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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:00:17 | 0:00:19 | |
Thank you so much. Hello. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:21 | |
Hello, everybody, and welcome. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
Thank you very much, Thank you. Now... | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
Now, a few years ago, bosses at a Cheshire-based engineering | 0:00:27 | 0:00:33 | |
company called BAC decided they'd like to make a car. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:37 | |
Now, because they're from Cheshire, I assumed it would be made | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
from onyx and have Bullseye glass in the windows | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
and then door mirrors made out of Wayne Rooney's ears. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
-LAUGHTER -But, no. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:48 | |
They decided it should have the four-cylinder engine | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
from a Ford people van, | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
the gearbox from a Formula 3 racing car, | 0:00:53 | 0:00:56 | |
and that it should be upholstered in the same | 0:00:56 | 0:00:59 | |
stain-resistant and waterproof material that they use to line | 0:00:59 | 0:01:04 | |
furniture in old people's homes. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
And then they turned their attention to how it should look. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:10 | |
Now, most car designers, for their inspiration, | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
go to big cats and bats and jet fighters. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
But the men from Cheshire decided they didn't want any of that. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:21 | |
They decided to take their inspiration from this. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:25 | |
MUSIC: "All Is Full Of Love" by Bjork | 0:01:25 | 0:01:27 | |
# You'll be given love... # | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
So, the styling of an Icelandic robot from a Bjork pop video, | 0:01:35 | 0:01:40 | |
the gearbox from a racing car | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
and the engine from a van. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
Bring them all together and this is the result. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
It's called the Mono, | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
and it's amazing. | 0:02:03 | 0:02:04 | |
The engine may be from a Ford people carrier | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
but it's been fettled by Cosworth, so now it produces 280 horsepower. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:14 | |
And fitting a 280 horsepower heart | 0:02:17 | 0:02:19 | |
in a car which weighs just half a tonne is... | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
Well, the effects are going to be profound. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
ENGINE ROARS | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
I can see why they lined it with | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
material designed to resist trouser accidents. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:42 | |
Because my bladder's gone. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
It's completely gone. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
I've wet myself. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:49 | |
0-60 takes just 2.8 seconds. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
And, in theory, the top speed is 170. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
But in reality it isn't, | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
because the Mono has the same problem as the Ariel Atom - | 0:03:09 | 0:03:13 | |
no windscreen. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:14 | |
At 70mph, your face starts to move about. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:21 | |
And then when you get to 80, | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
it starts to come off. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:27 | |
'At 90, you're forced to accept that, really, you need a helmet.' | 0:03:31 | 0:03:35 | |
With a lid on, you can start to appreciate | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
just how clever this car is. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:51 | |
First of all, I fit. I mean, only just, but I do actually fit. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:57 | |
And even though it has | 0:03:58 | 0:04:00 | |
Formula 1-style pushrod suspension, | 0:04:00 | 0:04:02 | |
the ride is sublime. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:04 | |
You could almost call it comfortable. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
Although, that said, at high revs, | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
everything starts to tingle and vibrate. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
I don't want to go into too many details but let me put it this way - | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
if I were a girl, I'd like it VERY much. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
Strangely, even cross-eyed women can drive this car legally on the road. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:29 | |
But realistically, it's built for the track. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
So - let's see what's what. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
It's not really about straight-line speed. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
It doesn't actually feel that fast. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
And when you get used to it, | 0:04:53 | 0:04:55 | |
it's not that scary either. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
If I'm honest, it's not really like driving, this, | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
it's like I'm conducting an orchestra of parts that know... | 0:05:01 | 0:05:06 | |
..certainly what they're doing, they're very well rehearsed... | 0:05:07 | 0:05:09 | |
There goes the French horns and here are the violins. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
The brakes, yeah, they're good. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
Gearbox is fantastic. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:25 | |
It really is an absolutely instant change. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
Bang, bang, bang - ready. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
And there's more. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:33 | |
Because all the heavy stuff - the engine, the gearbox and the driver - | 0:05:38 | 0:05:42 | |
is all in a line, low down in the middle of the car, | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
it has the same centre of gravity | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
as a worm. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:49 | |
Couple that to the F1 suspension and the specially made tyres, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:55 | |
and the cornering speeds are simply immense. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
To demonstrate how immense, | 0:06:03 | 0:06:05 | |
we've set up a radar trap on the Follow-Through | 0:06:05 | 0:06:07 | |
and coming through it now, as fast as possible, | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
is a Peugeot 208. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:12 | |
83 and a half miles an hour. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
Then it was the turn of a BMW M3. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:27 | |
TYRES SCREECH | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
Ooh, now, look at that. 90.25mph. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:34 | |
After a Nissan GTR had a go... | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
..we unleashed the Mono. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:40 | |
See my point? | 0:06:44 | 0:06:45 | |
It is very fast, then, and it's fun. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
But what about reliability, | 0:06:50 | 0:06:51 | |
traditionally not a strong point for small volume British sports cars? | 0:06:51 | 0:06:57 | |
The first time I drove a Mono, it set fire to itself. | 0:06:57 | 0:07:00 | |
The second time, the engine went wonky | 0:07:00 | 0:07:02 | |
and the third time, it broke down before it had even left the factory. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:06 | |
So I thought of it, really, as | 0:07:06 | 0:07:08 | |
another typically British, badly executed good idea. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:13 | |
But, since all those calamities | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
they've had 12 months to work on the design and the detailing, | 0:07:16 | 0:07:20 | |
and I have to say it looks not just very well thought out... | 0:07:20 | 0:07:25 | |
