Features
'The scene was set for an epic struggle and a large dollop of shock and awe'
'The scene was set for an epic struggle and a large dollop of shock and awe'
March 20, 2008

Features


Planes, rockets and automobiles


Relive last year's most epic Top Gear telly moments on the brilliant DVD that comes free with the new issue of TG magazine, on sale now

Top Gear has a history of doing wacky things - no, it really does - and to celebrate this crazy craziness we've compiled our three favourite stunts from last series on a DVD for your pleasure. Enjoy.

Veyron vs Eurofighter
When Jeremy raced a Bugatti Veyron across Europe against Richard and James in a light aircraft, things didn't go well for the fly boys, not least because Biggles May had neglected to mention he couldn't stay in the air after sun down. This resounding victory for the car rather upset some people, not least a bunch of aeroplane enthusiasts called the RAF.

They got in touch to suggest a rematch, and this time if we brought the Veyron they would supply the airborne challenger. Which turned out to be the new £65million, 1,522mph Eurofighter Typhoon. Bugatti, however, wasn't fazed and fetched up at the Typhoon base spoiling for a gentlemanly fight.

Bugatti also came equipped with not one, but two Veyrons, just to be on the safe side. Well, Top Gear does have a mixed record when it comes to driving fast cars on runways.

The scene was set for an epic struggle and a large dollop of shock and awe. The car simply had to drive one mile down the runway, turn around, then power back along that same mile and across the line.

Meanwhile the plane had to take off, fly one mile straight upwards, flip around and head back down to earth to skim over the same finish point. Or smack into a very expensive hypercar that was cluttering up his runway. Last one to cross the line was a big girl's bra and wouldn't get any tea or medals.


'Three of the greatest challenges to ever face the Top Gear TV lads. In glorious televisual technicolour'

Convertible people carrier
Car makers are constantly blathering on about inventing a new type of 'crossover' car yet not one of them has ever attempted to combine the convertible and the people carrier.

Why not? How hard can it be? Top Gear decided to find out, and almost immediately discovered that the answer was 'quite hard', although that might have been because the chief engineers on this project were three constantly arguing blokes in a scabby workshop near Watford.

At least one of them - tall bloke, curly hair, name escapes us at the moment - decided the key design tool here wasn't a CAD/CAM unit or complex stress analysis computer, but a pair of rather more down-to-earth devices called 'an angle grinder' and 'a hammer'.

The prototype for this crucial car industry experiment was a Renault Espace - basically the car equivalent of entering a party and loudly announcing that you've got scabies - and with its normal roof inexpertly removed, the rampantly under-qualified engineering team replaced it with a sort of canvas tent and then set about testing their invention using rather unconventional methods, one of which involved a pack of moderately angry monkeys...

Reliant rocket
Of all the ideas we've had on Top Gear, few have been as contentious as deciding it would be really brilliant if we tried to turn a car into a Space Shuttle. In fact, Clarkson immediately decided this notion was utterly stupid and stomped off to do something useful like power-sliding an Aston Martin.

But Hammond and May had more of the right stuff and headed straight to that well-known centre of rocketing excellence, Glossop in Derbyshire, armed with the car they believed would make the best Shuttle. Yes, it was a Reliant Robin, chosen by Hammond because it was "quite pointy, like a Shuttle" and which our rocket boffins soon decided was actually completely useless.

Thankfully, because they were Northern and resourceful, our eggheads cracked on regardless, and before you knew it we were on a top secret military test range just off the A68, near Alnwick, and our shuttle was ready to fly. Whilst Clarkson continued to snort derisively from deep within a sinister veil of toasted Aston tyres, Richard and James crossed their fingers and pushed the big red button on one of the most ambitious and spectacular stunts we've ever attempted.


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