Episode 3 Top Gear: Extra Gear


Episode 3

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Hi, I'm Rory Reid, and welcome to Extra Gear, the show with a triple-A

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backstage pass to all things Top Gear.

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Tonight, Extra Gear gets an exclusive invite to a secret stash

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of cars in Japan.

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I have been waiting to do this all day.

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Harris takes a Nissan Nismo 370Z out for a spin.

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Through the follow-through. Breathe in.

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And I'll be joined on the sofa

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by gamer-turned-racer Jann Mardenborough

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and comedian Matt Richardson.

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That's how we roll. This is Extra Gear.

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Let's get our guests out. First up is a man who was so good on the

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PlayStation that Nissan gave him a job as a real racing driver.

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It's Jann Mardenborough.

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-All right?

-All right?

-Take a seat.

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And a man who knows all about drive-time, it's Matt Richardson.

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So, Jann, thanks for joining us.

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You've flown in all the way from Japan to be here, right?

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Yeah, I got in yesterday, three o'clock.

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-Wow.

-So, a bit tired.

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Bags under the eyes. But make-up solved that for me.

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But you hold the record now for the person who has flown the longest to

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be on Extra Gear, so congratulations.

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-Sweet.

-Matt, have you been to Japan?

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I've never been to Japan and I came from Zone 3, so, it's...

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Never been inclined to visit?

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I don't speak Japanese so I don't think my comedy would go down

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that well there. And, you know,

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I'm not a racing driver, so I don't get to be as rock and roll.

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Jann, you actually race in Japan.

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Your path into motorsport wasn't exactly traditional, was it?

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I started to get into motorsport through gaming.

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So, I won a competition back in 2011 called GT Academy.

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So, they find the fastest people on the racing game Gran Turismo,

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the main prize is a professional drive in Dubai, and Nissan said,

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"OK, yeah, you did well, we'll give you a contract for 2013."

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And then it's just kind of like carried on since then.

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-So...

-Yeah, it's an amazing story but I want to know

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-about the process.

-To qualify,

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I was in my room a minimum six hours a day, every day.

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I was when I was a teenager as well, but not playing games.

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Other reasons.

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So, you went to Brands Hatch and then Silverstone.

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You won the big final race of GT Academy and you're on the big podium

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step at Silverstone, you've got Johnny Herbert,

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you've got Eddie Irvine with you.

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Yeah. He announced that I was the champion but his accent,

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he's from Ireland, and it's so strong and he talks so fast.

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He said, "Not only Jann's the winner of the race,

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"but winner of GT Academy." And then, like, I couldn't understand what he was on about.

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-You were like, "Eh, what?"

-And then there was champagne from the

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competitors, from, like, second and third were spraying at me and I

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was like, "Oh, I won."

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We actually have a clip of you telling your mum that you've won.

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So, let's take a look at that.

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Hello. Yeah, I've kind of won GT Academy.

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All of those hours in your bedroom finally paid off and now you compete

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in Super GT 500.

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We'll come back and we'll talk a bit more about your racing in a minute.

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But now we're going to head to Japan in search of a 1960s icon.

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This is Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture.

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A sleepy town about 25 miles west of Tokyo.

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Home to Camp Zama military base...

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..and Nissan's operations centre.

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It's safe to say that Zama is not a fixture on Japan's tourist trail.

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But there is more to Zama than initially meets the eye.

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Here, behind tight security,

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is one of the most comprehensive heritage collections in the world.

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Nissan's DNA Garage is not open to the public.

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You have to be invited.

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Luckily, we were.

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The secret stash includes cars that date back to the company's inception

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in 1933.

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Cars like Nissan's first electric vehicle, the Tama,

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and more magical Nismo machinery than can ever be imagined.

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But, as impressive as all of this is, I'm here for something specific.

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You might remember the Nissan 240Z, the grandfather of all Z-cars.

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Here in Japan, it's known as the Fairlady Z.

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It was built in 1969 as a rival for the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro,

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and indeed, the Jaguar E-Type.

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And inside this factory, there lives and ultra-rare, high-performance

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version known as the Fairlady Z432.

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This is it.

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They only ever made 420 of these and they only ever sold them here in

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Japan. The Z432 used the same engine that you found in the

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Skyline 2000 GT-R, a two-litre, six-cylinder S20 engine.

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Now, that was like taking a Porsche 911 engine and stuffing it into a

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Porsche Boxster. The standard Fairlady Z was no slouch,

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but in this, Nissan created something truly special -

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a Z-car with the heart of a GT-R.

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If the Z432 was rare in 1969, it has since become a bit of a unicorn.