..but absolutely beautifully made. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
And it's not just the detailing that's beautiful, either. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
When you stand back, | 0:07:35 | 0:07:37 | |
that's one of THE most exciting shapes I've ever seen. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:42 | |
The Mono is the nicest thing to come out of Cheshire | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
since the cheese. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:49 | |
But it does cost £102,000, | 0:07:51 | 0:07:54 | |
and that, for a twice-a-year toy, is a lot. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
In many ways, then, this is a bit like an iPad, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:07 | |
cos that's not cheap either, and you certainly don't need one. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:11 | |
But you want one, cos it's such a lovely... | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
thing. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:16 | |
-It does feel well-made. -Feel how well-made it is. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:35 | |
-It is. -It's gorgeous. -I know. -And beautifully made. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
-It's a piece of jewellery. But... -What? -£102,000? | 0:08:41 | 0:08:48 | |
I know. It is expensive, especially when you bear in mind | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
all the other brilliant track day cars you can buy for a lot less. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
You know, the KTM, Radical, Ariel Atom... | 0:08:54 | 0:08:56 | |
Morgan Three Wheeler. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:58 | |
No, I said brilliant. | 0:08:58 | 0:08:59 | |
All right, the Caterham R500. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:01 | |
That's a brilliant track day car and that's half the price of this. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
Yes, and that is enormously fast. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:06 | |
But will this be faster? | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
Well, to find out, we shall hand it over to our tame racing driver. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:12 | |
Some say that he breaks into people's houses at night and | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
leaves two mysterious extra keys in a kitchen drawer. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:20 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:09:20 | 0:09:21 | |
And that, as a result of buying Pirelli condoms this week, | 0:09:21 | 0:09:25 | |
he now has 17 children. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:26 | |
All we know is he's called The Stig. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:30 | |
Stig snaps to attention and he's off. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
Flicking off the line like a flea, | 0:09:33 | 0:09:35 | |
even though the start/finish line was damp. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
Hopefully the rest of the track's dry. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
Flying into the first corner. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
He came in very hot there but sorted it out... | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
no problem at all. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:46 | |
ENGINE ROARS | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
No stereo, of course, just the sound of that Cosworth-tuned engine | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
as he zips round Chicago. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
Absolutely rock-solid. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:56 | |
Now, Hammerhead. what will this reveal about the mid-engine balance? | 0:09:56 | 0:10:01 | |
No drama. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:02 | |
That is properly nailed down. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
Oh, but look, a well-orchestrated drift on the way out. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
High revs now. The vibrations will be stimulating his lady parts. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:14 | |
Follow-Through. And, yes, he actually changed up through there. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:18 | |
Stig is brave, even on the brink of a crisis. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:22 | |
OK, controlling it beautifully into the second-to-last corner. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:26 | |
Screams up to Gambon, racing gearbox whining. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:29 | |
Slides it through and across the line. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:32 | |
CHEERING | 0:10:32 | 0:10:35 | |
Now, here we have the Caterham R500, | 0:10:37 | 0:10:41 | |
which did it in 1.17.9, yeah? | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
BAC Mono... | 0:10:45 | 0:10:47 | |
..1.14.3. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
-No way! -The second fastest car we've ever had. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:58 | |
That is something else. | 0:10:58 | 0:10:59 | |
Now, as I'm sure you know, after 13 years | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
the British military forces are pulling out of Afghanistan. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:09 | |
What you may not know is that that operation has been the biggest | 0:11:09 | 0:11:13 | |
deployment of British military vehicles since World War II. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
Now, bringing that lot home is quite a big job | 0:11:17 | 0:11:21 | |
so I packed my tin helmet and went out there to... | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
get in the way. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:25 | |
If you want to get a sense of just how big | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
the British involvement in Afghanistan has become... | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
..you just have to look at the size of its main base - | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
Camp Bastion. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:41 | |
In 2006, when British forces arrived here, | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
it was just a scrap of desert with a few tents in it. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
But now look - it's the size of Reading. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:57 | |
And inside its 25 miles of blast-proof perimeter wall, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:10 | |
alongside the few comforts of home, | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
you'll find a vast armada of vehicles. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
At its peak, the number was 5,000. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:25 | |
We've got a few of them here. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:29 | |
Their names will be dimly familiar from news reports. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:31 | |
That is a Ridgeback. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:33 | |
That is a Mastiff. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
Then you have a Foxhound, | 0:12:35 | 0:12:36 | |
the pale-coloured one is a Husky, | 0:12:36 | 0:12:38 | |
and that weird-looking thing with the tracks on over there, | 0:12:38 | 0:12:41 | |
that is a Warthog. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:42 | |
Don't expect cute and cuddly names like Panda or Fiesta, | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
everything here is named after a dog. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
Except the Warthog... | 0:12:48 | 0:12:50 | |
which is named after a warthog. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:52 | |
To keep the wheels turning | 0:12:54 | 0:12:55 | |
the Army has built this enormous workshop, | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
which, at full strength, carries £60 million worth of spares | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
and employs 150 mechanics. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
Bastion even has its own | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
purpose-built driver training ground, | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
approved by a squad of driving instructors. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
The sheer size of this operation is truly impressive, | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
but equally fascinating is what the Afghanistan campaign has done | 0:13:22 | 0:13:27 | |
to Britain's military vehicles. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
It has brought about the biggest change in a generation. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:35 | |
When the British first arrived here, their staple patrol vehicle, | 0:13:35 | 0:13:38 | |
the Snatch Land Rover, offered woeful protection against IEDs. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:43 | |
