Episode 4 Top Gear USA

'Now on Top Gear, I drive a car with wings.'

I just flew into the sun!

Tanner gets some air in a race against a HALO jumper...

Oh, there he is!

..and Kid Rock soars around our track.

AUDIENCE CHEERS

Welcome to Top Gear!

On this show, nobody will save their failing restaurant.

Nobody will date Adriana, but if gasoline flows through your veins,

you're at home right here. I'm Adam Ferrara.

That is Tanner Foust, and this is Rutledge Wood.

Yeah, and we got an amazing show coming up.

He gets to drive the bad-ass new Mercedes SLS AMG.

We've got Kid Rock on our test track in the Suzuki,

and, GI Joe, pay attention, because we're going to find a replacement for that.

But before all of that, what would you buy if you had 40 grand to spend?

-A Judge.

-Ooh, a GTO?

-No. A real judge.

-AUDIENCE LAUGHS

What vehicle would you buy?

I would buy either a Subaru WRX STI or a Dodge Challenger SRT-8.

AUDIENCE GASPS You could do that.

But did you know, for just over 40 grand,

you could buy a flying machine.

Few things have captured the imagination of mankind

more than flight. It's commonly assumed that to achieve it,

you need wings.

Ford's Special Vehicle Team begs to differ.

The words "ultra-high performance"

usually conjure a 200-mile-an-hour Lamborghini,

or a racetrack-ready Pagani Zonda.

The F-150-based Raptor, however, is just as radical.

It subscribes to a totally new definition of performance -

one paved in dirt, measured in suspension travel

and punctuated by hang time.

POUNDING ROCK MUSIC

OK, so it jumps rather than flies, but this much air time

is close enough!

Whoa! TYRES THUMP

There's something so purely redneck about that sound...

..but everybody can relate to it.

Yes!

What's jaw-dropping about the Raptor

isn't that it can do 100 miles an hour

on surfaces scarred like the moon.

It's not that it'll cost you just 42 grand.

No - it's that the Raptor is just a plain old production car.

The Raptor is available with Ford's new V8,

a 6.2 litre with 411 horsepower

and 434 foot-pounds of torque.

But this isn't your ordinary Raptor.

This is the Hennessey VelociRaptor 475.

Hand another seven grand over to the guys at Hennessey,

and they'll transform your 6.2-litre Raptor

from an animal into a beast.

Hennessey is a Texas tuning shop

famous for creating Texas-size horsepower numbers,

and for modifying supercars

that'll steal a Bugatti Veyron's lunch money.

Hennessey managed to find another 64 horsepower

by replacing the intake and exhaust systems

and retuning the engine computer.

That's like giving crack to a charging rhino.

You look at it, and it looks like it's going to be a rough ride,

a stiff, rugged, trucky ride. But in order to be good off-road,

the suspension has to travel 11 inches in the front

and 12 in the back. That 12 inches, when you turn the wheel,

makes the truck roll over on its axis.

It's made for off-road, and so when you get on-road,

where it's going to be 90 percent of the time, the steering is slow, the suspension squishy.

In a straight line it seems fine. You can hit potholes,

small Kia Rios - basically anything at speed,

and it's just a kick. That's it.

"Hold on. We've got to run over a small car."

It's like sitting on a marshmallow. It's just floating down the road.

You would think you were in a Cadillac.

The only thing that separates this from driving a Cadillac

is that every single second you're driving in the Raptor,

it sounds like 40 Harley Davidsons are trying to overtake you.

ENGINE ROARS

As if the Raptor wasn't visually disturbing enough,

Hennessey's installed a "loud" button

which takes it to ear-threatening decibels.

ENGINE SNARLS Anybody walking by

can't help but just be absolutely pissed off.

It's like hell has broken loose. It's like Armageddon.

ENGINE SNARLS

It's awesome!

At Monte Carlo, you may get some action in a Lamborghini

or a Ferrari.

In Eloy, you're the king in the Raptor.

SIREN WAILS 'My reign was short.

'The Raptor was a heat magnet. I was politely told to leave town.'

Attracting attention. That's what it's supposed to do, right?

HE SIGHS

When you get behind the wheel of something like this,

suddenly the lines of the roads go grey.

If you want to turn off the road and go into the bushes, watch this.

Yes! Wow!

