CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
FREDDIE: Whoo!
Hello, and welcome to Top Gear,
where we've got some very sad news,
because it's the last show of the series.
AUDIENCE: Aw! Ohh!
But also, we've got some good news,
because we're going out with a big birthday bash. Yes!
AUDIENCE: Yay!
Yes, as the BBC is very keen to keep reminding us,
this is the centenary year -
100 years of informing, educating and entertaining.
Well, some more than others.
But here's a question - what would Top Gear have looked like
back in those early days of the Beeb?
Well, we've had a trawl through the archives to find out.
PROJECTOR WHIRS
POSH ACCENT: Hello and welcome to The Top Gear,
a programme dedicated to the mechanical road carriage.
Today, one will be running one's monocle over this fine filly,
the Invicta.
Tally-ho!
This is the Invicta Type A,
and while it's priced at a princely £1,500,
that does afford you the very latest in modern conveniences...
...including a seat, a steering wheel and brakes!
NORMAL VOICE: Ah, this is the life!
And I can probably lose the Jeeves and Wooster accent now.
So most of you have probably never heard of the Invicta,
but, back in the '20s and '30s, this car was on the same par
as something like a Rolls-Royce or a Bentley -
real premium badge stuff.
And even now, it's worth £200,000, this car,
and maybe a little bit more.
Now, you may wonder why I'm dashing around the countryside.
Well, I've got a plan.
Sadly, it involves those two clowns.
JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
Oh, my word. Look at this lad!
Gentlemen!
Firstly...
..did you not get the memo?
What's the memo, Pad? "Come as Jacob Rees-Mogg"?
Have you seen Downton Abbey? Not many puffer coats.
No, I'd be downstairs and all, wouldn't you? Absolutely.
Dressed like that, though, you might be round the table.
I've got to say, lads, I quite like it. I think you look very dashing.
Well, I've got to tell you, these buttons are working very hard.
Very hard! Why are you wearing white socks?
Yeah... Oh, you're not? You're not!
Oh, no!
Now, obviously, we're here.
Lovely surroundings.
It's 100 years of the BBC,
and I've got something very special lined up for us.
Jump in, my good men. We're going to do a bit of trialling.
Yes, we'd be having a crack
at one of the oldest motorsports in Britain.
I'm glad the weather's nice.
ENGINE REVS Whoa! Hey-hey!
Trialling was originally devised
as a way for carmakers to prove the ability
and reliability of their latest models.
And today, in sleepy, sunny corners of the Great British countryside,
you can still find devoted bands of merry motorists
battling their vintage cars to the top of steep, muddy hills.
This is a competition where it's not about how fast you go,
it's about how far you get.
And with five stages to attack before the day was out,
our first job was to get...
..to the start.
I must admit, I'd have liked a seat belt in the back.
So, go on, Pad, talk us through it, changing gear - what do you do?
Well, going up, it's...
You've got to put your foot on the clutch,
give it a nanosecond in neutral, then change into your gear,
but then coming back down - that's where it gets really tricky.
You've got to do double clutch and rev it and all that,
but I don't know how it's going to go on at the trials
because it's driving all right on the roads,
but I just can't see it going up a steep gradient.
It doesn't feel like it should be doing that, does it? No.
I'm still not sure what these trials are.
Just as well, then, that we were about to find out...
Morning! Morning!
..because Lord McGuinness had managed to coax the Invicta
to our first hill...
..where, as the other challengers
were already making look alarmingly easy,
the aim was to get past as many markers as possible
on the way to the top.
Each hill has 25 points available
to those that can coax and rev and bounce their way to reach them.
And with the teams with the most points by the end of the day
taking home the silverware, as we lined up for our first go...
WHISTLE BLOWS Whoa. We're off.
..it didn't feel like we'd be troubling the podium.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Get out there, get out there.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Shut up. Shut up.
Go, go! Go, go!
Whoa, whoa! No... No more...
I've seen it. No more, no more revs.
