Episode 1 Top Gear

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Thank you so much. Hello!

Hello and welcome. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

Now, even though this programme has taken a terrible battering

in the newspapers in recent weeks,

we have made every effort we possibly can to make sure this series is unaffected.

-SCATTERED APPLAUSE

-Thank you. Thank you, really.

Thanks very much.

So, coming up now is a montage of what you can expect

over the next seven weeks.

57 miles to the gallon!

So, spacious...and economical.

Going through the first corner...

And THAT is how a camshaft works.

Mate!

No-o-o! There's been a bit of a mistake.

THAT is the tape we sent to the newspapers in the hope they'd be fooled into thinking

that's what we'll be doing. What we're actually doing is THIS!

-Oh, no! That's not what I wanted to see in the mirror!

-Heading to the side...

ENGINE ROARS

There he is! There he is!

Turning left into Acacia Avenue.

Over there. Over there. Go over there!

Buffeting! Buffeting!

He's The Stig's Chinese cousin.

Hold onto your spine.

-GROANING

-Johnson makes a good start.

Come on, you little bugger!

Man alive! Are we getting some shots here?!

Thank you. Just browsing.

Stretch it, stretch it, stretch it! Come on!

-HE CHUCKLES

-Ow!

How's that possible?

-Oh...

-That was beautiful.

All of that is to come, but we kick off tonight with this.

Yes, because this is important.

Let's say you want a mid-engine supercar but, for some reason,

you don't want a Ferrari 458.

What is best for you?

Now, naturally, of course, us three could not agree on a solution on this,

so the producer said we had to settle our differences with a road trip across Italy.

'The meeting point was the beautiful town of Lecce, in the heel of Italy,

'and I was the first to arrive.'

This is the McLaren MP4-12C.

It's a car made with an almost psychotic attention to detail.

It's very technical. It's why, I think, it probably suits me quite well.

-ENGINE ROARS

-Then Jeremy arrived in a car that suits HIM quite well.

-Morning, shrinking violet.

-JEREMY LAUGHS

This...

HE COUGHS AND SPLUTTERS

..is a Lamborghini Aventador.

What I love most of all about this is that Audi did all the boring engine and wiring bits

and then let Lamborghini go mad with the styling.

It looks better than yours and, therefore, it IS better.

I agree. As a poster, as Lamborghinis always have been, it is superb.

It looks great.

-But it's a bit of a dinosaur, to be honest.

-It is.

-It is.

-It's too big, it's too wide.

-I'm sorry?! This, you just know...

All they ever talked about was G. They were sitting going,

"How can we make it go round a corner a little bit faster?"

-It's a supercar.

-"So give it guns! Let's give it guns! Space rockets!"

This - they will have had seven years of meetings to get to that windscreen wiper.

-So it works properly. What's wrong with that?

-Lamborghini would've said, "Why don't we use a laser?

"Why don't we have lasers shooting heat onto the windscreen to...?"

-That's why I love Lambos. They're mental.

-Have you had a lot of pop today?

-'At that moment, Hammond arrived, in a Noble M600.'

-Oh, yeah.

-So, Hammond...

-Morning.

-Let's just get this straight.

You think there are people in the world who are going to say,

"No, I don't want something Italian and exotic. Don't want a Ferrari.

-"I want something built on a light industrial unit in Leicestershire"?

-No, because...

No, wait a minute. Sorry. You buy this, I think, because it's got the engine from a Volvo XC90.

No! Yes, the engine may be from a Volvo, but it's made by Yamaha.

It's twin-engine, it's absolutely magnificent, and this car, above everything else, is light.

Comparing these - it's like comparing me with you.

The power-to-weight ratio is insane. 541 brake horsepower per tonne in there.

That's Bugatti Veyron territory, and you know it!

This is going to crush you guys like beetles under its feet.

Soon, our cars started to draw a bit of a crowd...

..so the producer said we should leave the town and go for a little drive in the country.

Bloody hellfire!

HE CHUCKLES

Quite good.

You are probably sitting there, thinking, "Hold on! Why would I spend £228,000

"on a car with no airbags or anti-lock brakes, made in Leicester?"

But that's missing the point.

If I were to ask those two what the best supercar ever made is,

I know what they'd answer.

Ferrari F40.

There's something of the Ferrari F40 about this.

Something to do with the way it rides on the road, the way it feels.

The simplicity of it.

I buy the argument for a flamboyant supercar. I get it.

But maybe there is another way of doing it.

There's a sort of joy in things that simply work really well, like this gearbox.

It's sort of like a two-stage trigger on a sniping rifle -

you can preload it with half a ball...and then change.

It's very satisfying.

Maybe really anal attention to detail will have a charm of its own. Let's see.

James and Richard can make as many arguments as they want, but the fact is this.

They're driving about in Virgin Cola.

It's not the real thing. This is the real thing.

Lamborghini invented the supercar with the Miura,

the world's first mid-engine speed and dream machine.

I mean, yes, this is the most expensive car here.

A quarter of a million pounds. But who cares? It's a dream car.