All four wheels spinning.

But there are huge gotchas, big holes that can swallow a whole truck.

That right there was the size of a Volkswagen.

Sure, you can spend 20 grand on a Camry or something like that...

..but will it do this?

I don't think so.

Oh, my gosh, I cannot believe

how hard I'm pushing this truck right now.

HEAVENLY CHOIR SINGING

Despite being an off-road juggernaut,

the Raptor has an unusually plush interior.

But it's got these weird knobby gauges,

where it's like if you have forgotten you're in a truck,

and they remind you by showing you big mud tyres all over the dashboard.

And the colour-coding interior...

Frankly, it raises the hair on the back of my neck.

The reason for that is, I think it flat-out reminds me of a PT Cruiser.

So, the Raptor is certainly a press-release car for Ford,

probably the most dramatic and radical machine Ford makes -

a behemoth that is horrible on the road.

It's made for what people don't do, which is go off-road.

A lot of people would think it's absolutely crazy

to spit out a gas-guzzling ginormous truck in these times.

But it's actually pretty smart, because it's a concept car

that you can buy and own. Not many people will drive this,

but it will make a big impact on the image of Ford.

You couldn't find a production vehicle

that even comes close to matching the Raptor's outright speed

on the desert floor. With its go-fast bits and off-road prowess,

it hops along the desert quicker than anything.

It's really in a class of its own,

so a comparison was virtually impossible.

We did find one person who was willing to take on the VelociRaptor,

but he's not starting on the ground. He's going to start up there -

25,000 feet up there. He's a HALO jumper.

THUNDER RUMBLES

HALO, or high-altitude, low-opening, is a military freefall technique

first tested by the US Air Force in 1960

to help pilots ejecting at altitudes up to 35,000 feet.

It was then adopted by Special Forces during Vietnam,

who were able to fly at high altitude out of missile range,

and then drop into enemy territory undetected by radar.

This HALO specialist's identity is classified,

and since he trains Navy SEALs

how to leap from the heavens and kill people undetected,

if I even see him, he may have to kill me.

He kind of reminds me of Darth Vader.

The race will be exactly five miles from start to finish.

The Raptor will face a combination of asphalt, rough trail and open desert.

The course is set on land designated for cattle grazing,

so by law, they have the right of way.

If I mess with the cows, the rancher has the legal right to shoot me.

The HALO jumper will start 25,000 feet up,

giving him exactly five miles of falling.

He will freefall at speeds up to 120 miles an hour

until he hits 2,000 feet. Then he must open his chute,

or we'll be taking him home in a bucket.

'To beat the HALO jumper to the finish line,

'I've got to get there in just over four minutes,

'which means averaging 71 miles an hour.'

That's unbelievably fast, considering there's sand traps, jumps and cows

between me and the finish line, and he's just falling.

He's been breathing pure oxygen for the last 45 minutes

to rid his bloodstream of nitrogen. If he doesn't, as he climbs,

the nitrogen will expand in his blood vessels

and he'll get the bends, the same way a diver can.

At this altitude, he's also at risk of oxygen deprivation.

Have no doubt - this is very dangerous.

I was 60 seconds from the most insane race of my life.

25,000 feet above me was my opponent, a HALO jumper.

Both of us were about to hurtle five miles to the finish line.

It was time to prepare the Raptor.

"Push the traction control. Hold it for five seconds,

then it flashes", alerting you of the potential danger.

"Then push the off-road mode."

Off-road mode enabled. Then pull this little knob to lock the differential.

Shifting is in progress, and it's done.

Five.

"Four."

-Four...

-Three.

-Three...

-"Two."

-Two...

-One.

One.

We're off!

I think I got a bad start there.

Whoa!

All right. Hammer down now.

As HALO Man hurtled earthwards, he shaped his body

to create the least resistance to the rushing air around him.

'I had my foot to the floor,

'and all 475 horses were galloping hard.

'I was hitting 80 miles an hour. The Raptor's giant shocks

'just soaked it up.'

Darth had reached terminal velocity - 120 miles an hour.

Then he used the Force to go even faster.

Oh!

The off-road technique, when you go over the bumps,

is actually to lift off the pedals. If you hit the gas over the bump,

it sinks the back end and takes away the travel...

..and you bottom out. It's called G-ing out. It's not a good thing.