I've seen it, I've seen it. No more revs!
Gone past 15, lads. We don't have to go fast.
Watch the tree, Chris.
We're good, we're good. Yeah?
A bit of right hand down now. That's good.
Mind that tree!
That's good. We're good. Great work, Pad.
Right, get bumping.
Yes! Go, Pad.
Ohh! Bounce, Fred.
I'm bouncing.
It's going beautifully. Round there. No more revs.
Well done. Well done. Well done.
THEY CHEER
Stop! Stop! Frickin' stop.
BRAKES SQUEAL
ALL: Whoa!
Lovely bit of driving. Who parked that there?
Jeepers creepers. That was close. Got past it, though, didn't I?
Hey-hey!
Fair play to Paddy. On our first-ever trials run,
we'd just bagged ourselves a full 25 points.
That was great work, McGuinness. What was it like driving?
Oh, tricky. It works, though, the bouncing, doesn't it?
Does it? I didn't know if... Yeah, you feel it.
Time to take the victorious Invicta
back down to the road and onto the next hill.
We might be in this, you know.
When have we ever started this well at anything?
LAUGHING: Never! Never.
And now that the pre-match nerves had settled,
we could start to see what this trials game
is actually all about.
You all right, boys?
Hello! All right?
I like the format. So you basically just wobble about on some lanes...
Lovely. ..you get to show off your new suit,
then we go up through some forest-y bits.
Thank you. Thanks very much. Hello, there. Hello.
And everyone's very friendly.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Yes, arriving at a nearby farm for the start of the next climb,
it was quickly becoming clear
that trials is as much a highlight of the social calendar
as it is a motorsport.
No robotic racing drivers and poker-faced pit crews here,
just lots of jolly people having a jolly old time.
This is a lovely thing to do.
See this thing? Yeah. Two-stroke, single chain.
Where's it from?
Is it?
That's it?! PADDY LAUGHS
Will it go anywhere?
What is it?
It's a Trojan, yeah.
WHISTLE BLOWS There you go. Good luck.
Good luck!
Look at this boy here. WG Grace.
Ooh, no messing.
Ooh, he's not messed about. He's on it there.
Did you see the concentration on his face?
He's had the back end out and all sorts then.
Better than F1. Oh, wonderful.
Can't get this close to bloody Verstappen, can you? No.
I could touch his beard.
It's like Fast & Furious meets Brideshead Revisited. Yes.
Meets Shameless.
THEY LAUGH
For all the fun and games, though,
it turned out our second hill wouldn't be a stroll in the orchard,
because we'd be facing our first re-start...
Here we go. Let's see what happens here.
..coming to a complete stop
before setting off to tackle the steepest part of the course.
I bet it's tough to get up there.
Oh, Fred, look. Fred, take notice.
Oh, easy. No messing.
Wow. No messing.
Now, you get one go at this,
and any rolling backwards puts you straight out of the climb.
So, once Fred had distilled what we'd seen of the pros
into a cunning strategy...
Put your foot down, I'll bounce. PADDY LAUGHS
..heading for the start line in the Invicta,
McGuinness had decided it was time that Flintoff and I joined him
in dressing like them, too.
Oh, now we're talking!
Idiot! FREDDIE LAUGHS
Ooh, I tell you what, boys, now we look like a team!
WHISTLE BLOWS
But while we now had all the gear...
Gas, gad, gas, gas. Go, Pad.
..as we made our way up to the dreaded re-start,
it soon became clear we still had...
No, no, you're going the wrong way.
You're going the wrong way, you helmet.
..no idea.
Don't worry about it, lads.
Right, bounce...
..for your lives, lads!
Bounce it, lads!
Go on!
No! No chance.
Embarrassing, that. I think there's a bit of valve
coming out the engine exhaust pipe there, Pad. Ah, well.
Think we got ahead of ourselves on the last one, didn't we? We have.
But that looked nothing, did it? You didn't respect the course.
But you didn't bounce, Fred, at the first...