In 2009 alone, 79 soldiers fell victim to such devices. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:49 | |
BUGLE PLAYS | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
The 29-tonne American-made Mastiff offered a quick fix. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:59 | |
But in Leamington Spa, | 0:13:59 | 0:14:00 | |
a small British firm devised a more 21st-century solution. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:04 | |
This is a Foxhound. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
And it's very clever because it's actually made out of armour, | 0:14:13 | 0:14:16 | |
it's not a normal vehicle to which armour plate has been added. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
It's a sort of armour monocoque, if you like. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
The Foxhound also has a V-shaped hull to deflect mine blasts, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:28 | |
and, thanks to its state-of-the-art armour, it weighs just 7.5 tonnes, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:34 | |
which makes it a featherweight around these parts. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
To drive, it's pretty much like an off-road car. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:42 | |
It's a positive mountain goat, this thing. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
Now, history will record | 0:14:49 | 0:14:50 | |
that Government bureaucrats dragged their heels | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
over the military vehicle crisis in Afghanistan. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
But the boffins who developed the Foxhound certainly didn't. | 0:14:56 | 0:15:00 | |
This machine was designed, engineered, tested, proved | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
and got on the ground in large numbers | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
in just over three years. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
Try doing that with a small hatchback or something. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
Alongside the Foxhound... | 0:15:15 | 0:15:17 | |
..the military drew on a policy | 0:15:20 | 0:15:21 | |
called Urgent Operational Requirement, or UOR, | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
which saw them combine operational demands and | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
the best vehicle-related suggestions from soldiers on the ground. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
Here's a very simple example of UOR. This is a Mastiff. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
It's got cameras mounted on the sides. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
The commander here can look at the pictures on his screen. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:44 | |
Now, on the early ones, they were rigidly mounted. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:46 | |
When you went through things like villages, they got smashed. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
So somebody said, "Why not put them on a hinge?" | 0:15:49 | 0:15:51 | |
So they did. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:53 | |
Soldiers also needed their vehicles to be more stealthy in the dark, | 0:15:57 | 0:16:01 | |
so a night vision system was developed that would allow them | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
to switch off their headlights. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:05 | |
I'm now driving the Mastiff completely blacked-out | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
but using the night vision system suspended in front of my face, | 0:16:10 | 0:16:14 | |
and this is quite amazing. This is actually my eyes, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:16 | |
I can't see a single thing through the windscreen. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
These lamps on the outside are infrared | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
and illuminate the surrounding area. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
Our camera can see the light they emit, | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
but it's invisible to the naked eye. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:31 | |
We ought to point out that normally we wouldn't even have these red interior lights on, | 0:16:32 | 0:16:36 | |
those are there so that our cameras are working properly. But actually | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
-we could be completely black in here, couldn't we? -Complete blackout, yeah. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:43 | |
Right, so I've missed those, what are those? Are they rocks? | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
Yeah, they're just mounds in front of you. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:49 | |
-Straightening up, sir. -See that compound ahead of us? -Yeah. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:54 | |
We want to be going round to the left of that. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
I can see that as clear as day. | 0:16:57 | 0:16:59 | |
-It's a good piece of kit. -It's brilliant, isn't it? | 0:17:00 | 0:17:02 | |
Now, on a machine as heavily armoured as a Mastiff, | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
the protection against roadside bombs is good. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
But Afghanistan threw up another issue that needed sorting. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
What if the vehicle is blown over? How do you train for that? | 0:17:13 | 0:17:17 | |
MEN: Brace! Brace! Brace! | 0:17:17 | 0:17:20 | |
Well, what you do is you build one of these. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
It's a RODET - roll over drill egress trainer. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:29 | |
Ah! | 0:17:29 | 0:17:31 | |
I think we're upside down. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:32 | |
All these improvements have had a dramatic effect on military motoring out here. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:41 | |
Since the new generation of PMVs was introduced - | 0:17:41 | 0:17:45 | |
that's protected military vehicles, | 0:17:45 | 0:17:47 | |
the Mastiff, the Foxhound, the Husky, the Warthog, | 0:17:47 | 0:17:52 | |
all those things - | 0:17:52 | 0:17:53 | |
there have been over 1,000 survivors of IED strikes on vehicles. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:59 | |
And a senior British officer admitted to me the other day | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
that in the old days, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
when we had the soft-skin vehicles, the Snatch Land Rover and so on, | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
that might have been more like three casualties per vehicle. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
With our troops now coming home, | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
this stuff is too valuable to leave behind. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
So a massive operation is under way to bring it back to Britain. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
At forward bases like this one, all the vehicles and spares | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
are being gathered up for the drive back to Bastion. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
Which meant that in the middle of the night, I found myself | 0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | |
in a convoy of returning vehicles in full Ross Kemp mode. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:43 | |
We're in a Mastiff, we're in a convoy of 31 vehicles. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:46 | |
These legs belong to Sue, | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
who's up the top on the gun keeping lookout. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:50 | |
-Hello. -Morning. -Morning, ma'am. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:53 | |
-Is there room for two of us up there? -We can give it a go. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
Hang on, I'll move this way a bit. | 0:18:56 | 0:18:57 | |
-Up we go. -Ow. -I don't think we're going to fit on. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:01 | |
I've pulled something off... | 0:19:01 | 0:19:03 | |
I'm not fat. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
What's to stop somebody out... | 0:19:13 | 0:19:14 | |
because we can't really see very much out there, | 0:19:14 | 0:19:16 | |
what's to stop somebody out there just taking a shot at you? | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
-Absolutely nothing at the moment. -So they're out there somewhere? | 0:19:20 | 0:19:23 | |
They are. They're not that far away. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:26 | |
When was the last time a roadside bomb went off on this bit, | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
do you know? | 0:19:29 | 0:19:30 | |
Very, very recent. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