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There are only around 100 rumoured to be in existence...

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..with many in a condition most consider beyond salvage.

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There is one man who has dedicated his career to hunting down the

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mythical beast. A man who has become a bit of a unicorn himself -

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one of only two people to still restore these cars by hand.

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It's here that collectors of these rare Nissans go to bring their

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Fairladys back to life.

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And I've come to meet Tadashi Ando,

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the man who has dedicated 30 years of his life to preserving so many

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432s, to find out what makes this car so special.

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Why is it so important to you that these cars are restored properly?

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I know they're incredibly rare

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but do you reckon maybe I could have a go in one?

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-Yes.

-Yeah?

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I have been waiting to do this all day.

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The first thing that hits you is that sound.

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The noise from that straight six just resonates around the cabin,

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forcing its way out through those

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twin vertically-mounted pipes at the rear.

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It sounds fantastic.

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The basic 240Z came with a two-litre engine that made about 130

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horsepower. The GT-R engine in this, the S20, makes 160.

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That doesn't sound like an awful lot but the car only weighs 1,000kg,

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so it does shift.

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You've got to remember that in the late '60s, early '70s,

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this was cutting-edge performance.

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And even by today's standards, I mean, it's still fun.

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Trust me.

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Peak power comes in at 7000rpm, so it does pay to wring it out.

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Be a bit of a hooligan.

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Oh, yes.

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Growing up, so many young men and women kind of fantasised about

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owning an old Mustang, or maybe a Jaguar E-Type,

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a Corvette in my case,

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and probably dismissed the 240Z as a sports car that they aspired to own.

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And maybe I'm a little bit guilty of that myself,

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but here I am in Japan driving it for myself,

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and I feel a connection to it.

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I feel like I should have paid more attention to this thing,

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especially in this form.

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How would I sum this up? I mean, I'm kind of at a loss for words.

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I can describe it for you, but it doesn't quite explain how it feels.

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And the best way I can describe it to you is that it's special.

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That's what it is - the 432 is special.

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It's a really special car.

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Amazing thing. You've been to Zama, right?

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-Yeah, quite a few times.

-Have you driven anything there?

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Well, yeah, at Nismo Festival they have a load of the old race cars.

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They take them out from Zama and bring them to the track,

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so I've raced quite a few of the race cars.

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Tell us about your Super GT car.

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So, the car is a Nissan GT-R.

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-But the only thing that's...

-We've got a picture of it right here.

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Yeah. So, the only thing that's the same as the road car and the

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race car is the roof-line and the rear lights.

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Everything else is completely custom -

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different engine, four-cylinder, two-litre 600...

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They don't actually tell us the numbers of the engine but it's

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probably between 650 and 700 horsepower.

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But this is serious racing, though. There are big names in this series.

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Yeah, man. It's, like, this championship is properly cool.

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The cars are cool, the championship is run very well and we have drivers,

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ex-F1 drivers - Jenson Button's doing it this year with Honda,

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Kamui Kobayashi is racing for Lexus.

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-There's another one...

-Heikki Kovalainen.

-Kovalainen for

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-Lexus as well.

-Have you come up against them already?

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Yeah. So, I've raced against all of them actually last year.

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I think it was at Fuji and I was sort of battling with Kovalainen,

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and it's like this guy was a McLaren driver.

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You know, like, this is cool.

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Well, you might not remember, but I actually raced against you

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at Le Mans when you were doing GT Academy.

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-You didn't know who I was, but I knew who YOU were.

-Yeah.

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And we were in some go-karts and I thought... I saw you whizz by me,

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and I thought, "I'm not letting him get away, I'm going to hang onto the back of him."

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This guy disappeared on me.

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Unbelievable. Speaking of dream cars, though,

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what do you aspire to own?

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So, I'd quite like, I mean, an Aston Martin would be the dream.

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There's someone on my street that's got a really nice one.

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And I always wanted a really nice black one.

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Or, I quite like a Porsche Cayenne.

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No, no, I said DREAM car.

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Yeah, Porsche Cayenne, I think they're really cool.

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So, tell me about your car history.

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-What have you owned?

-I started out, I had a Peugeot 106 1.2 litre.

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Ladies. And then I had a much sexier car.

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I went for the Fiat Grande Punto.

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LAUGHTER The Grande Punto?

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The Grande Pun... The Grande's important.

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And then... I've got a Mercedes E250 now.

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So it was like not that good, not that good, and then OK.

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Yeah, and that's it.

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That's my car there.

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-Where did you get that from?

-I bought it off my dad.

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Because I decided a 56-year-old man shouldn't be driving a white

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Mercedes, because that is a midlife crisis.