Bounced till I done my knees in! No, you did it after!
Why is it our fault? Why is it our fault? We're a team.
You'll have to change the suspension,
I was bouncing that much. We're a team, lads, we're a team.
We were a team -
a team in need of a new driver.
Got it all to do in the next round.
We might have to readjust our assessment of Paddy's driving
after that one. Feel free, lads. Feel free.
And so, with just 11 points from the last hill,
heading for the next one,
it was our resident racing driver's time to shine.
ENGINE ROARS Oh, am I in gear?
Oh, no, he's not even in...
HORN BEEPS We're being beeped out, Chris.
We're being beeped out, son!
You've got Chitty Chitty Bang Bang honking you!
Ohh!
BOTH: Ohh! Wey-ey!
It's like a roller-coaster.
THEY CHEER
So, we're two hills down,
25 on the first,
11 on the second.
We need a big one here. We need...
We need some high numbers on this next one, Chris.
Get us back in the game, pal.
We've got the pro in now, though, haven't we? Be right as rain now.
GEARS CRUNCH Oh, oh, oh. Oh, whoa!
How are you finding the old Invicta, Christopher?
Absolutely joyous.
Are you? I've got a bit to learn.
I thought Paddy was driving very well... Changed his tune, hasn't he?
No. But I think the old girl wasn't suited to wet grass.
Yeah. Definitely.
I think if we can get more roads like the first one,
it'll go up 'em, it'll go up 'em, definitely.
In the right hands.
FREDDIE CHUCKLES
We'd soon see, because we'd reached the foot of hill three.
Go on, Chrissy. Hello!
Easy, Chris. Whoa!
Lovely. Keep it going. Nice and steady as she goes.
And as Baron Harris set to work,
the Invicta was looking much more at home.
Whoa! Whoa!
Hey, we're back in the race here.
THEY GASP AND GROAN
I tell you what, she does well on the dry, doesn't she?
Oh, all the excuses!
Ohh! Whoa!
Oh, my God.
I don't like that tree stump, though, Pad.
Oh, oh, no, no, no, no.
LOUD THUD Bloomin' heck.
Come on, let's get to 25.
Let's finish this one.
I'm on it, I'm on it, I'm on it.
23. 23, Chris. Two more.
I can live with this.
THEY CHEER
Yes, madam.
FREDDIE LAUGHS
A maximum-points run from Harris had put us back on track
and earned him another stint behind the wheel.
Chrissy, back in the game. 25 more points.
Yes!
Back in there. I tell you what... Back in there.
..I'm loving these old cars.
And swaggering up to the penultimate hill
with confidence riding high,
it was time to show what a pro trials team really looks like.
WHISTLE BLOWS
Come on, Chris, we need a big 'un here. Go on, Chris.
Oh, he's at it here. Ohh!
Whoa, he's going quick. Is this a time trial?
Your door's opened, Chris. Shut the door, Pad.
Shut the door!
Ohh.
Yes, Harris had found his full pouty concentration face,
and the Invicta was starting to look invincible.
THEY CHEER
This is going to fly up to 25, this, Chris.
Or at least it did...
Ooh, ooh, this is steep!
..until we ran into our old friend, the re-start.
Go on, Chris. Come on, you got it.
ENGINE REVS
Come on, Pad, jump.
Get up! Get up!
Yes! We've done it! We've done it, Pad!
Come on, lads. We've done it, Chris.
Go on!
Go on, Chris!
I can't flipping bounce any more.
Go, Chris. Oh, dear.
The standing start had bested us again.
And with a paltry seven points for our efforts,
heading off to the last run of the day,
it only seemed fair to hand Viscount Flintoff
his first go behind the wheel.
GEARS CLUNK AND GRIND Oh. Oh! Oh, he's missed a gear.
CHRIS LAUGHS
GEAR CRUNCHES Oh, no! Oh, no!
No...
I'm panicking. I'm on a B road.
THEY LAUGH
Go on, you can get third now.
No, I don't want to. What's your strategy for the hill?