Oh! That was about the limit, I think, right there.

The Arizona desert was witnessing two unstoppable missiles

heading for each other at 120 miles an hour.

'VelociRaptor and Darth Vader - it was like Star Wars VII,

'The Jurassic Menace.' HE LAUGHS

Two minutes down, and I had to be behind,

but ahead was a mile and a half of pavement. Time to floor it.

Little bit of asphalt to make up a little time here.

I think the top speed's about 120 miles an hour.

There's 115! He's falling like a bat out of hell.

And I'm doing 120 miles an hour.

Up ahead was my turn into the open desert.

The asphalt blast had me back in the game.

But no-one told the cows. TYRES SQUEAL

Uh-oh! Oh, that's a heavy beast.

Ahead, two miles of track and open desert to the finish line.

Every twist and turn, I tried to get a glimpse of the tiny black dot above me.

I don't see him yet.

But how could I? He was using gravity as his jet pack.

HEAVENLY CHOIR SINGING

He was ahead, but now the advantage was mine.

The HALO jumper had to pull his chute or become Dark Pancake.

As the canopy opened, he decelerated violently to 60 miles an hour.

This was my chance. No more twisting and turning.

'The Raptor and I were headed to the finish line as the crow flies,

'whatever lay ahead.'

This is what makes this truck bad-ass.

Yes!

HALO Guy was just 1,000 feet above the finish line,

and I could see the flags ahead. We were neck and neck.

'I could see him circling above.'

There was no way he could float down in time.

The race was the Raptor's.

Whoa, too hard into that corner!

Suddenly he threw his parachute into a dive,

spiralling towards the ground at 90 miles an hour.

No! There he is!

No way! HE LAUGHS

I thought I had it for sure! Oh!

CHEERING / APPLAUSE

-Wow! That was a close race!

-It was really close.

It was close, but you still lost.

You know, but it was just barely a loss,

and I can't think of another production truck on the planet

that would have been within a mile of that HALO guy.

-What did you say it costs?

-The regular Raptor's 42 grand,

then it's another seven grand to Hennessey

-if you want the VelociRaptor.

-So that's 49 grand

for a truck that looks like this, that went over terrain like that

at speeds like that. It makes me want to trade my Tundra right in.

-That is the deal of the century.

-It is. What makes it so good

is not just that it has a foot of suspension travel,

but the shocks themselves, the oil inside,

is an aerospace-grade formula

that costs more than most entire shocks do.

-They've really thought this out. It's the real deal.

-I love it.

I have to have one in my life. Can I hug it?

-Yes, you can hug it.

-Great.

Hi. Hey.

That's a little scary and creepy.

APPLAUSE

This is the iconic 1955 Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing,

one of the most desirable sports cars on the planet,

and when it was new, the fastest car in the world.

And now, just 55 years later,

Mercedes thinks they have come up with a successor

to this instant icon.

The 300 SL's DNA is everywhere -

the sculpted all-aluminum body, fender vents like shark gills.

And the signature doors are pure SL.

But under the six-foot-long hood lies a beastly space-age power plant

making almost three times the horsepower of the original.

This is the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.

Let's get its exhaust out.

That's downright nasty!

This dirty-torquing siren's going to lead you right into the rocks.

This is the first car Mercedes-Benz's tuning arm, AMG,

has built from scratch, and they started by conjuring up

the most powerful production naturally aspirated V8

on the planet, making 563 horsepower.

That's why one technician's responsible for its assembly

from start to finish.

And when he's done, he signs his name right there.

Guido Nordheim.

Sounds like a German underboss!

Thanks to cars like the Bugatti Veyron,

resurrecting the SL's status as the fastest car in the world

is pretty pointless.

But this comfortable grand tourer will destroy plenty of supercars

on its way to its top speed of 197.

All right. Let's begin.

60 miles an hour! I just thrusted the Porsche GT3.

100! There goes the Corvette Z06.

140! V10 Audi R8, done!

160! I just flew into the sun!

Comfort wasn't the primary consideration

of the original 300 SL.

It wasn't built to go to the country clubs.

It was built to win championships - and it did,

taking the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright,

and the Carrera Panamericana in the same year.

The SLS, however, is pure luxury in motion.

So, Mercedes went with this aircraft-themed interior,

and you can really tell. Look at this!