You don't dream about going to Filey or Bridlington. You dream about going to Tahiti.

Actually, Tahiti's terrible. I went there once.

It was full of Americans looking at dolphins.

'Half an hour later, we were told to brim the tanks in our cars

'and pay careful attention to the challenge we were about to receive.'

Hang on a minute. "You will now see which of your cars can achieve the highest speed."

That'll be mine. It's as simple as that.

It's the fastest.

-"How fast your car can go is not relevant."

-It sort of is.

"It's how fast you dare drive it."

'The location for this challenge was the Nardo test track,

'a banked eight-mile circle of tarmac so vast it can be seen clearly from space.

'No car can achieve its true top speed here because it's one endless corner.

'But it is one of only two or three places in the world where they can get close.

'Lamborghini and McLaren had both sent technicians to make sure their cars,

'and especially the tyres, could handle the vast heat of constant high-speed cornering.

'But as for Richard and his car from Leicester...'

-Do Noble not have a workshop here?

-Not a workshop, no.

I suppose if we were doing this at Mallory Park, they'd send Geoff over(!)

I've done it. It's all right. All four tyres are the same makes.

That there's air in 'em.

'James and I were feeling fairly confident...

'until we started chatting to a man called Max Venturi,

'who is one of Lambo's test drivers.'

We do a lot of testing here but we don't do too much the top speed,

because it is very bumpy.

You...you could jump from one lane to the other lane,

-so is...

-That sounds bad.

And also, today, it is windy,

-so you need to take care about the wind, as well.

-What, do we need to tack(?)

'Because speedometers are never absolutely accurate,

'the producers fitted each of our cars with hi-tech telemetry

'so they could see how fast we were really going.

'And then we were sent on to the track for a sighting lap.'

I have the most to lose here.

My car is the fastest - top speed 225mph.

Jeremy's Lambo - 217, James's McLaren 205mph,

or to put it another way, a walking race.

Now, I have 691 brake horsepower at my disposal.

That's almost 100 more than James has.

And it's proper horsepower.

Blue-blooded, real horsepower.

Thanks to emission regulations,

this is probably the last V12 engine that will ever be made.

From now on, they'll have to be smaller and turbo charged,

like they are in the Noble and the McLaren.

Yes, my engine is the smallest. It's a 3.8-litre V8,

but it has the highest specific output, that is, of all the engines here,

it produces the most BHP per litre,

because it's been intelligently designed by engineers in Woking,

not just put together to impress yahoos.

Those two keep banging on about, "This has got the engine out of a Volvo XC90."

Yes, well, OK, but let's not forget, Yamaha make it,

and they produce some pretty amazing motorcycle engines,

and Noble have then strapped two turbos to it, so it makes 650 brake horsepower.

I say that, but I can change that.

With this button down here, I can have 450 for road, 550 for track,

or 650 for race. I'm going to have the full 650, I think, today.

I do have quite a lot of respect for the Midget doing this, because...

Well, the last time he tried to go fast on a test track, it didn't go well.

With the sighting lap over,

we were told to put some distance between ourselves and go for it.

I'm moving up into the outside lane.

It's 250kph.

Now we're in 6th speed...

Moving up a little bit...

It does feel a bit wobbly. I don't like it.

270...

My God, this surface is shocking!

There's the wind! There's the wobble!

There's the jump!

Ooh, God!

See, that is 280, and my heart's really starting to beat now. 290...

'Max from Lamborghini had warned all of us

'that it would be too dangerous to exceed 300km per hour.

'And all of us chose to ignore him.'

My foot is hard down now.

300 and... Oh, crikey! Moses.

I'd a lift there. Bit of a panic.

300km per hour indicated. I can feel the car jumping.

Buffeting! Buffeting!

There's a scare? Whoa-ho-ho!

340...360...

And every fibre of my being wants me to lift off!

Oh, God Almighty!

God knows what those tyres are going through.

God, it's hypnotic.

Don't look at the line, don't look at the line.

Come on!

Please, just another ten!

326 indicated!

327 indicated.

329 indicated! Come on - 330!

331.

Come on, give me a bit more than 330!

Just give me a bit more!

A bit more!

-This is

-BLEEP

-quick!

HIGH-PITCHED WHINE DROWNS OUT SPEECH

WHINE STOPS I'm backing out of this.

That is...

Ahh!

..pretty bloody alarming.

'With the test over, it was now time to find out which one of us

'had the biggest testes.'

-The top speed of your car is 225mph.

-Yes.

You achieved 204.8.

Ow!

-Who have you got?

-I've got James's.

-James's?

-Yes.

-In the slowest car, in the slowest car.

-200...

-Oh!

..and 1.6.

217mph IS the top speed of the Lamborghini.

You did it at

-204.3.

-Oh, God.

-No!

-Yes! RICHARD LAUGHS

No!

Ahh.

Ohh!

Right, we will, of course be picking that up again later on.

-Can I just say, half a mile an hour? That's all there was in it between you and me.

-Yeah.

-If I'd just kept my foot down...

-Yeah. But you lost!

-Hold on a minute. Hold on. I think you'll find you both lost.