-Very recent. -Very recent. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
Daylight found us still in one piece, | 0:19:42 | 0:19:44 | |
and back within the walls of Bastion the packing-up process could begin. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:48 | |
Alongside a stripped-down service, | 0:19:48 | 0:19:51 | |
each vehicle gets a 24-hour-long jet wash, | 0:19:51 | 0:19:55 | |
a biological decontamination and, at the very end, its own passport. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:02 | |
And look at the size of it. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:05 | |
All these pages, all these signatures, everything signed off - | 0:20:05 | 0:20:10 | |
every single vehicle and piece of equipment has one of those | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
and there are over 3,500 of them. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:17 | |
So don't complain next time you have to tax and MOT your car. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
For some poor souls, the new machinery came too late. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:31 | |
But the military has responded to the brutality of this conflict. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:38 | |
And the vehicles we're bringing home from Afghanistan | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
are much better than the ones we went out with. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
My guest tonight is an Australian who lives in Britain, | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
but unusually, he doesn't work in a pub. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
Instead, he works in the marketing department | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
of a large energy drinks company, | 0:21:29 | 0:21:32 | |
and he's just handed his notice in. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:34 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mark Webber! | 0:21:34 | 0:21:36 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
Mark Webber! How are you? | 0:21:41 | 0:21:43 | |
Have a seat. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:47 | |
Have a seat. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:50 | |
One of the most popular figures, I say, in Formula 1. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
Now, we have so much in common. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:58 | |
We have the same body fat index, I know that. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:01 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:22:01 | 0:22:02 | |
Why are you laughing? Exactly the same. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:04 | |
But the main thing we have in common, | 0:22:04 | 0:22:07 | |
apart from the same body fat index is... | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
TITTERING | 0:22:10 | 0:22:12 | |
..is cycling. I'm now a cyclist. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
I hear. I hear, mate, it's a new passion for you. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:19 | |
And you, of course, are well known as a cyclist. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
I've done a little bit of cycling over the years. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
Somebody said you are the fittest of all the drivers. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
I'm in reasonable shape. I think all the guys are fit now, but... | 0:22:26 | 0:22:29 | |
If you're the fittest Formula 1 driver, | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
-you've got to be one of the fittest athletes. -I'd like to... | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
If we did lots of different challenges, yeah. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:36 | |
-That would be good, to get you all playing all the different sports. Do you play football? -Yeah. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:40 | |
-Our football or your silly football? -I don't get on the lines like the Wallabies. We'll leave that alone. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:45 | |
-A SPECTATOR CHEERS -Somebody's here. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:47 | |
Somebody understands what you're on about. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:49 | |
-How much mileage have you done on the bike? -On the bike? -Yeah. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
I do... I've done... | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
-three. -Three miles. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:54 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
One thing I will say about cycling is it is pretty dangerous, | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
because over the years you've had a number of car accidents, let's be honest. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
If you're going to race cars, you're going to crash cars. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
We've got a photograph here of a crash. I believe it was at Le Mans. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:09 | |
-A still. This is you in a Mercedes. -Yeah. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
-I say car crash. That is a plane crash going on. -Yeah. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
How did that happen? | 0:23:15 | 0:23:16 | |
Actually, in that era, in the late '90s, the cars were super-unsafe | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
so a lot of cars were flying. Just the regulations. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:23 | |
So you're sitting in there thinking... | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
I'm thinking, obviously, I'm now out of control. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
Believe it or not, I'm now out of control. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
LAUGHTER So even, as arrogant as us boys are, | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
I have now lost control of that car. That's gone. But... | 0:23:35 | 0:23:38 | |
Do you find yourself, in a situation like that, braking? | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
The brake lights will still be on, probably, yeah. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
"Why isn't it slowing down?" | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
Now, the thing is, you walk away from those accidents | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
which of course is remarkable, | 0:23:50 | 0:23:51 | |
and yet you go cycling in when was it, 2008? | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
-Yep. -Bump into a Nissan Terrano, I believe was the vehicle. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:57 | |
-It won, mate, it won. -It won. And you broke your leg. -Yeah, shoulder... | 0:23:57 | 0:24:04 | |
Because this is one I think we need to impress upon children watching, | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
is that, don't get a bicycle, because they're dangerous. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:11 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:11 | 0:24:13 | |
Now, obviously, you've, just as we said in the introduction, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:17 | |
-handed your notice in. -Mmm. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:19 | |
Why? Where are you going? What are you going to do? | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
Timing's right for me, mate. Bit of a break | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
from what I've been doing for the last 14 years, | 0:24:24 | 0:24:28 | |
so I'm going to race with Porsche, actually. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
I know you love Porsches, don't you, mate? | 0:24:30 | 0:24:32 | |
Oh, the 911 is such an interesting car. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:35 | 0:24:37 | |
Do you think you're getting out at the right time, Formula 1? | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
Now that we've got the tyres going off like they do, is that just getting a bit wearisome? | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
You're in the car, the car's going well, you know the track, | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
you're in the groove, and you know that if you push hard, | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
your tyres will simply wear out and you can't win. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
It is very different, mate, from how it used to be. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
But that's the way it is, we've got to learn and get on with it. | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
We're supposed to be at the top of our game, | 0:24:59 | 0:25:01 | |
but you've got to be able to push. In Formula 1 it's about us boys | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
-absolutely on the limits all the time. -It should be, yeah. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
It should be. There's a big regulation change next year. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