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It's nice, I like it. It's good.

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You and Jann actually have something in common, don't you?

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-You're into your gaming as well.

-I'm into my gaming, yeah.

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I'm not so much into car gaming.

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I used to play for hours a day - Flight Simulator.

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What Flight Simulator is - you're thinking, "That's exciting, fighter jets, things like that."

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Commercial aviation.

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My dream job was a pilot so I used to play Flight Simulator and I have

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like a proper yoke, like, you know, a flight...

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..a flying yoke and the pedals and everything attached to my desk.

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Not any more because I've just moved in with my girlfriend and she

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threw it out.

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You should tell her the Jann Mardenborough story -

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you plug away on your console...

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Yeah, but I'd be like, "One day I'll be a real pilot." I don't think BA

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go, "Hey, guys, who's playing Flight Simulator? Let's get them to be a pilot now."

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But I used to do the flight from London to New York in a 747

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in real-time.

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What's that, eight hours?

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Eight hours, depending on what you set the weather to be.

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-Hang on...

-Because, you know, it gets pretty boring if,

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halfway through, there's not a bit of turbulence.

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If there is turbulence, you could click the seat belt signs to go on.

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I used to put...

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Right, I used to put films on and I'd pretend that they were the films

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being shown on the in-flight entertainment system.

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And I lost my virginity as late as you'd imagine.

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But, yeah, yeah, that was my gaming history.

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-You're so much cooler than me.

-That's pretty cool, you know. Like, having your own...

-It's not cool.

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Thank you. Bless your heart for going, "That's very cool of you sitting in your room..."

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The eight-hour thing sitting on the plane watching your own...

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-That's...

-You know what, but you set the weather,

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so it can make it a bit interesting.

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And then your foggy landing at JFK, there's nothing more thrilling.

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You say that but Jann actually had a go in a slightly different simulator

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-recently...

-Yeah.

-..and it was a lot more thrilling.

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Let's take a look.

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No way.

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Oh!

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-A little bit cooler. A little bit cooler.

-You're living this life -

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I did a gig to 25 people in Stoke two days ago,

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so who's having a better career?

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That's the coolest thing I've ever seen.

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-Thanks, man.

-A bit cooler than flying imaginary planes.

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Yeah, I mean, he's in an actual helicopter driving a sports car.

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Were you worried about doing that, Jann, at all?

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-Shitting myself.

-Why?

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If you crashed it, you don't die.

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-It's perfect.

-That thing was fine, but the helicopter,

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being in a helicopter...

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-Did you not like?

-Nah, man.

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It was mad. The guy was...

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The pilot was really good and, you know,

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he was calming me down and stuff.

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But I think when I was sort of focusing on the car,

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cos I'm trying to look at the car while the thing's doing these mad

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turns and stuff, and it has like a glass floor.

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-Yeah.

-But sometimes he would have to cut the track and the car's like

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here, and I can't see anything, I can't even see the car,

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I'm meant to be controlling it, I can't see anything.

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I've no sympathy.

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You have the coolest life I've ever known.

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Absolutely.

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Well, earlier on, Matt,

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Jann and myself went head-to-head around Suzuka in our very own

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GT Academy. Let's take a look.

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I can't mess this up.

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I've gone in too deep.

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Perfect start.

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Stressful.

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Oh, yes.

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Whoa!

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Finish.

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And we're off.

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Oh! Straight into a wall.

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That did not go well. Dab of brakes.

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Dab of opposite lock.

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Dab of dirt.

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That's gone wrong.

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That's gone wrong. Oh!

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I meant that. Couple of problems here -

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I don't know this track, I never play this game...

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..and I'm rubbish.

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Lovely. OK.

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I'm so bad at this.

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How have I put my...? I've put my hazard lights on.

0:18:350:18:37

Right, now I'm in the swing of it, this is going to be good.

0:18:410:18:44

Oh, yeah, of course, brilliant.

0:18:440:18:47

I hope my insurance company aren't watching this.

0:18:470:18:50

I mean, that was horrific.

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-Cheers. That was

-BLEEP

-pathetic.

0:18:560:18:59

OK. All right, I have the lap times here.

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Who's your money on? Jann?

0:19:050:19:08

I'm still driving it!

0:19:090:19:10

OK, let's see. Jann, obviously you were the fastest by some margin.

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Your best lap was lap two, at 2:23.50.

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I did it in a 3:10.50.

0:19:230:19:26

No, I don't even want to know.

0:19:280:19:30

I mean, four hours and three seconds.

0:19:300:19:33

It's not as bad as you think. You were only four seconds behind me.