-How did you work that out?

Because I got closest to the theoretical top speed of my car,

-and therefore I have the biggest testes.

-No!

The challenge was to see who could drive the fastest, and I did.

Then we refilled the cars, we brimmed them, to see which had used the least fuel doing it,

and guess what?! Well, the Lambo did 7mpg,

the McLaren did 8mpg and the Noble did 9!

So the Noble wins AGAIN! I know!

-Just stop it!

-Let's just... No, no, no.

-OK.

Let's just...just to work out where we are, so that's two challenges so far,

two wins for the Noble, and for the Lambo...

-Now, let's see.

-Let's not see. Let's do the news.

-All right.

Actually, before that, those of you who saw our Christmas special

will remember we left our three cars on plinths high in the Himalayas

on a road between China and India,

so that people passing between these two great economic superpowers

would forevermore be reminded of Great Britain.

Well, unfortunately,

it turns out that the plinths were built on

an ancient burial ground

with deep religious significance,

so a man came and told us to take them down immediately.

-Yeah.

-So we did.

-Where are the cars now?

-They're not in the Himalayas.

-But where are they?

-Hampshire.

-Really?

-Yes. That's where it is. Anyway, the news.

There was a man in the papers this week who has failed his driving theory test 92 times.

-92?!

-I don't want to be rude, but he must be an idiot...

-I mean, 92...

-Interestingly, you say that.

-Have you seen the theory test?

-I didn't have to do one.

-Has anyone here seen the theory test? Anybody?

-Yeah.

-You have?

Because most people of our age haven't,

and none of the questions have anything to do - as far as I can work out - with driving.

Can I give you some examples? You can answer this.

"An elderly person...

"An elderly person's ability could be affected because they may be unable to...?"

-Eat toffees.

-No.

Get an erection.

LAUGHTER

Wear jeans!

Funny(!) "Where's the safest place to park your vehicle at night?"

In a police station.

Right, we've got a picture here. Bring up this picture. Right.

This is a real question, OK?

"You must not stop on these road markings

"because you may obstruct...what?"

-Landing aircraft(!)

-I mean, seriously, that is a question.

-He's managed to fail 92 times on that one.

-Those are not questions to pass your driving...

-Do any of them say, for instance, can you drive a car(?)

-No, no.

I'm in the book now. This is what you buy your teenage child when they're learning to drive.

"At an incident, a small child is not breathing.

"To restore normal breathing, you should breathe into their mouth, A sharply, B gently,

"C heavily, D tenderly?"

It doesn't say "tenderly"!

-I made "tenderly" up.

-Nothing to do with driving!

-That's enough driving test rubbish.

We'll have to move it on, or we'll be here all day.

Let's talk about cars again, because the mighty Alfa Romeo,

they are reduced now, to a full range of cars,

-they make two. Two cars.

-Really? What, the Mito and...

-The Giulietta and the Mito.

-They don't make the 159 any more?

-No, two Alfa Romeos on the market,

but that's about to change as they have just announced this, the 4C.

I know. It's tiny, it's a small, lightweight sports car.

Very lightweight. Carbon fibre, all sorts of clever technical stuff.

Mid-engined - it's only a 1750CC engine, but it's turbo charged,

so it will be quick, because it's so light. It looks fantastic!

It's wrong, is what it is. What Alfa Romeo should make

is a small convertible two-seater,

engine at the front, rear-wheel drive.

-They could call it, I don't know, the...

-Spider?

-Spider's a great name.

And maybe they could get Dustin Hoffman to appear in a film with it,

-to etch it into the world's consciousness.

-They could, they could live in the past.

-Or they could make something modern and forward-looking, like that.

-No, rubbish!

What if you two had been at Alfa Romeo when they came up with the original Spider?

"That's no good! Where's the horse in front of it?

-"It's not wood. That'll never work."

-It's not modern. It won't work.

Make it go away. I've got something more important to talk about.

-A new Maserati.

-Really(?)

-OK. This is the new Maserati 4x4, OK?

I think it looks fantastic but there are some odd things about it.

Maserati say that, unlike any other big 4x4, it has a luxury atmosphere.

Cos every time I get in a Range Rover, I always think, "Oh, no!

"I've accidentally got into a cowshed."

And then they say,

"There are no off-roaders that give a sporty feel."

-What about the Porsche Cayenne? Or the Mercedes ML63?

-BMW X5?

All of those?

I think Maserati...they're the sort of company that go, "We've invented a new type of watch.

"What makes it really good is, you can wear it on your wrist!"

This is quite awkward, because somebody'll have to tell them, "Hey, Maserati, it's been done!"

What I love about this, though, is it's called the Kubang, which, being a Maserati,

is the noise it'll make the day the warranty runs out!

Right, that is the end of the news, so let's get back to the action.

Tonight, for those of you with very short memories,

we are trying to answer an important question -

which is the best mid-engined supercar if you don't want a Ferrari 458?

James says it's the McLaren MP4-12C.

I say it's the Lamborghini Aventador,

and Richard says it's the Noble M600.

Yes, and so far, I'm being proved right.