We're going to have to save fuel. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:11 | |
-1.6-litre engines. -Yeah. So... | 0:25:11 | 0:25:15 | |
My Ford Cortina had a 1.6-litre engine. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
So are you going to miss your team-mate? | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
Um... LAUGHTER | 0:25:20 | 0:25:24 | |
Am I going to miss Seb? | 0:25:28 | 0:25:30 | |
Uh...probably not a huge amount. No. | 0:25:30 | 0:25:35 | |
I think in a competitive environment | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
there's always going to be a bit of needle. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
There's a lot of history between us, obviously, that's gone before. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
-Mmm. -And... | 0:25:42 | 0:25:44 | |
Did it start in Malaysia when he suddenly lost the ability to hear? | 0:25:44 | 0:25:48 | |
Yeah. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
It was basically, "Don't overtake Mark," | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
and then he heard... | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
-Well, he heard everything apart from the "don't". -Mmm. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
I mean, you're an Aussie. Have you never felt tempted to... | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
-VOICES: -Yeah! -This is for Gallipoli. Blam. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
A lot of people are saying yes. I'm really concerned. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
I think, my dad always says, "You shouldn't hit boys, mate." | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
Good one. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:16 | |
-Now, you're here for the second time, in fact. -Different studio. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:20 | |
Everything's a bit different. I was a bit nervous today. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:23 | |
-Were you in the old studio? -Yeah, mate. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:25 | |
You actually looked half-decent back then. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:27 | |
I've gone. I've absolutely gone. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
I've gone grey too, mate, you've gone grey. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
-Richard Hammond hasn't gone grey. It's really weird. -That's incredible. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
-I don't know how he's keeping it at bay. -It's perfect. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
Anyway, let's find out how you got on on your laps. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
You came here once before, and let's be honest... | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
-It was chucking it down, and I was nowhere. -You were 1.47 | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
but it was the wettest day in human history. Well, today was... | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
-Very good. Very good conditions, I would say. -Good conditions. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
The right temperature for a Suzuki Liana. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
Who'd like to have a look at this lap? | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
-AUDIENCE: -Yeah! | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
-Come on, Mark, let's have a look at the lap. -Right-o. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
TYRES SCREECH | 0:27:10 | 0:27:12 | |
Right-o, here we go. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:13 | |
Coming to get you. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
Lewis and Sebastian. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
Right, those are the two targets, | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
and the first corner, nice and wide on the way in. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
It is interesting how you lot all do that. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
Look at the Liana. What a machine. You all drive that. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
What is it about Formula 1 drivers? | 0:27:35 | 0:27:37 | |
Kimi was looking at the helicopters and the planes, | 0:27:37 | 0:27:39 | |
and now you're adjusting your clothing. Where are you going? | 0:27:39 | 0:27:43 | |
-Pay attention. -Steering's very responsive. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
That'll help with your time. Right, Hammerhead. Keep it tight. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:52 | |
-It's horrible, Hammerhead! -What's that? | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
You pick the grip up. There's new asphalt there. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:57 | |
It's good grip on that. Really good grip. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
Don't scrub any speed through these fast ones. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:06 | |
Turning lightly, here we go. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:09 | |
Here we are. Ooh... That's cutting it nicely. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:18 | |
How much speed have you got going into that? That's impressive. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:24 | |
Well, you're bound to be, really. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:26 | |
And here... Oooh, no, I wouldn't have changed down there. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:29 | |
But there we are, across the line. | 0:28:29 | 0:28:31 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:28:31 | 0:28:33 | |
I just said I wouldn't have changed down there to you! | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
-That second gear last corner? -Yeah. -Second? -Yeah. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:43 | |
-I use third in Gambon. -Do you? | 0:28:43 | 0:28:45 | |
On the basis that it's the end, so it doesn't really matter | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
-if you roll it or... -There's no weight transfer in third. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:51 | |
I want to get the weight on the front tyre. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
You want to get the weight on the front? I trail brake. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:56 | |
-Trail brake into it? -A little bit. -There's still not enough inertia. | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
Well, it gets the weight of the nose... | 0:28:59 | 0:29:01 | |
-I'll give you some lessons after. -LAUGHTER | 0:29:01 | 0:29:04 | |
Least I can do. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:06 | |
Anyway, where do you think... | 0:29:06 | 0:29:08 | |
Obviously you said you were going for Sebastian and Lewis | 0:29:08 | 0:29:10 | |
who are at the top. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:12 | |
-That was the goal. -That was the goal. | 0:29:12 | 0:29:14 | |
Well, I've got the time here, I shall have a look. Hang on a minute. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:18 | |
I love the way that Formula 1 drivers actually... | 0:29:18 | 0:29:21 | |
It's like you really care about this. | 0:29:21 | 0:29:24 | |
Because it is quite funny, I mean, Rubens was dead chuffed - | 0:29:24 | 0:29:28 | |
when he was fastest, he was absolutely... | 0:29:28 | 0:29:30 | |
He was running around, handing out | 0:29:30 | 0:29:31 | |
-"I Beat The Stig" T-shirts. -He was, he gave me one. | 0:29:31 | 0:29:34 | |
Anyway, Mark Webber... | 0:29:34 | 0:29:36 | |
..you did it... Well, I'm going to start with the bad news. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:43 | |
-Really? -Yeah. You're not the fastest. | 0:29:43 | 0:29:46 | |
Ah! AUDIENCE: Aw! | 0:29:46 | 0:29:48 | |
So, once we've got that one out of the way, the big question is... | 0:29:48 | 0:29:53 | |
ze German. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:54 | |
Did you beat ze German, who did a 1.44 dead? | 0:29:59 | 0:30:04 | |
-It's quite tight between those three. -It is very tight. | 0:30:04 | 0:30:06 | |
In the 1.44s, it's all very tight. So, Mark Webber, you did a 1... | 0:30:06 | 0:30:11 | |
-..40... -The next number's important. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
-..3... -Oh!. -Point one. -CHEERING | 0:30:21 | 0:30:23 | |
You beat Seb. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:25 | |
Only 0.2 off Lewis. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:30 | |
Mate... | 0:30:30 | 0:30:32 | |
That... | 0:30:37 | 0:30:38 | |
I reckon that did it. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:41 | |
I reckon if you'd just taken my advice about | 0:30:44 | 0:30:46 | |
-third at the final corner. -Yeah. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:48 | |
The thing is, you're not faster than Lewis, | 0:30:48 | 0:30:50 | |
-but you don't have an earring. -OK. | 0:30:50 | 0:30:52 | |
That's worth three-tenths, isn't it? | 0:30:52 | 0:30:54 | |
It's got to be three-tenths, with his earring... | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