This AC vent looks like the business end of a jet engine.

They really have the retro airplane feel in these gauges as well.

And look at the gear lever! Reminds me of a throttle of a 747.

HE IMITATES PLANE-ENGINE NOISE

All this leather and prettiness, it adds weight,

so the engineers had to Jenny Craig any part of this car they could.

It has a carbon-fibre driveshaft. It even has magnesium seat frames,

the lightest structural metal on Earth, all to save weight.

But the car still weighs 3,600lbs.

This car really feels balanced. What they did was, they took the big V8

and they stuffed it down low behind the front wheels,

and the steering is really responsive.

It's not so much turning as it is diving.

Dual-clutch seven-speed gearbox cracks off shifts

at 100 milliseconds.

When this thing hits triple digits...

it becomes an adrenaline spigot!

Round town, however,

the adrenaline's been replaced with novocaine. The car just feels numb.

The suspension's more at home on the track, so it's a stiffer ride.

The most obvious link to the iconic 300 SL of the '50s

is the trademark Gullwing doors.

The way I see it, this is a two-step process.

Step one is getting in the car. Step two is closing the door.

So what if we start by...

sitting down like this, bringing your legs in...

That's not cool.

What if we go one leg in...

butt down...

Sharon Stone...

OK, I'm in. Now we close the door.

Of course.

You'd think Mercedes would have put an electric motor here

to open and close the door. They didn't,

because it would have added 61 pounds of weight.

How much do you think a subway strap weighs?

I got it!

So it's closed. But is it safe?

If you find yourself upside down in an SLS,

Mercedes has devised a pyrotectic system

that blasts the doors off so you can get the hell out,

thus making the SLS the only car that can blow its own doors off.

The SLS is a Super GT -

part supercar, part luxury grand tourer.

Now, Mercedes is not going to be pumping out a lot of these,

so it will almost be as rare as the iconic SL it resembles.

But for me, the looks are not a complete success.

I mean, look at these lines. It's great, right up until...

here. What happened? It's like they ran out of ass.

They just stopped. They didn't know how to end it.

It's like someone ran into the design room and said, "Stop what you're doing!"

"You're done. That's it. We're finished."

Most cars have that "X" factor.

This car actually has a "Y" factor.

"Y" don't I just love it?

I just... Why don't I just love this thing?

Don't get me wrong. There's parts of it I really love.

That motor, the sound of this engine...

ENGINE PURRS AND ROARS

An iconic car should feel special all the time,

not just when you're doing 160 or climbing through a Gullwing door.

Don't get me wrong - this is a world-class automobile,

and it's bound to be a collectable,

but, like Icarus, it should learn to respect its limits.

The SLS is supercar fast.

It's exclusive, and it has an exhaust note like Thor,

the god of thunder. But is it an instant classic like the 300 SL?

I'm going to have to say no.

It was fun.

It looked fun, but you obviously didn't love it.

No, I didn't love it. I love THAT. I didn't love that.

-Did you like it?

-I liked parts of that.

Motor was great. Had plenty of power. Love the way it sounded.

It felt good once you got it up to speed,

but the look bothers me. I do not like the back end,

and the doors are fun for about 20 minutes.

I got in and made believe I was a spy. I liked that.

After a while, you drive around with doors like that, you're a dick.

Ouch! You know, there still is one test left to do with the SLS,

and thankfully for the Mercedes, it does not involve Adam.

It involves our silent racing driver, The Stig.

The Stig, of course, is the fourth member of our team,

whose sole purpose is to shake down each new car we review.

He should feel right at home in this race-car inspired SLS AMG.

And he's off the line there. Little bit of wheel spin

but really not much. A seven-speed gearbox in this SLS.

Really incredible 562 horsepower.

The car has some big shoes to fill with that Gullwing,

but through the Southern Chicane looking very, very composed.

One thing we did hear is, as The Stig is grabbing at paddles through there,

is it's difficult to put the power down.

Did you see him sliding into the Teardrop?

This is the slowest part of the track. He's almost drifting,

trying to put all of that horsepower to the ground in a 3,600lb machine.

Onto the Back Straight, the fastest part of the track,

hitting speeds upwards of 130 miles an hour.

Really working this vehicle very hard

as he comes into the second-fastest section, the Esses.

Sawing at the wheel. Fighting it!