It achieved the highest top speed and is the most economical.

But having tested those sort of things,

we were then told to leave the test track and drive north to Rome.

So, three supercars, lovely weather, drive across Italy,

what could possibly go wrong(?)

'Certainly, as the day began, the rather smug Hammond was very happy,

'making up his own little games.'

I'm going to make some more turbo noise. It is addictive.

Put the foot down and then lift off. Ooh!

Turbo noises are sort of for children. You do know that?

-Right, I'm going to come alongside and give you a turbo noise. Drop your window.

-God...

Three, two, one. ENGINE ROARS

This is like indulging a six-year-old child who's learned a simple card trick.

GEARS CRUNCH

-Oh,

-BLEEP!

CLATTERING AND CRUNCHING

I hate to say this, but I believe I have clutch or gearbox issues.

Oh, dear.

I can't understand it myself, cos you know when you see the legend "made in Leicester"...

-It's a byword for reliability and quality.

-Absolutely.

So what are the other things that are made in Leicester?

-Leicestershire cheese?

-They make pork pies nearby, don't they?

-Yeah. Pork pies are always reliable(!)

-Have you tried pumping the clutch, to see if...?

-Well, no, because the linkage is to cock as well.

'Clearly, the Noble wasn't going anywhere.'

Let me just think a minute. Sorry.

When something goes wrong with my car,

Richard Hammond always...helps you.

No, the opposite of that. No, he just gets in his car and drives off.

-You're right.

-Yes.

-Let's do that.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.

'We were leaving Hammond 200 miles away from Rome,

'and that made us feel quite sorry for him.'

HE GUFFAWS

For two months, he's been looking forward to driving his Noble

right across Italy, and he's only gone 30 miles!

'As our cars ate up the miles, we got to know them better.'

Bloody hell, it's good, this. It really is good.

It's very clever. It's active, this car.

It doesn't have big metal anti-roll bars, or anything like that.

Everything is controlled by its brain. It works out what each wheel is doing.

It can even brake an individual wheel as you corner.

In the olden days, supercars were very, very hard to drive,

and the hardest of them all were the big Lambos.

Changing gear in a Countach or a Diablo, you needed two hands.

This, though, it feels like a Golf. I mean, I'm doing, what,

80mph now, and it's almost completely silent.

I can see where I'm going. I can see roughly where I've been.

I think it's important to stress at this point,

every single thing about this car is new.

Body, interior, engine, suspension. Everything.

It's brand new, and it feels it.

'Meanwhile, after a two-and-a-half-hour wait,

'my knight in shining armour finally arrived.'

Hi!

MAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

Hi...

This is the car.

Yeah!

Please talk to me.

Please just say hello, or just... Or see me, even.

Ah, now, there's a big tunnel coming up here.

The irresponsible thing to do would be to turn the power train into the track mode

and change down unnecessarily. Three, two, one, go!

ENGINE ROARS AND ECHOES

Oh, what a sound!

HE CHUCKLES

'James's car made a great noise, but mine was making fire!'

Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

It's a shame Hammond isn't here to enjoy the moment.

MAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

Right...

Does he need that many words?

Oh, God.

The thing coming off the bottom of his phone is actually a wire...

into his jacket, and then that's ALL batteries.

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

Yeah! Ohh...

Um...erm... Um...

Right, um...

Oh, back to six! Ha-ha!

'Our day, meanwhile, was just getting better and better.'

HE CHUCKLES

-That's not a bad view, is it?

-Marvellous.

It's just suddenly hit me, that I'm driving across Italy in a supercar,

and I've got another one to look at!

-Buonasera!

-Buonasera!

MAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN Oh, yeah... No idea.

-Parlate Italiano?

-No.

-Inglese?

-No!

-French?

-No.

Oh, no, he's going on the phone. Oh, no. Oh, no...

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN Well, that's that, then.

'Still, could be worse...'

SIREN BLARES

Oh, dear.

Prepare to look at shoes.

This is my special face, reserved for continental policemen.

-OK?

-OK! Yeah.

Still, it is under four hours to Rome. Just.

TRANSLATION:

POLICEMAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

The only problem for them is because today is holiday in Italy.

Interestingly, their only real concern is that we appear to be working on a Sunday.

We need a permit for that.

That's why Italy's nearly bankrupt.

'Eventually, they told us we had to stop working,

'so we went into Rome for a lovely dinner.'

Somebody's farted.

'The next day, in a workshop on the outskirts of Rome,

'I found out just what had gone wrong with my Noble.'

This is the clutch assembly...and this is the plate and, yeah,

that's pretty clearly the component that failed.

Once that broke, that came away, which is not supposed to happen.

The thing is, this is easily replaceable. Noble don't make these.

They're bought in - it's a clutch - but the problem now is,

because that was whizzing around inside here,

that's damaged bearings and shafts and all sorts of things. What's it done to the gearbox?

'James and I decided the best way we could help Hammond was to go for lunch,

'and since it was a Monday and we were allowed to do a bit of work,

'we thought we'd find out which of our cars was best in traffic by racing to the restaurant.