But you have beaten Sebastian Vettel in the same car. | 0:30:56 | 0:31:01 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Webber. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING | 0:31:04 | 0:31:07 | |
Now...now, if you want a car that's fast, you're spoilt for choice. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:18 | |
Same story if you want a car that's economical | 0:31:18 | 0:31:21 | |
or cheap or has a big boot. | 0:31:21 | 0:31:23 | |
But what if you're a massive show-off, and your main requirement | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
is for a car that makes you stand out in your home town? | 0:31:26 | 0:31:30 | |
Well, that can be a lot trickier, | 0:31:30 | 0:31:32 | |
depending upon the town where you live, as I shall now demonstrate. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:36 | |
Welcome to the United Arab Emirates, where, as you can see, | 0:31:47 | 0:31:51 | |
it takes quite a lot to stand out on the car front. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:55 | |
Out here, your common or garden Ferrari or Lamborghini | 0:31:58 | 0:32:02 | |
can no longer cut the mustard. | 0:32:02 | 0:32:05 | |
So what do you do if you want to turn heads? | 0:32:05 | 0:32:08 | |
Well, I think I may have the answer. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:12 | |
ENGINE ROARS | 0:32:12 | 0:32:14 | |
You see, everyone thinks about blinging their wheels. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:20 | |
But nobody ever thinks of adding MORE wheels. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:22 | |
This is the new six-wheeled version of Mercedes's iconic G Wagon. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:34 | |
And beside the extra wheels, it also ticks the rarity box, | 0:32:34 | 0:32:39 | |
because it's one of only two in existence. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:43 | |
More will be built, though I suspect not many | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
when you consider the price, which is a trouser-troubling £370,000. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:53 | |
The six-wheeled G Class was originally built | 0:32:57 | 0:32:59 | |
for the Australian Army, | 0:32:59 | 0:33:01 | |
who demanded standard equipment like seats and doors. | 0:33:01 | 0:33:06 | |
In this civilian version, however, you get heated and ventilated | 0:33:06 | 0:33:10 | |
electric leather chairs, | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
a leather-trimmed dashboard, | 0:33:13 | 0:33:15 | |
and a bamboo-lined cargo bay. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:18 | |
You really do get a lot of car for your money, as in a lot of car. | 0:33:18 | 0:33:23 | |
I mean, look at it. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:25 | |
It's nearly a metre longer than a Range Rover, | 0:33:25 | 0:33:27 | |
and it's got 37-inch wheels. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:29 | |
I reckon I could get my head in the gap between the wheel | 0:33:29 | 0:33:32 | |
and the wheel arch. | 0:33:32 | 0:33:34 | |
Yeah, I can. Try doing that in a Range Rover. | 0:33:35 | 0:33:39 | |
The 6x6 also weighs 3.75 tonnes, | 0:33:46 | 0:33:51 | |
or the same as three VW Golfs. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:54 | |
So, engine-wise, it can't afford to mess about. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:59 | |
It's actually got a 5.5-litre, 536 horsepower, twin turbo V8, | 0:33:59 | 0:34:05 | |
from Mercedes' in-house nutterists, AMG. | 0:34:05 | 0:34:08 | |
Oh, we're getting a move on! | 0:34:11 | 0:34:12 | |
560 pounds-feet of torque. | 0:34:14 | 0:34:17 | |
0-60 in under six seconds. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
That's sports car stuff, in something the size of a shopping centre. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:28 | |
Fuel economy? | 0:34:30 | 0:34:31 | |
Well, I doubt this will be the official transport | 0:34:31 | 0:34:33 | |
at the next Greenpeace annual conference... | 0:34:33 | 0:34:35 | |
All I'll say is, they thought it best to fit two fuel tanks. | 0:34:37 | 0:34:40 | |
You change over using this switch, up here. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:44 | |
And everybody loves an overhead switch. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:47 | |
If I drove this down Ross-on-Wye high street, | 0:34:47 | 0:34:49 | |
I would be lord of all I survey. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:51 | |
The undisputed king of Herefordshire. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:55 | |
Never mind Herefordshire, this thing attracts attention even round here. | 0:34:55 | 0:35:01 | |
SIREN WAILS | 0:35:01 | 0:35:03 | |
Seriously? | 0:35:03 | 0:35:05 | |
Really? | 0:35:06 | 0:35:08 | |
Yeah, he's serious. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:10 | |
As it turned out, | 0:35:10 | 0:35:11 | |
the policeman had never seen such an unusual car before. | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
There's six wheels. And guess what, it's the same on the other side. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:20 | |
And was on his way again after he'd had a look. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:23 | |
Bye! | 0:35:23 | 0:35:25 | |
Lamborghini Aventador police car. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
They don't have those in Ross-on-Wye. | 0:35:27 | 0:35:29 | |
Or these. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:33 | |
Ferrari FF. | 0:35:33 | 0:35:34 | |
SLS AMG. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:38 | |
What a funny day. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:40 | |
Now, although the 6x6 is seriously quick on tarmac, | 0:35:44 | 0:35:47 | |
and turns policemen's heads, | 0:35:47 | 0:35:50 | |
where it's really built to shine is as an off-roader. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:54 | |
Let me give you an example. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:57 | |
A Land Rover Defender can wade through half a metre of water, | 0:35:57 | 0:36:01 | |
and that's very good. This can wade through twice that. | 0:36:01 | 0:36:06 | |
However, this being the desert, water is quite hard to find. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:12 | |
So if you want to test it, you do have to improvise. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:16 | |
Morning, sorry. | 0:36:30 | 0:36:31 | |
Sorry. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:35 | |
This is, unless I'm very much mistaken, a metre of water... | 0:36:35 | 0:36:38 | |
..and the 6x6 is wading through it. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:43 | |
Even dealing with the rubber rings. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:47 | |
Yeah, not having any difficulty with this at all. | 0:36:48 | 0:36:51 | |
But how does it cope with sand? | 0:36:51 | 0:36:54 | |
Well, the good news is, sand is one thing we're really not short of. | 0:36:54 | 0:36:59 | |
Welcome to the Empty Quarter. | 0:37:02 | 0:37:05 | |
The largest sand desert in the world. | 0:37:07 | 0:37:11 | |
Covering some 250,000 square miles. | 0:37:11 | 0:37:14 | |
Out here, temperatures hit 50 degrees centigrade. | 0:37:16 | 0:37:19 | |
And there are dunes more than 800 feet high. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:24 | |
OK. We have six-wheel drive | 0:37:34 | 0:37:37 | |
with the power split 30-40-30 across the axles. Check. | 0:37:37 | 0:37:41 | |
Stronger front springs from the armoured version of the G Class. | 0:37:41 | 0:37:44 | |
Check. | 0:37:44 | 0:37:45 | |
Locking diffs. Oh, we've got those. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:48 | |
The most you'd expect normally would be three. On here, five. | 0:37:48 | 0:37:51 | |
And you lock them using these buttons in different ways. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:55 | |
Right, let's go. | 0:37:55 | 0:37:58 | |
These are big, big dunes, | 0:38:04 | 0:38:06 | |
this is more of a sand mountain I'm on right now. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:09 | |
Oh! 3.75 tonnes of Mercedes | 0:38:15 | 0:38:19 | |
is doing this. | 0:38:19 | 0:38:21 | |
It just doesn't feel right. | 0:38:21 | 0:38:23 | |
This extra axle, these two extra wheels, | 0:38:33 | 0:38:36 | |
it changes the way the 6x6 travels over the ground. | 0:38:36 | 0:38:40 | |
It undulates, it feels supple. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:42 | |
It's like blasting through the desert dunes... | 0:38:44 | 0:38:47 | |
..riding a sinew. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:50 | |
Come on! | 0:38:53 | 0:38:54 | |
Oh...! | 0:38:54 | 0:38:57 | |
BLEEP | 0:39:00 | 0:39:02 | |
I got some air. Sorry, everybody. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
Intoxicated by what the Merc could do, | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
I drove deeper and deeper into the Empty Quarter. | 0:39:12 | 0:39:16 | |
Right, where does it go now? | 0:39:16 | 0:39:17 | |
Oh, my God! Oh! | 0:39:19 | 0:39:22 | |
Oh, for crying out loud! | 0:39:30 | 0:39:33 | |
I wouldn't SKI down that! | 0:39:35 | 0:39:36 | |
