seven years. Bought it off a friend.

Basically, he had five kids.

So it was time for the car to go.

What does he drive now?

A Land Rover.

It happens to us all, mate.

And do you think these things have changed quite a lot?

-Have cruises changed?

-Definitely.

I used to come up especially.

People were going mad outside here with this many cars.

-There's not enough smoke, is there?

-Well, this is it.

It's a slightly different affair today,

but it's nice to see the love of the mod hasn't changed.

Look, he's got the classic neons going on.

Yeah, this is what I remember, brightly coloured neon lights.

'It wouldn't be a cruise

'without a ridiculously over-the-top sound system.

'Now, this takes me back.'

-You've got one or two speakers in it now, I see.

-I have 68.

-68?

-Yeah.

-I love the way you snuck in speakers in the footwell.

-Yeah.

But there's literally nowhere in this car that hasn't got a speaker.

It looks the part, can we hear it?

-Of course, no problem.

-All right, fire it up.

-OK.

MUSIC BLARES

Yeah, quite loud, isn't it?

BASS THUMPS

We never got stuff like this back in the day, did we?

-No way, look at this thing.

-Looks like it probably cost more than Fiesta.

Back in the day, I had a Vauxhall Nova, an old 1.2 P reg Nova,

and back then it was very different because you'd actually

have to work for it. You would modify things at home.

You'd get your friends to help you and it was a bit more communal,

whereas now people build stuff like this,

it's a completely different level.

Everything kind of rolls off the production line ready for you.

There's not much individuality any more.

It's a bit different now because manufacturers have changed things,

so everything's electronic, you can't necessarily put

a different engine from one car into another car.

It's very difficult to modify cars now.

I think a lot of people still want to do it,

but it's not organic like it used to be.

You know, it's not quite the same.

But I think the community is still the same.

Are cruises smaller now, just fewer people there?

Yeah, they're smaller, they're fragmented out.

You've got guys who love performance,

you got guys that love just styling only,

you've got guys who love Japanese cars, European cars, and I think

what they've done is more split out into their own little scenes.

They don't do anything crazy, but they just get together,

have a cup of tea and talk about their cars.

But there's none of the associated madness.

-It's a lot less dangerous now then.

-Yeah, it's a lot less chance

of getting run over now than there was back in the day.

Do you know what this is missing, lads?

I reckon we should find an old car park and do handbrake turns.

-I'm well up for that.

-Yeah?

Er, yeah, it's 9.30pm, though, we've got work in the morning, so...

Yeah, come on.

APPLAUSE

That was fun.

I mean, I wasn't worried about getting arrested this time

and we were back home in bed by 10pm.

Not together!

Yeah, yeah.

Chris, you are a more distinguished gentleman than me and Rory.

I mean you're a little bit older.

Were you ever into modding your cars, ever had a flaming exhaust?

Yeah, I think anyone who loves cars tweaks them and plays with them.

And when you start out, you have to.

So everything I owned for the first five or six years was, yeah,

played with and mostly ruined.

-What was your first car?

-Mini. 998 Mini. Yeah, it had to be.

1.5in SU, Janspeed exhaust, took the interior out

and drove it like an absolute knob.

Yes. I expect no less.

It's been a good night for the hatchback.

Rory, we saw you in the GTI Club Sport S

-on the Nurburgring with Sabine.

-Oh, yeah.

That's a worrying combination.

And you are a very brave man.

OK, OK.

OK, now I'm scared.

Aaaargh!

-Oh, my...!

-Don't worry.

Aaargh!

OK...

I'm not OK.

APPLAUSE

I said "very brave".

-Bravish.

-Yeah, yeah.

Well, now, let's bring out the woman

who is responsible for Rory's night terrors.

It's Sabine.

There, there.

Right, take a seat.

Sabine, that looked like it was a very fun day for you and Rory.

-Mainly you.

-I enjoyed it quite much. I don't know. You?

I'm alive, so I enjoyed it.

-This was Rory's first time on the Ring.

-Yeah, imagine.

How did it feel when he arrived? Did he looked nervous?

Not at all. I thought maybe he did some practice,

you know, on a computer game or whatever.

Literally, it was my first-ever time going around the Nurburgring

and then you get in the car with her,

-it's the most terrifying thing, I promise you.

-He loved it.

Cos you're watching it as a driver in your own head thinking,

I should brake there, but she brakes 50 yards further down the road.

You think, you can't possibly accelerate round this bend,

but she's got her foot to the floor, she is the queen of the Nurburgring

and she is quite frankly one of the best drivers

I've sat next to a car, she's unbelievable.

You did have that nervous laugh - I'm about to die!

Listen, that's all genuine, I had actual nightmares after that.

You must have your own specific bits of the track

that are your favourites?

-Oh, I like the fast parts.

-OK.

That's all of them.

Yeah! There are some tiny corners.

But I don't like the tiny ones,

I like to have a good settled car on that really high-speed area.

-With bumps and jumps and so on.

-Yeah.

I have to say, dude, you're a very brave man

because if I had to write down on a piece of paper

the worst way to be introduced to that circuit,

it involved her, a quiet track, a hatchback that you know

she's going to get on top of in about two seconds flat

and drive really, really fast and have massive confidence in.

-Yeah, I feel for you.

-I think we're making progress here.

Hug? Nah!

So, the Golf is obviously a hatchback,

but the Club Sport S is pretty much a sports car.

Interesting geek fact for you.

The guy that worked on the chassis and suspension for the 997 GT3 RS

left Porsche and went to Volkswagen.

And his next job was to do that car.

-So their DNA is linked, basically.

-Oh, OK.

But this car has some serious engineering in it.

The only thing is, when you exit a corner,

the inside wheel is spinning a lot,

so you could really make a big improvement on the time

when this wouldn't happen.

-So you think that could be faster if they change a few things?

-Yeah.

They have done some great work though.

It doesn't understeer at all.

You were throwing it into corners at stupid speeds. Just hanging on.

It's a work of art, that thing.

Well, that's all we have time for.

So, can we have a round of applause, please, for Sabine?

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Rory, what have we got coming up next week?

We'll get the inside track on the astonishing new Bugatti Chiron

and if you've ever wondered how to build a life-size arcade game,

make sure you tune in.

We'll see you next week for more Extra Gear. Goodnight.