'Last one there would pay the bill!'

Right, let the race begin.

'Immediately, it was advantage Lambo,

'because the Aventador has sat-nav...'

-'Your route is being calculated.'

-Thank you.

'..whereas, on the McLaren, it's an option...that hadn't been fitted.'

Argh!

Bollocks!

I'll come back to that.

'However, I did have some issues.'

-HORNS BEEP

-The first problem is width.

It's five centimetres wider than a Range Rover.

It's very nearly as wide, in fact, as a London bus,

but the biggest problem of them all is the gearbox.

Flappy paddle boxes work OK on a track,

they work OK on the open road, but in town,

all of them are useless.

It's uh-uh-uh-uh-uh, jerking along, and then,

when you want to exploit a gap, it's dim-witted and slow.

'This was especially bad in a city where there are 117 road accidents every DAY.'

Haven't actually seen one car yet that isn't dented.

Look at that one there.

A red light, but that actually doesn't mean stop. Not in Italy.

It means, "We're trying a red light. In a minute, we'll try a green one."

It's not relevant to the actual traffic flow.

What happened to that?! Oh, dear.

What we're now going to do, and this is quite cool, really,

is turn onto the Via Appia, the ancient Roman road,

and the suspension, with its no anti-roll bars and its intelligent computer, is doing quite well.

Excellently, in fact.

Why is nobody using that middle bit? Yes! That's the ticket!

Ah, now, you see, I didn't actually think it would get quite THAT Roman.

-CRUNCH!

-Erm...

I'm going to by overtaken by a Smart car!

'By this stage, I'd worked out why no-one was using the middle bit. '

TRAM BELL RINGS

I've got myself on a railway line.

Now what am I going to do?

Sorry. Yeah, now I'm basically going down a... Yes.

I'm now driving down a railway embankment...

HE LAUGHS

Ristorante Nino, Via Appia...

Yeah, the ground clearance is very poor. OK.

'Soon, though, after a short drive through a bit of history...'

No! God Al-bloody-mighty!

'..we were both near our destination.'

I'm so close.

BLEEP!

Now, the restaurant is coming up in 30 metres. There it is.

'All I had to do now was park.'

That's Veneto. It's too wide. You see, if I park there, I just block the whole street.

Oh, God. No, you're joking.

No-o-o!

How do you park a Lamborghini here?

-CRUNCH!

-Ohh-hh!

Is that the piazza? I think it is. I'm right on top of it.

Via Vittorio. It's correct!

Right, parking space.

-CRUNCH!

-Hell's

-BLEEP

-bum

-BLEEP

-arseholes.

Parking, parking, parking, parking.

It's the easiest thing in the world, reversing a Lambo.

You just get out of the car to do it.

Can I go there? Why can't I go there? There's no lines.

James May, get ready to lose.

-Prego?

-Prego. Have you seen a very long-haired man? An idiot?

-Here.

'After lunch, which I didn't bother with, because I was paying,

'we decided to help Richard some more by going shopping.

-'And then, we got a bit of a surprise.'

-That's Hammond.

No, but it's not...

ENGINE REVS

That's a different car.

No, no. This is still wet. Don't lean on it. I painted it.

Maybe you thought, "I'll put the steering wheel on this side"(?)

-It's always been on that side. You were looking at me in your rear-view mirror.

-You have changed cars.

-Hammond?

-What?

Oh, you're joking! Oh, come on!

This isn't my car. Mine's red.

-You haven't caused a stir.

-Buongiorno.

I think people have come to see...

Did that first delivery driver...

-Did that first repair man not say anything?

-No.

I don't think he could see me. "Hello! I'm here." No, nothing.

Anyway, can we just ask - how did a tiny little company like Noble

get another car out there so quickly? I'm being serious.

-Be serious.

-Seriously, they drove it.

A bloke drove it from the factory, overnight,

all the way from Leicester to Rome in one hit.

That's what I call service. "Certainly, sir. We'll send you another car."

-But it is Noble - you mean, "We'll send you THE other car"?

-Yeah.

Anyway, we'll pick that up later on. Now, though, it is time to put a star in our reasonably priced car.

Let me list some songs. I'm Not In Love, Wichita Lineman, Lady In Red.

My guest tonight hasn't recorded any of those.

That's because he's from an organisation called the Black Eyed Peas.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome will.i.am.

CHEERING AND WHISTLING

-How are you?

-Good to see you.

-Good to see you.

Wow!

Your e-mail address must be a nightmare!

[email protected].

.uk.

LAUGHTER

I have never met anybody in my entire life who is apparently as busy as you are,

because you're a fashion designer,

you've worked for Obama, starred in X-Men Origins and Madagascar,

you run a scholarship fund for disadvantaged youngsters,

you're a creative director at Intel, you develop smartphones,

produce everyone in the world, make your own music,

you star in a band which licenses songs to Levi's, Pepsi, Honda, BlackBerry, Bacardi,

-and now you've started a car company.

-Yeah.

-What is it?

Tell us about it.