Braking into the very last corner, kicking up some dust.

Little bit of cross-walk there, and across the line.

You got to wonder where it's going to sit.

We got a tough line-up here, with the Balboni, the Murcielago,

the V12 Vantage at 1:28.

Somehow the SLS manages...

to scrape in a 1:27.6.

-AUDIENCE CHEERS

-Wow!

It's very quick. Does that make you like it more?

It's fun. It's just... It's not that,

-and I wanted it to be that.

-Have to agree with you on that.

We still have a bit of business. You remember the VelociRaptor?

Well, we had another version of that truck.

This one's actually the VelociRaptor 600,

which has a supercharged engine in it.

Unfortunately somebody left the keys in it.

The Stig had never seen a pickup truck before.

Did a lap. Anybody want to see it?

-AUDIENCE SHOUTS "YEAH!"

-I do.

All right. Roll the tape.

And he's off.

He's got that four-wheel drive kicking in there,

so obviously no wheel-spin.

Now, this is a truck that weighs almost three tons.

Massive vehicle being hurtled around the track.

Just looks scary. This must be one of the riskiest things

that The Stig does. He really does take a lot of risks for us.

And there you can see it in his face. He's getting a little motion-sick.

Diving into the Teardrop. Tightest section.

Nice little drift. Who would have thought you'd see that

out of a ginormous pickup truck like that?

Over the Yump. Those Fox shocks just absorb every bit of it,

as he works his way up to 100 miles an hour.

Really concentrating. He knows what's at stake here,

as he pitches it in sideways!

Unbelievable! That's Cameraman's Corner,

and we almost deserved its name there.

He comes into the Esses, fighting his way to the end of the track.

It looks like he's off-road, but no, he's not.

He's still on our track. Into the last corner.

Swinging wide there. It's not looking good!

Almost takes out the flag, and he's across the line.

-AUDIENCE CHEERS

-He hit the flag.

-Whoo!

That was sketchy. Difficult to say where this is going to land.

We've never had a pickup truck on the test track before.

But it came in with a time

of 1:39.0.

-Wow!

-Truck.

-Wow!

That's amazing, for that big of a truck.

I thought it was going to roll over. I want one.

I want one so bad I would lick it.

LAUGHTER

CHEERING / APPLAUSE

And now it's time to put a star in our small car.

Our guest today is a true American bad-ass.

He's sold over 22 million albums just in this country alone,

and he is proud to call Detroit Motor City his home.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the one-and-only Mr Kid Rock!

THEY CHEER

-What's up?

-How you doing, mate?

-Good to see you.

-Have a seat.

-HE GRUNTS

It is good to have you on the show, man. Thank you for being here.

Ah, this is one of those fun ones, a show you look forward to doing.

What's it like growing up in Michigan, being in Detroit,

being around there? I mean, you've got American-car blood

-just pumping through you.

-Yeah. Everywhere you look,

every friend, every relative works for one of the Big Three

or one of the parts plants. That's what we've been known for,

and hopefully we'll continue to be known for -

putting out some of the greatest cars in the world.

It's been trying times, but we're on the right path.

Design something with style, that's what I hope for out of Detroit.

Are you a fan of the big retro movement?

Yes. I love the retro stuff. I love the Challenger,

the Camaros, the Mustangs. I think they're great,

even the Ford GT. But I'd also like to see them do something new

that kind of defines our generation, our era.

-Sure.

-Something that's new and moving in the right way,

that's not a small box that runs off whatever, leaves and stuff.

-Which is great. I'm...

-LAUGHTER

So, you're saying you don't own a Prius, then?

HE SNORTS

Gosh!

Er, if there's anything that says "un-awesome", "un-cool",

just...it's a Prius.

LAUGHTER

I have a 1930 Cadillac, V16, one of 27.

I can sit around, drink beer and look at that car all day long.

-Yeah.

-It just blows your mind - the ingenuity

and the time and the craftsmanship that was put into it.

I know there's been better engines, and technology's come near and far,

but pound for pound, if you just took that car

and put it in these times somehow, upgrade it with those engines

and torque-free this and everything, but just the craftsmanship of that!

The guy that built that, that thing coming off the line,

must go home and say, "You should have seen what we built today."

"What did YOU do today?" "We cranked out 78 Priuses."