0:19:330:19:36

-Was I?

-I mean, that's a lifetime in real life,

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-But in a game it's not too bad.

-Yeah, yeah.

0:19:380:19:40

Although your worst lap was a 3:47, which is...

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I've never been to Japan before. I just wanted to see the scenery.

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You were in this room! All right, congratulations, guys.

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The winner, Jann Mardenborough.

0:19:510:19:53

Thank you.

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Now, we're off for another lap, but this time it's on British turf -

0:19:570:20:00

Chris Harris hits the track in a Nissan 370Z.

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The car revs out to about 7,500, but beyond about 6,800,

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it's kind of had enough. It's a bit asthmatic, this engine.

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I mean, it offers about 35 horsepower more than a standard 370Z

0:20:170:20:21

but it doesn't feel dramatically faster if I'm being honest with you.

0:20:210:20:25

The main thing about the Nismo package is the handling,

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so we've got better brakes, we've got better dampers, stiffer springs.

0:20:280:20:32

Everything's a bit different, a bit racier.

0:20:320:20:34

And through here...

0:20:340:20:35

..it feels great fun.

0:20:360:20:38

Power, 344, torque, 274,

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top speed, 155, 0-62,

0:20:440:20:47

five and a bit seconds.

0:20:470:20:49

I mean, those are quite good numbers for back in the day, but these days,

0:20:490:20:53

you know, everything's got a bit stronger and a bit punchier.

0:20:530:20:56

So, I have to say, it doesn't feel that fast any more.

0:20:560:21:02

It's a nicely-balanced car.

0:21:020:21:04

It's quite heavy too -

0:21:040:21:06

it's nearly 1.5 tonnes.

0:21:060:21:08

What's it like through here if we give it a flick?

0:21:080:21:10

A lot of understeer. A lot of safety understeer.

0:21:100:21:13

Through the Follow Through.

0:21:150:21:16

Breathe in!

0:21:160:21:17

I do like this track.

0:21:200:21:22

Braking. Braking's pretty good, but again there's a little bit

0:21:220:21:25

of squidge in the end of the pedal.

0:21:250:21:27

Everything feels like it's sort of rubber-bushed

0:21:270:21:29

and a little bit indirect on the car.

0:21:290:21:32

But the Z-cars, yeah, they need some more concentration,

0:21:320:21:35

some more effort.

0:21:350:21:36

Over the line.

0:21:380:21:39

Great lap, as always.

0:21:440:21:46

I mean, Chris, he was kind of on the fence with it.

0:21:460:21:48

He was saying not enough power, too much understeer.

0:21:480:21:50

You actually have one of these cars, though, don't you?

0:21:500:21:52

Yeah, it kind of hurt a little bit, some of the stuff he was saying.

0:21:520:21:55

Do you disagree?

0:21:550:21:57

There's some bits I do agree, I do agree that it's, you know, it is,

0:21:570:22:01

it is getting on. It's quite an old car.

0:22:010:22:04

But I have one and I do like the fact that it does feel kind of

0:22:040:22:08

old school. Like, it's heavy steering, the manual gearbox,

0:22:080:22:14

you have to be quite precise on it, the clutch is quite heavy.

0:22:140:22:17

Yeah.

0:22:170:22:18

When I drive it, it's fun, and on wet roundabouts, it's mint.

0:22:180:22:24

Yeah. Matt, you're no stranger to Dunsfold. I hear you've actually visited the track.

0:22:240:22:28

I've done, you know, where you pay to go and drive supercars

0:22:280:22:32

for the day. So, we paid and drove an Aston Martin DB9

0:22:320:22:35

and a Ferrari Spider,

0:22:350:22:38

which was great. I promised my dad when I started doing comedy,

0:22:380:22:41

I was like, "When I'm famous, I'm going to buy you an Aston Martin."

0:22:410:22:45

And then last year I reassessed where my career was and I went,

0:22:450:22:47

"How about we do a lap in an Aston Martin?"

0:22:470:22:49

But, yeah, I have driven that track and it's a nice track.

0:22:510:22:54

The lady who was in the car with me who was, like,

0:22:540:22:56

the professional driver,

0:22:560:22:57

she then took me round for a spin and I screamed because she was

0:22:570:23:01

really fast. Whereas I was driving very responsibly.

0:23:010:23:04

And on that note, it's time to wrap this up.

0:23:040:23:06

Thank you to our guests, Jann Mardenborough and Matt Richardson.

0:23:060:23:10

Round of applause, please.

0:23:100:23:12

I'll be back next week for more Extra Gear.

0:23:140:23:16

See you then. Goodnight.

0:23:160:23:17

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