OK. | 0:39:40 | 0:39:41 | |
Oh! Ah! Ah! | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
Over the top. Oh! | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
All very unpleasant. Not nice. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:39:53 | 0:39:55 | |
It's vertical. | 0:39:55 | 0:39:57 | |
I'm in a car, I'm having a plane crash. | 0:39:59 | 0:40:01 | |
I'm still going down! | 0:40:03 | 0:40:05 | |
Oh, what a stupid place, I hate it. | 0:40:10 | 0:40:13 | |
Ahead, I saw a nice, flat desert floor | 0:40:15 | 0:40:18 | |
and decided that was a much safer place to be. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:22 | |
Ha-ha-ha! It's drifting. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:29 | |
Now it's a rally car. A gigantic rally car. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:33 | |
And let's not forget, I'm not having to shout over this, | 0:40:38 | 0:40:42 | |
it's not "rarrrhh!" in here. I'm still cocooned in luxury. | 0:40:42 | 0:40:46 | |
It's an amazing device. | 0:40:47 | 0:40:49 | |
Now, when you take an off-roader across sand, | 0:40:54 | 0:40:58 | |
the standard practice, as I've done, | 0:40:58 | 0:41:00 | |
is to let some air out of the tyres to give them a bigger footprint. | 0:41:00 | 0:41:05 | |
Now I'm going back on tarmac, so I need to reinflate them. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:09 | |
All I've got to do is operate these overhead switches. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:13 | |
I feel like a jet pilot. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:14 | |
Compressor on. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:16 | |
Going up. | 0:41:16 | 0:41:18 | |
They can reinflate all of these tyres in under a minute. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:24 | |
Oh, I love this. | 0:41:24 | 0:41:27 | |
If I did this in Ledbury I'd be mobbed by now. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:29 | |
Leaving the Empty Quarter behind, | 0:41:32 | 0:41:34 | |
I headed back towards civilisation. | 0:41:34 | 0:41:37 | |
I'm not going to pretend this is anything less than | 0:41:41 | 0:41:44 | |
a preposterous machine. | 0:41:44 | 0:41:46 | |
It's a six-metre, 3.75 tonne, £370,000 six-wheeled dinosaur. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:54 | |
But as dinosaurs go, it is a magnificent one. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:57 | |
Magnificent to behold, magnificently made. | 0:41:57 | 0:42:01 | |
It's one of the car world's mad moments. | 0:42:01 | 0:42:04 | |
A day off from Priuses and Leafs. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:07 | |
Even in a country as chock-full of showy-offy cars as this one, | 0:42:09 | 0:42:14 | |
it's still really rather special. | 0:42:14 | 0:42:16 | |
You can forget your chrome wraps and whatever - | 0:42:18 | 0:42:21 | |
I don't think you can beat | 0:42:21 | 0:42:23 | |
just having more wheels than anything else. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:25 | |
And I can say with absolute confidence that I have more wheels | 0:42:25 | 0:42:29 | |
than any other... Oh. | 0:42:29 | 0:42:31 | |
No matter. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:39 | |
One thing I can say for sure is that this is | 0:42:39 | 0:42:42 | |
the most extreme Mercedes out here. | 0:42:42 | 0:42:45 | |
I doubt there's anything with a Mercedes badge in these parts | 0:42:45 | 0:42:48 | |
that can draw as much attention... | 0:42:48 | 0:42:50 | |
as that. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:52 | |
All right, so I don't have the most wheels, | 0:42:58 | 0:43:01 | |
it's not the most extreme Mercedes out here | 0:43:01 | 0:43:04 | |
but the 6x6 does have size on its side. | 0:43:04 | 0:43:07 | |
Bigger than any Range Rover, bigger than any Land Cruiser, | 0:43:07 | 0:43:11 | |
bigger than that old Jeep up there. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:13 | |
And that's the thing - | 0:43:13 | 0:43:15 | |
a car can be beautiful, but when it's big, it's got presence, | 0:43:15 | 0:43:18 | |
and they don't come much bigger than... | 0:43:18 | 0:43:20 | |
Oh, my... | 0:43:22 | 0:43:25 | |
God! | 0:43:25 | 0:43:26 | |
I want this one. | 0:43:46 | 0:43:48 | |
Now... | 0:43:57 | 0:43:59 | |
this is the brand-new £866,000 McLaren P1, | 0:43:59 | 0:44:06 | |
probably the most advanced and jaw-dropping car | 0:44:06 | 0:44:10 | |
the world has ever seen. | 0:44:10 | 0:44:12 | |
Mmm. The attention to detail in this thing boggles the mind, | 0:44:12 | 0:44:16 | |
it is... It's almost science fiction. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:18 | |
And so there was only one place on Earth | 0:44:18 | 0:44:22 | |
where I could test it properly. | 0:44:22 | 0:44:24 | |
Belgium. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:26 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:44:26 | 0:44:27 | |
This is Bruges. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:41 | |
It's a quiet, friendly, cobbled sort of place. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:50 | |
And it's just a stone's throw from Brussels, | 0:44:50 | 0:44:52 | |
home to all the environmental EU law-makers. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:56 | |
All of which makes it an ideal starting point | 0:44:56 | 0:45:00 | |
for my test of the new McLaren. | 0:45:00 | 0:45:02 | |
Because behind the front seats there are 324 laptop-style batteries, | 0:45:06 | 0:45:12 | |
which power a silent, polar-bear-friendly electric motor. | 0:45:12 | 0:45:18 | |
This means that even the most frizzy-haired sandal enthusiast | 0:45:19 | 0:45:24 | |
would welcome this car into their city centre. | 0:45:24 | 0:45:27 | |
It's like that other two-seater electric car, the G-Wiz. | 0:45:27 | 0:45:31 | |
It's Al Gore with a windscreen wiper. | 0:45:31 | 0:45:34 | |
Do not think, however, that it has the get-up-and-go of Jabba the Hutt. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
Because the electric motor in this | 0:45:43 | 0:45:45 | |
produces a whopping 176 horsepower. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:50 | |
And that's about what you get from a Volkswagen GTI. | 0:45:51 | 0:45:54 | |
So it's pretty nippy. | 0:45:54 | 0:45:56 | |
The only problem is that after just six miles, | 0:46:01 | 0:46:05 | |
the batteries will be flat. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:07 | |
So you'll need to plug your car into the mains | 0:46:07 | 0:46:10 | |
and sit about eating a chocolate shoe for two hours | 0:46:10 | 0:46:13 | |
until they're charged up again. | 0:46:13 | 0:46:16 | |
Or, if this doesn't appeal, | 0:46:19 | 0:46:22 | |
there is an alternative. | 0:46:22 | 0:46:24 | |
Because, you see, the P1 is fitted as standard | 0:46:25 | 0:46:29 | |
with an onboard petrol-powered generator. | 0:46:29 | 0:46:33 | |
And it is quite a big one. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:35 | |
In fact, it's a 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged | 0:46:35 | 0:46:39 | |
722 horsepower V8. | 0:46:39 | 0:46:43 | |
If we push this button... | 0:46:43 | 0:46:46 | |
There it is, firing up. | 0:46:46 | 0:46:48 | |
And the great thing is, | 0:46:48 | 0:46:50 | |
it's not just charging the batteries. | 0:46:50 | 0:46:52 | |
It's also working alongside the electric motor | 0:46:52 | 0:46:56 | |
to power the wheels. | 0:46:56 | 0:46:58 | |
So the P1, then, is not like a G-Wiz at all, in any way. | 0:47:00 | 0:47:06 | |
Thanks to that generator, | 0:47:06 | 0:47:08 | |
you can take this out of the city centre | 0:47:08 | 0:47:10 | |
and onto the open road. | 0:47:10 | 0:47:13 | |
And that's another reason I've come to Belgium. | 0:47:22 | 0:47:26 | |
Because there are so many roads to choose from. | 0:47:27 | 0:47:29 | |
Belgium has three times as many roads | 0:47:31 | 0:47:34 | |
and 50% more cars per square mile | 0:47:34 | 0:47:37 | |
than we do in Britain. | 0:47:37 | 0:47:39 | |
And the stats from this remarkable country | 0:47:39 | 0:47:43 | |
just keep on coming. | 0:47:43 | 0:47:46 | |
There are so many miles of street-lit motorway here | 0:47:46 | 0:47:48 | |
that Belgium is officially the brightest country on Earth. | 0:47:48 | 0:47:53 | |
It's a little-known fact that Buzz Aldrin's first words | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
when he set foot on the moon were, | 0:47:57 | 0:48:00 | |
"Good God! You can see Belgium from up here!" | 0:48:00 | 0:48:02 | |
I made that up. | 0:48:04 | 0:48:05 | |
On the road I chose, there was rain. | 0:48:12 | 0:48:16 | |
There was sunshine. | 0:48:17 | 0:48:19 | |
There were clear stretches. | 0:48:21 | 0:48:23 | |
And there were traffic jams. | 0:48:23 | 0:48:25 | |
And the McLaren was quiet and comfortable through it all. | 0:48:27 | 0:48:31 | |
But it was not what you'd call luxurious. | 0:48:33 | 0:48:37 | |
It is, frankly, as well equipped as a pair of monk's underpants. | 0:48:38 | 0:48:42 | |
And that's because this car was designed to be as fat as Iggy Pop. | 0:48:49 | 0:48:55 | |
Inside, there's no glove box, and no carpets. | 0:48:56 | 0:48:59 | |
The glass is just 3.5mm thick, | 0:49:01 | 0:49:04 | |