Stay in first.
And after a Flintoff double-declutching masterclass...
GEARS CRUNCH
What are you doing?! No, no!
Double-clutch it. I am!
..we eventually ground our way
up to the final stage of our trials roller-coaster...
..in no way prepared to reach the finish.
Here we go, son. Right, no messing about.
Man and machine in perfect harmony!
Go on, son.
WHISTLE BLOWS
ENGINE REVS
Here we go, lads.
Be very careful. Do you want to do some bouncing?
Whoa, whoa. Easy, easy, Fred.
Gas, gas, gas! Easy.
That's it. We're up, we're up.
Keep going. Right-hander, Fred! Right-hander!
Ooh, ooh, I don't like this.
THEY ALL SHOUT
Bounce, bounce! No more revs!
Ohh!
Yes, that was amazing! Yes, come on, 19.
Come on, Fred. Keep going, Fred.
Bounce, bounce, bounce!
Bounce.
Bounce!
I'm bouncing. I can't bounce any more.
Keep going, keep going! We're up to 25, Fred!
THEY ALL SHOUT
What a result! What's all the fuss about?
Keep going! What's all the fuss about?
PADDY CHEERS
Thank you. Ohh...
Why have I not done it all day? Ohh! That was fantastic.
Oh, you abs... I tell you what, you better get running!
When this car stops, I'm going to knock you out.
A top-marks finish for Flintoff...
Ow!
..and our first taste of trials had finished on a high.
Had we won?
Course we hadn't.
Worth another go, though?
You betcha.
PROJECTOR WHIRS AND STOPS
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
We like old cars, don't we?
I've got to say, all things considered,
I think that went pretty well.
It was a nice day out in the country. Yeah.
And I love that, all over the UK, every weekend,
people are doing daft things in cars. I don't just mean trialling.
Banger racing, sidecars, hill-climbing.
It makes me proud to be British. It certainly does.
Proper eccentric motorsport.
And if you're part of -
and I mean this with the greatest of respect -
an even weirder race series than that one,
let us know, and we'll be right there.
And now we must move on,
because every now and again we get a polite email saying,
"Forget about all those supercars.
"How about reviewing a car that normal people might actually buy?"
We do get a lot of those, and they're not always polite.
But they've got a point.
Well, it's about time we tackled some affordable stuff,
so we sent Chris off to do a proper, sensible,
real-world car review, in the world's most sensible country,
Norway.
CHRIS: Yes, with snow on the ground for six months of the year,
and a reputation for handing out
the strictest driving fines in Europe,
Norway is a country that demands a sensible,
no-nonsense approach to motoring.
And that makes it the ideal spot
to bring you a sensible, no-nonsense compact crossover.
This is the new Ford Puma.
It starts at around 23 grand and, right now,
it's one of the most popular cars on sale in the UK.
And straight away, it's easy to see why.
For starters, it looks quite good.
It's a bit froggy up front, with the eyes
but, other than that, I like it.
And inside here, you don't feel deprived.
I've got all the functions of a very expensive car.
I've even got a heated steering wheel,
which, given we're in Norway, is a lovely thing.
And because it's a Ford, it goes down the road beautifully.
I can't complain.
Not least because, for an extra £6,000,
you can have your Puma with a slightly bigger bite.
This is the ST model with the 200-horsepower,
1.5-litre turbo-charged petrol engine.
0 to 60 - six-and-a-half seconds.
137mph flat out.
And, best of all, in these fuel-troubled times,
it'll do over 40 miles to the gallon.
The Puma ST isn't just fast and frugal, though.
You'll also be pleased to hear
that it has everyday usability built in, too.
There's more boot space here than you get in a Ford Focus -
456 litres.
You wanted real-world reviews, I'm giving you a real-world review.
And down here is something Ford calls the MegaBox.
It's a waterproof hose-out tub for anything
that you might need to store in a waterproof hose-out tub.
It's even got a drainage plug
just in case anything you put in there suffers any...