So, um, when I was working at Intel, I found out a lot of the phones

and the things that you have

aren't really made by the name that's on the phone,

-so there's all these companies in Southeast Asia that make all the equipment.

-You mean the components?

Yeah. Then you put them together, like a sandwich, and then you got your product.

Then I got into my car -

I want to know how much it cost to make this Bentley that I'm driving.

-A Bentley?

-Yeah.

-About 38 pence!

-Right.

-Cos it's just a Volkswagen with some wood on the dashboard.

So, for the past two years, we've been tooling - I design things on my computer.

The first thing I did was a Thundervet,

-where you take a Thunderbird and a vet...

-We've got a photograph of it.

-Yeah, that's a Thundervet.

-Cos that looks like a '50s vet.

-The white slash is '50s vet, but there's some Thunderbird in there, as well?

-Yeah.

So, the groove and stuff. And those wheels aren't white-wall tyres.

That's a white-wall rim, with the five-spoke inside of it.

Oh, that's the actual rim?

-Yeah.

-That's fantastic. So, what engine has it got?

That has a super-sized Corvette engine in it.

-And have you designed your own car now, with its own body?

-Yes. So, that was just, you know,

let's test what we can do with this.

From there, we go on to something that we built from scratch.

-I think we've got a picture of it, as well.

-IAMAUTO 88.

-That is...

It's a bit like an old Maserati Quattroporte, except it's two-door.

And that's made in California?

-That's made down in the ghetto that I'm from.

-Why...? Really?

Yeah. My whole thing was, "I'm going to make music so I can take care of my mom,

"and move my family out the ghetto."

So, if that's what I want to do, then it's going to keep me going,

so there's no "no" for an answer.

So, now that I've done that, and every single person in my family -

cousins, uncles, nieces and nephews - are out the ghetto,

I want to go back to my ghetto and build a car company.

We all complain about underdeveloped communities,

but who are the developers in the first place?

So, I was like, "I'm tired of complaining and pointing fingers.

"Why don't I aim that finger to me and say,

" 'Hey, what are you doing to change the ghetto you're from?' "

Do you know, you're one of the most inspiring people

we've ever had sitting in that sofa.

He is, though, isn't he?

APPLAUSE

If everybody thought like that, we'd have 1.65% growth as well!

Um, can we just go into your car history?

Where did it begin? What was your first car?

So, I got a record deal when I was 17 and I bought myself...

cos I always wanted a Ferrari or a DeLorean.

Those were my favourite cars. I couldn't afford those,

so I got the poor man's Ferrari, which is a Fiero.

Yeah, that's really poor. That's even the poor man's MR2.

I had a yellow one.

Mid-engine, so it was kind of like a Ferrari

if you were standing five miles away and squinting!

And then my next-door neighbour Pearleen snitched.

She told my mom, "Ooh, Debra, Willy got himself a new car."

And then my mom calls me in the house.

"Boy, sit your butt down on this couch."

"What, Momma?" "You got no business buying yourself no G-damn car."

"Yeah, but..."

"No but nothing. Gimme them damn keys."

So she confiscated my car.

So then I couldn't drive until I was 20.

-So it just sat there? A 2,000...

-..Car.

-For three years?

For three years it sat there. I couldn't wait till I was 20, then I could drive it.

Black Eyed Peas - how many records have you sold? Millions.

-To date, 40 something million records.

-40 million?

It is massive. And you've got...

-APPLAUSE

-Yeah! 40 million.

And you've now got a solo album out.

And it's called Squiggle Squiggle #willpower.

-No, it's just #willpower.

-#willpower.

There are squiggles. Oh, it's a hash!

-I just thought it was like a misprint.

-No, no.

Have you ever been interviewed by somebody more old than me?

Um...no...

Now, you came down here, obviously...well,

looking at your gloves, to play golf, but, um, it isn't a Golf.

No, no. The reason I have fingerless gloves is

because I got touchscreen technology devices,

so last thing you want is, in the cold, I have to go, "My phone is ringing..."

No, cos you can buy gloves that have got fingerprint things,

-so wearing... I've got a pair.

-They're not fashion.

-There you go!

-They're the ugliest gloves in the world.

They look pretty poor, I admit.

You insisted, I believe, in driving the automatic car, rather than the stick-shift.

-Yeah.

-So, how did it go out there?

I think I did pretty good, if you judge me on spinning.

Well, now, who would like to see some of Will's spins?

AUDIENCE: Yeah!

We have a selection. Let's have a look.

Yes, there we go. Second-to-last corner.

Bold as brass. He's held it... No, he hasn't! Ooh!

-That's a tank-slapper, that one was.

-Yeah.

-Here we go again.

-Now...

-Spinny!

APPLAUSE

Why are we applauding? Those were mistakes.

-You probably want to have a different spin award...

-Yeah.

Who would like to see the finished lap?

-AUDIENCE: Yeah!

-Let's play the tape. Here we go.

TYRES SPIN

Needs to spin with an automatic box. Like to see it!

Right, here we go.

Here's the first corner. Wide line, like a Formula 1 driver.

Tyre squeal - even in the wet!

Oh, that's nicely done. That was nicely done.