1.5mm thinner than the glass in normal cars, | 0:49:04 | 0:49:08 | |
except in the back windows... | 0:49:08 | 0:49:09 | |
where there's no glass at all. | 0:49:09 | 0:49:12 | |
No lacquer is added to the carbon fibre trim | 0:49:12 | 0:49:16 | |
to save 1.5kg. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:18 | |
The whole chassis weighs less than James May. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:22 | |
The trimmings are titanium, | 0:49:24 | 0:49:25 | |
and the body is made from just five panels, | 0:49:25 | 0:49:29 | |
which means less glue and fewer bolts are needed | 0:49:29 | 0:49:32 | |
to hold it all together. | 0:49:32 | 0:49:34 | |
All of this means that, despite the bank of batteries | 0:49:35 | 0:49:39 | |
and the fact it has two engines, | 0:49:39 | 0:49:41 | |
this car weighs less than a Vauxhall Astra. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:45 | |
That, of course, makes it economical. | 0:49:47 | 0:49:49 | |
And fast. | 0:49:49 | 0:49:51 | |
Really fast. | 0:49:51 | 0:49:53 | |
Mind-blowingly fast. | 0:49:54 | 0:49:56 | |
Oh, my God! | 0:50:11 | 0:50:13 | |
Ohhh! | 0:50:15 | 0:50:17 | |
HE CHUCKLES | 0:50:17 | 0:50:19 | |
The speed, in fact, is the main reason | 0:50:21 | 0:50:24 | |
I've brought this car to Belgium. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:26 | |
Because Belgium is home to this place. | 0:50:26 | 0:50:30 | |
Spa - the longest, wildest racetrack on the F1 calendar. | 0:50:33 | 0:50:39 | |
How do they make something go this fast?! | 0:50:43 | 0:50:45 | |
OK. OK, let me just slow it down while I explain | 0:50:49 | 0:50:53 | |
what's going on here. | 0:50:53 | 0:50:54 | |
The electric motor and the big V8 generator | 0:50:54 | 0:50:57 | |
are working together | 0:50:57 | 0:50:59 | |
so that I have at my disposal | 0:50:59 | 0:51:03 | |
903 brake horsepower. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:06 | |
Ohh! | 0:51:09 | 0:51:11 | |
Obviously I've driven a Bugatti Veyron | 0:51:13 | 0:51:16 | |
that has more than that, | 0:51:16 | 0:51:18 | |
but a Bugatti Veyron... | 0:51:18 | 0:51:20 | |
Oh! | 0:51:22 | 0:51:24 | |
..it has four-wheel drive | 0:51:24 | 0:51:26 | |
and it weighs more than most mountains. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:29 | |
This is rear-wheel drive, | 0:51:29 | 0:51:32 | |
and the only significant weight comes from the air | 0:51:32 | 0:51:35 | |
passing over the body. | 0:51:35 | 0:51:37 | |
Right, Eau Rouge. | 0:51:38 | 0:51:40 | |
Flat in a Formula 1 car. | 0:51:41 | 0:51:43 | |
Not flat in this. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:44 | |
Oh, they should have called this the widow-maker! | 0:51:46 | 0:51:50 | |
The throttle is a hyperspace button. | 0:51:53 | 0:51:56 | |
Step on it... | 0:51:56 | 0:51:58 | |
and you're gone. | 0:51:58 | 0:51:59 | |
And yet, somehow, even in this appalling weather, | 0:52:02 | 0:52:06 | |
it got round all of the corners | 0:52:06 | 0:52:08 | |
without crashing once. | 0:52:08 | 0:52:10 | |
So, how? | 0:52:11 | 0:52:13 | |
Well, that's partly because it's made of stuff from the future. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:22 | |
And partly because it's clever. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:29 | |
It adapts. It moves around to suit its environment. | 0:52:30 | 0:52:35 | |
As the speed climbs, the rear wing rises | 0:52:37 | 0:52:40 | |
to generate more downforce, | 0:52:40 | 0:52:42 | |
but as you go past 156mph | 0:52:42 | 0:52:45 | |
it starts to go back down a little bit, | 0:52:45 | 0:52:48 | |
otherwise the weight of the air passing over it | 0:52:48 | 0:52:51 | |
would be so enormous it would break the suspension. | 0:52:51 | 0:52:55 | |
Then you have the exhaust, which works with the rear diffuser | 0:52:55 | 0:52:59 | |
to generate an area of low pressure | 0:52:59 | 0:53:01 | |
into which the back of the car is sucked. | 0:53:01 | 0:53:05 | |
The wheels are made from military-grade aluminium, | 0:53:05 | 0:53:09 | |
the brake discs from a material that's only ever been used | 0:53:09 | 0:53:12 | |
in the Ariane space programme. | 0:53:12 | 0:53:14 | |
And they're coated with something called silicon carbide. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:18 | |
Apparently it's the hardest substance known to man. | 0:53:18 | 0:53:21 | |
Apart from dried Weetabix, obviously. | 0:53:21 | 0:53:24 | |
And then, the whole thing sits | 0:53:24 | 0:53:26 | |
on four tyres that were designed and made by Pirelli. | 0:53:26 | 0:53:31 | |
All of this means you really have the confidence to open it up. | 0:53:32 | 0:53:37 | |
This thing goes from 0 to 160mph | 0:53:44 | 0:53:48 | |
faster than a Golf goes from 0 to 60. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:52 | |
130, 140, 150, | 0:53:53 | 0:53:55 | |
160, 170, 180, 190... | 0:53:55 | 0:53:59 | |
Bloody hellfire! | 0:53:59 | 0:54:01 | |
And, as you hurtle round in a puddle of your own faeces, | 0:54:03 | 0:54:08 | |
gurning like an infant, | 0:54:08 | 0:54:10 | |
the car is working on ways of going even faster. | 0:54:10 | 0:54:14 | |
Let me give you an example. | 0:54:19 | 0:54:21 | |
The electric motor is used | 0:54:23 | 0:54:26 | |
to fill in the little gaps when the petrol engine | 0:54:26 | 0:54:29 | |
isn't working at its best - like, for example, | 0:54:29 | 0:54:32 | |
during gear changes or | 0:54:32 | 0:54:35 | |
while the massive turbos are spooling up. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:38 | |
And what I find hysterical about that is that | 0:54:40 | 0:54:42 | |
McLaren has taken this hybrid technology, | 0:54:42 | 0:54:46 | |
which is designed to reduce the impact | 0:54:46 | 0:54:49 | |
of the internal combustion engine, | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
and is using it to INCREASE the impact. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:55 | |
That's like weaponising a wind farm. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:59 | |
Or buying the Rainbow Warrior and turning it into an oil tanker. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:03 | |
For years, cars have all been basically the same | 0:55:10 | 0:55:14 | |
but this really isn't. | 0:55:14 | 0:55:16 | |
It's a game-changer. A genuinely new chapter | 0:55:16 | 0:55:20 | |
in the history of motoring. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:23 | |
In a town, it's as eco-friendly as a health food shop. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:28 | |
On a motorway, it's comfortable and produces no more carbon dioxide | 0:55:28 | 0:55:31 | |
than a family saloon. | 0:55:31 | 0:55:33 | |
And on a track, it can rip a hole through time. | 0:55:33 | 0:55:37 | |
And it's all been achieved using something that's been around | 0:55:38 | 0:55:41 | |
for centuries - brilliant British engineering. | 0:55:41 | 0:55:45 | |
You could argue that it doesn't have | 0:55:47 | 0:55:49 | |
the passion or the flair of a Ferrari, | 0:55:49 | 0:55:52 | |
and I'd probably agree with you. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:54 | |
But look at it this way. | 0:55:55 | 0:55:57 | |
It was passion and flair that built the Leaning Tower of Pisa. | 0:55:57 | 0:56:01 | |
And it was British engineering that built | 0:56:02 | 0:56:05 | |
the plumb-dead-straight Westminster Abbey. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:09 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:56:34 | 0:56:36 | |
Hair on end. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:46 | |
But weren't we supposed to test that against the hybrids | 0:56:46 | 0:56:48 | |
-that Porsche and Ferrari are developing? -The Ferrari isn't ready. | 0:56:48 | 0:56:51 | |
-The Porsche is. -But it wasn't when I filmed that. -But it is now, | 0:56:51 | 0:56:54 | |
-and I shall be driving it on the show in a few weeks' time. -Yes, | 0:56:54 | 0:56:57 | |
and after you've done that, we're going to put The Stig | 0:56:57 | 0:57:00 | |
in both of them, and do some timed laps around our track. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:04 | |
Now, that should be quite something, I think. | 0:57:04 | 0:57:07 | |
-I don't think it will be. -Eh? -Why not? | 0:57:07 | 0:57:10 | |
-Well, because... Were you not listening to the film? -Yeah. | 0:57:10 | 0:57:13 | |
The speed of this is beyond anything I've ever experienced. | 0:57:13 | 0:57:15 | |
It's animal savagery. It's beyond belief. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:19 | |
-Yes, yes, yes, but the Porsche might be faster. -It won't be. | 0:57:19 | 0:57:22 | |
-Yeah, but it might be. -No, but it won't be. | 0:57:22 | 0:57:25 | |
But...it might be. | 0:57:25 | 0:57:27 | |
-I guarantee it won't be. -But it might be. | 0:57:27 | 0:57:29 | |
Hammond, I'll do you a deal. | 0:57:29 | 0:57:32 | |
If the Porsche is faster round our track than this, | 0:57:32 | 0:57:36 | |
I will change my name, by deed poll, | 0:57:36 | 0:57:40 | |
to Jennifer. | 0:57:40 | 0:57:41 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:57:41 | 0:57:43 | |
-Really? -Yes. -Promise? -Yes. | 0:57:43 | 0:57:45 | |
And on that potential bombshell, it is time to end. | 0:57:45 | 0:57:49 | |
Thank you so much for watching. Good night! | 0:57:49 | 0:57:52 |