He's, like, "Give me a beer! I'm going to drink away the pain."

What's your favourite car that you own right now?

Um... God, I just got this really fun '64 Bonneville

that this designer Nudie did, this old Western designer.

He did all the Hank Williams clothes.

All the early Western guys, all the flashy Western...

He did... I think it was 15 to 20 cars.

Elvis had one, and Roy Rogers, of course,

Webb Pierce, a lot of country stars,

and this was Hank Junior's 15th birthday present. It came up for auction.

It had been in the Smoky Mountain Top Museum since '68, and a collector passed away.

It's on the cover of my new record. It's bullhorns on the front,

.22 pistols that open the doors, turn-of-the-century silver dollars

lining the car, and hand-tooled leather.

It just screams American fun. In the fun department, I've won.

You look so right in the back seat of a car,

and you see the two pistols that are holding the back seat.

-Everything about that is you. It's awesome.

-It is. It's fun.

-You've driven some fun cars, then.

-Yeah, I'd say so.

How would you say the Suzuki compared?

-It didn't interest me at all.

-You guys want to see his lap?

-AUDIENCE SHOUTS "YEAH!"

-Let's take a look.

TYRES SQUEAL

This thing doesn't get off the line at all.

Well, it is wet.

Very wet. Look at the windscreen wipers cranking.

Coming into turn one here. Smooth so far.

-Ooh!

-HE LAUGHS

Tried to take out the tyres there. That's nice, though. Here we go.

Coming down into the Teardrop. This was a hard part of the course.

Come on!

You look like we might be related, when I see you in the car.

-Wow, that was impressive!

-Suzuki? They should call this a Su-pukey.

This thing's garbage.

So, not planning to replace any of your cars with the Suzuki.

Haulin' ass!

-By "hauling ass" you mean 75 or 80.

-I was up to at least 80.

Wow, coming in fast there to Cameraman's Curve.

Burn, baby, burn!

Look at that fierce determination!

-Pretty smooth!

-Yeah, that's impressive right there.

Come on, baby.

THEY LAUGH

I'm not going to ask about that. Here we go, coming into the...

Wow, look at that lean! And across the line!

-CHEERING / APPLAUSE

-Oh, wait!

Oh, you're coming back!

-Wow, you... That was nice!

-That was fun.

You were the first one to do a victory lap there.

That's impressive. Now, if we look up at our board,

you got a Hobbit, a funny man and an astronaut.

-How do you think you compared?

-I'm going to be really upset

-if I didn't beat 'em.

-Really?

-I know this is about having fun,

but I want to win.

Kid Rock, you did it in...

One minute...

40...

3.9!

-CHEERING / APPLAUSE

-Yay!

And with the W.

-CHEERING

-Phew!

To put up that kind of time, in the rain, and to beat other guys -

nice work. Let's give it up one more time for Kid Rock!

At the top!

AUDIENCE CHEERS

Now, this, as you may have noticed, is the H1 Hummer.

Thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger, it became the vehicle of choice

for ballplayers and adult-entertainment stars,

even though it started as a piece of military hardware.

Trouble is, the Hummer's become socially unacceptable,

and now the Army is turning its back on the faithful Humvee as well.

And since the economy's in the tank,

the Army has to cut down on spending, and that got us thinking.

What would be the perfect cost- effective, less aggressive vehicle

for the Army of tomorrow?

We decided to meet at Kill Hill, a paintball park

just outside of Los Angeles, where accountants and meter maids go

for the weekend, to blow off steam and transform themselves into paintball mercenaries.

PAINTBALL GUNS RATTLING

I arrive first.

This is a 1977 Chevy El Camino SS.

This was the fourth-generation El Camino,

and this thing had plenty of grunt from its 254-barrel V8.

That's a lot of power to deliver to a light rear end,

and it's light because... it's not here.

It's a truck, but it's also a car. This is the original crossover.

This is the perfect platform to build my battle wagon.

It's durable, it's strong, it's overpowering.

It is shock-and-awe.

Look at the armaments on this car. Two dedicated rear guns,

two front guns, all controlled by this instrument panel,

except for this string that I pull for the rear guns,

but it works. This is the best part, though.

Look at this!

360 degrees of fiery paint raining down on Foghorn!

I am going to paint him like a subway car!