Brake...

A man of few words.

That's nice and smooth through there.

Good wide lines, so you can get the power down. And up to the Hammerhead.

# Da-da-da-boom-boom-boom

# Brake hard, brake here... #

-Were you singing?

-To keep myself focused and stuff.

I was getting kinda nervous.

-# The line and the lines... #

-It's good.

C apostrophe D now. Listen to that engine.

Wow! That's a sporty noise.

Go! Stupid car!

Looking good through there...

Oh, there's a bit of dirt from an earlier spin coming out.

Through the tyres.

Are we going to get through the second-to-last without a problem?

That was cut perfectly. And Gambon...

Keep it in tight... All right, don't.

And there we are! And across the line!

Wey-hey-hey!

So... Now, you're driving the automatic,

so that's slower, obviously,

and it's raining, so we're not looking for a particularly fast time.

Um...but... I'm trying to think, actually.

Automatic drivers - we've only had two so far in this car.

They are John Prescott.

-LAUGHTER

-You don't know John Prescott?

-Hmm.

He's a fashion designer.

LAUGHTER

And Alice Cooper. OK?

-Those are the only automatics, and they're both 1.56.

-And they're wet.

Oh, yeah. Both had wet days, both driving automatics.

Both in the 1.56.3 region.

will.i.am., you did it in 1...

..40...

AUDIENCE: Whoo!

..9.4.

So, you get wet and auto,

-and that's the fastest we've ever had in that car in those conditions!

-Yay!

You are...there.

So, above Peta, 23, from Essex... Below Jonathan Ross.

-Stig did a good thing, then.

-Oh, yeah.

That was impressive, and you were trying.

It has been genuinely inspirational having you here,

-and an enormous pleasure. Ladies and gentlemen, will.i.am!

-Thank you!

Thank you very, very much. Was that OK?

Right, now, we must get back to our big supercar test.

So far, we've established that my Noble is the fastest and the most economical.

-The most unreliable.

-Yes, funny.

-We've also established that the McLaren is the best around town,

-and that Jeremy's big, idiotic Lamborghini hasn't actually won anything.

-Nothing! Zero.

-Hmm.

-Nil. Zilch. Rien. Nowt.

-The square root of Jack.

-Nothing - we've established that!

Let's move on, because it's time now for part three,

in which we three must face the most dangerous thing we've ever done.

'As we headed north to our date with destiny,

'we started to think about how our cars compare to the daddy.'

Three days ago, if you'd said to me,

"Which would you rather have, an Aventador or Ferrari 458?"

I would have said, "The Ferrari." I mean, it's the obvious choice.

But now... No, I'd have this.

I know a Ferrari 458 is just a technical masterpiece and it looks wonderful,

but this has got something the Ferrari doesn't have. It has... It has a character.

It's like a big, daft orange dog!

Everybody wants a big, daft orange dog!

It's won me over. Completely. It's not just the best car here.

It's better than the Ferrari 458.

For me, it's one of the best cars in the world now. I absolutely love it.

It feels like a race car but without the impracticality and discomfort.

And, yes, they're a small make in the UK that nobody has ever heard of.

Well, at one time, so was Mr Pagani, making his Zonda.

So, that's two votes against the Ferrari. But what about James?

This is brilliant. I'm really, really growing to like it,

and let's not forget it's £35,000 or so cheaper than the Ferrari 458.

And that is a huge amount of money.

But there's still... I don't know.

The Ferrari, I think the gear change feels a bit crisper,

and everything feels a little better defined, somehow.

It's the fizz, I'm afraid. I can't explain it. I just...

The Ferrari still gives me more fizz.

'You have reached your destination.'

'The destination turned out to be a racetrack...

'called Imola...

'..where, after a quick change,

'we were told to report to the pits for a challenge.'

"You will now lap the circuit, attempting to beat the time set by a Ferrari 458."

-Who's driving a 458?

-It says here he's not The Stig.

But he is The Stig's Italian cousin!

It's "Bunga-Bunga" Stig.

What's he been doing?!

Cards.

'Whatever it was he'd been doing,

'he plainly still had plenty of energy left for driving.

'And posted a daunting time of 1.56.6.

'Before trying to beat that, we thought it best to spend

'a little time learning how our cars behaved on a proper racetrack.'

That gear change in track mode is absolutely savage.

Ride that kerb!

Four-wheel drive system is breathtaking.

The power is constantly moving around - front, back,

side to side - so you've always got the grip you need.

The good thing is, I have carbon brakes which will not fade.

Poor old Hammond has got steel brakes, which will.

Focus. Smoothness.

A car like this, with no driver aids, no computers messing about, it's just you and the car.

The only chance I stand here is to get it out of the corners

in such a shape that I can use that power.

Of course, the McLaren does have a lot of driver aids,

but Captain Sense Of Direction had more important things on his mind.

What's this one? I can't remember.

This is the bit where I don't have to brake...

If I can remember this bit...

At the end of the day, we knew the circuit and we knew our cars.

But still, we were not feeling even remotely confident,

because this is Imola...

..one of the most dangerous tracks on Earth.

It's narrow, fast and ringed with unforgiving walls and trees.

At some point in history,

every corner here has claimed the ego of a big name.

And some corners have claimed even more than that.

After Senna's death in 1994,

changes were made to the track to slow the cars down,

but even so, if we were going to beat that Ferrari,

we would still be going through the first bend at nearly 200mph.

So, that night, each of us spent a little time alone with the cars we'd be using.

YOU are Juventus.

And tomorrow, you're taking on Woking Town and Leicester City.

And everybody in England

is going to want them to win, because they're the underdogs.

But don't you worry.

We haven't won a single challenge yet,

but tomorrow...that will change.

You're not going into battle armed with a sophisticated computer and wizardry,

clever suspension, four-wheel drive. You're just going in with an engine.

Doing it the old-fashioned way.

Underdog or not, I know you've got it in you now.

I'd love us to win.

Just remember, as we're going round and you're despairing of my terrible gear changes

and my bad apexes, and things,

you're made by McLaren. You've got the best race pedigree. You've got clever suspension,

you've got no roll bars, you've got a computer,

you can brake the wheel for me, you can virtually do it by yourself.

All you have to do is humour me a bit, and remember that I'm Captain Slow.

Or Mr Slowly, as the Italians call me.

'The next morning,

'we ventured onto this terrifying track to try and beat The Stig's 1.56.6.'

God, this is quick!

Oh, my giddy aunt!

I'm off the road!

I'm on it again!

My God, I'm faster here.

-This is outrageous. Oh,

-BLEEP.

Now, faster than you think. Don't be a wimp.

Agh! A bit of wee may be coming out!

Don't brake too early. Don't brake too early. Now!

Better.

'Unusually, we were all taking this challenge very seriously...'

-A 5.4 to a 4.9.

-Oh, no. I'm still on 2.07.

'..but we knew we'd have to try even harder if we were going to beat that Ferrari.'

Right, come on, May, you blithering idiot. Avanti.

Good!

In... Break them down.

BLEEP!

Get cocky!

The track WILL be there. Keep it in!

Yes!

I'm going a bit mental here, now.

Brake... Ooh, that's messy.

I'm going to go for 5th. I'm going to take as much through here as I bloody dare. Oh!

-Oh,

-BLEEP! BLEEP!

TYRES SQUEAL

BLEEP!

GRAVEL CRUNCHES

Come on!

290...

OK, brakes have gone. Whoa. Failure from the brakes.

After my brakes had cooled, and Hammond had emptied his car of gravel,

we went back out for one final attempt to beat the 458.

And the Lambo is only... Here we go! Come on!

OK, this is it. I'm doing this one for Leicester!

Right, beans!

That's it!

Blah-blah-blah-blah!

And now brake!

I've done the difficult bit!

It will go round, it WILL.

Come on!

And brake...

And back on the power as soon as you can. Now. NOW! NOW! Power!

Stay right, stay right, stay right! Stay right, now!

Stretch it, stretch it! Come on! Come on!

Come on! Come on!

You can do it! Come on!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-That looked as scary as it was.

-Yes, it was scary.

It's that palpable sense of, "Oh, my God!"

Because I have to say, as you go past the pits, the track is not straight,

it's a curve, and you daren't lift off, because the crews,

they can hear the engine note change, so you have to keep your foot hard down.

-It was terrifying.

-It is 200 and...?

-Over 200.

All three of us doing over 200, and that's faster than a Formula 1 car, was going through there.

They could only do about 180.

I don't know, because I had my eyes shut. It was terrifying.

Anyway, it is time now to reveal who was the fastest of the three of us.

-Richard Hammond?

-I did it in 2 minutes and 3.3 seconds.

That's the best I could do.

Mr Slowly?

2 minutes 6.4.

-Yes!

-And you?

-It's so difficult not to look smug at this point.

-Oh, God!

-It's not working.

-1...

-Ooh!

-..59.1.

Well done.

You're not pulling it off.

-It's not working.

-It isn't. No, I'll forget it.

Let me just straighten this out, OK? Well done.

-We gave it everything, each of us, and we didn't beat the Ferrari.

-No.

Hang on. That's not strictly relevant,

because the point of this was to see which car you should have IF you didn't want a Ferrari.

-Yes, it's the Lambo.

-No.

-It isn't.

-It IS the Lambo.

I admit it's not a brilliant track car,

because at Nardo its tyres had to be changed, there was a problem there,

and somehow it boiled its carbon brakes at Imola.

I don't know how it did that.

But it IS a big, daft orange dog, AND blue stuff comes out of the exhaust.

No. Look, that Noble taught me more about driving in that one day

than any other car has ever taught me.

-It's about the real undiluted experience.

-Silence.

The McLaren is the closest thing to the 458, which is the best,

therefore the McLaren is the best car here.

-It's that simple.

-Does blue stuff come out of the exhaust?

-No.

-Exactly. Well, there you are.

-The thing is, we can't agree.

-And actually, we never will.

-No.

And on that bombshell, it is time to end. Thanks very much for watching.

See you next week. Good night!

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