'My military machine was built to dominate this battle

'with brute force. But knowing Rutledge, I began to worry

'he might show up with paintball cannons strapped to a monster truck.'

Oh, you're kidding!

'Clearly I was wrong.'

You're fighting a war on a budget. A del Sol?

A 1997 Honda del Sol!

The last year they made 'em, they only made 5,600.

This car was mostly bought by women, and because of that,

no-one would expect a man to take a del Sol into battle.

But as Sun Tzu said in The Art Of War,

"speed is the essence of war",

and this del Sol might not be able to take the same kind of abuse

as the El Camino, but it will run circles around it.

-And this is your war wagon?

-I got two mounting forward.

-What have you got?

-Look. Two mounting forward.

I got four in the trunk pointed backward.

I also have one mounted on each door.

You really want to bring up that argument, my friend?

Where do you think you're going to hide?

I never have to get out of my vehicle to shoot you.

You CAN'T get out of your vehicle.

This is front-wheel drive, four cylinder, five speed.

-I can get wherever I want.

-I will give you this, though.

We both picked cars with Spanish names.

-We did, didn't we?

-What does "del sol" mean?

The direct translation means "of the sun",

which makes sense for the target top.

-What about "el camino"?

-It means "the road".

When they exported it to Mexico, they changed the name to Conquistador.

-Really?

-It means "to conquer".

-Hmm!

I will be conquistadoring you, my friend.

Not if "of the sun" has anything to say about it.

Diplomacy has failed. This means war.

'To determine whose vehicle was worthy of the military,

'the producers set up a battlefield.

'The first to the other side would win,

'but only if he gave the other car a new paint job

'on the way across. But winning wasn't enough.'

-The loser has to shoot himself with a paintball gun.

-Really?

-Yes!

-Are those steel-toes, those grandpa shoes you're wearing?

-No.

-Oh, you're going to wish they were.

All right, Adam. You ready?

Once more into the breach.

Go!

'My plan was to set up an ambush,

'so I could unload on Rutledge like Dick Cheney on a lawyer.'

-Come on! Come on!

-GUNS RATTLE

'Adam had me pinned down, so I used the del Sol's front-wheel drive

'to pull me from the dirt and line up my rear guns.'

HE FIRES

-Oh!

-GUN RATTLES

Ouch! That hurt!

'Rutledge made a run for it, but he would soon find out

'there is no escape from the Truckamino.'

-Oh!

-Oh, more, more!

Take him, baby. Take him!

'The El Camino was as big as a tank, but I squeezed down its flank.'

-Come on!

-1.6 litres of fury!

'Then it was smooth sailing to the finish line.

'The fleet-footed del Sol crossed the line first,

'slaughtering El Slow Camino.'

Don't hang that head so low, friend. You give it your best shot.

It's not the shooting myself in the foot

-so much as it's losing to you.

-Really?

-Yes.

-That takes a real man.

-I know.

Real man that picked an El Camino instead of a del Sol.

-Safety's off!

-Can you hold on?

I don't want to get paint in my eyes.

-You want lip balm, too?

-Safety first, friend!

Go for it. Fire away.

Oh, man, this is going to hurt! That foot right there is going to hurt.

-You're not helping.

-I heard it's like driving a nail gun through your foot.

-What a

-BLEEP!

-You don't have the guts to do it.

-You're still talking.

-You don't have the guts.

-You're still talking! Come on.

-Quit stalling.

-Right. I'm going to do it.

Shoot it. Barrel on show.

Go.

-Whoa!

-Ow! Ow!

Oh, that was awesome!

-That was awesome!

-That hurts! Oh!

-What would you say it feels like?

-It

-BLEEP

-hurts!

-Let me see it.

-No.

-Come on!

-Shut up.

CHEERING / APPLAUSE

-Good man!

-I cannot get enough of that.

-You liked that, did you?

-That looked like it really did hurt.

-It did. It hurt a lot!

-I can't believe you went through with it.

I can't believe you beat me, "of the sun".

Nor can I. That means the official Top Gear recommendation

to the military for the future weapon of choice is...the Honda del Sol!

THEY CHEER

Amazing!

Next you're going to replace the Air Force's F-22 with a box kite.

I love kites.

On that disturbing note, that is our show for the week.

Thank you for tuning in. Goodbye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]

.