..seepage.
So there you go - it really is the complete package.
Well done, Ford, for making the Puma affordable to run,
and if you get the ST version, pretty decent to drive, too.
But if you're thinking the ST still doesn't quite have the zip
you're looking for from your next compact crossover,
there is also a slightly faster one. ENGINE ROAR ECHOES
Yes, it's a rally car!
The Ford Puma Rally1.
Wah-hoo!
I've never driven anything like it.
It is a monster!
ENGINE ROARS
This Puma has been built to compete
in the World Rally Championship's new era of hybrid racing.
And that means that M-Sport,
the legendary British rally engineers that built it...
..have boosted its four-cylinder turbo petrol engine...
..with a battery-powered electric motor.
All working together,
this Puma produces over 500 horsepower.
Whoa-ho!
The performance is outrageous.
This thing will do 0 to 60
in about three seconds on pretty much any surface.
I can't begin to describe the way it stops, as well.
I've got regenerative braking,
so the harder I brake, the more I charge the hybrid system.
It makes for a wild ride, it really does.
There she goes.
Now let's feel the hybrid. Push the pedal down.
Oh, my Lord!
How does it do that on ice?!
Part of the reason, of course, is that, unlike the Puma ST,
the Rally1 comes equipped with four-wheel drive.
Plus, there's a super-strong steel space frame
clad in lightweight body panels
that makes the Rally1 a full 100kg lighter.
However, the extra performance
that all this and that modern hybrid power brings
does come at a price.
It costs about three-quarters of a million quid,
which I know is quite steep, but right now,
I can't think of anything I'd rather spend
the same amount of money on more than this.
Whoa-ho!
ENGINE ROARS
You'll notice I'm using a gear lever.
I've not seen that in about 25 years in World Rallying.
The regulations want a more mechanical, analogue car this year -
they've certainly got one.
Woohoo!
It's a fascinating car to drive
because, in some respects, it's exactly what I expected.
In others, it requires a lot more management,
and I've got so much respect for the drivers now.
They really aren't just arcade game machines.
They require concentration and more skill than I've got.
ENGINE ROARS
Oh, yes. Listen to that.
Or, in fact, don't...
ENGINE ROAR STOPS
..because another advantage of the Rally1
over its more affordable cousin
is that on the regular commute between your rally stages,
you can drive in clean, green silence.
Nothing to see here.
Just driving along in my electric World Rally car.
It's a genuine hybrid.
Ooh! I wonder if M-Sport kept the MegaBox.
We can maybe stop for provisions.
The Rally1 can do 12 miles in EV mode,
so long as you drive it gently.
Hello.
ENGINE ROARS
But it has to be said,
if you ever do find yourself behind the wheel of one,
driving it gently is the last thing you'll want to do.
Oh, my Lord, it's fast. It's fast.
HE LAUGHS
To be honest with you, and you might have already guessed this,
this thing's got about as much to do with a Puma
as I have a fighter jet...
..but on these roads, in these conditions? Unbeatable.
Fastest car on the planet.
Sensational!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
That is a monster.
It's a monster. It really is.
So let me get this right, you went off to review
a sensible car that people could afford. Yeah.
And you ended up driving a £750,000 rally car?
Yeah, apologies. But in my defence,
there was some take-home consumer advice there. Wasn't there?
If you want a small crossover, day-to-day stuff,
perfect - Puma ST.
If you want to enter the World Rally Championship,
take the rally car.
Helpful as ever, Chris. There you go.
And now we move on to a question.
What's the best letter in motoring?
Do you know, you two? The one on the old boot lid.
Ooh, this is my kind of question, this is.
I'd say R - could be race or rally.
If you see R, you know it's going to be something special.
I'm going T. Turbo. Touring.
You like tourers. Love a tourer.
All right, strong guesses. Both wrong.
Because the best letter in motoring is this one...
M, as in BMW's legendary...
..M Division,
the German engineering geniuses who've been churning out
some of the world's finest fast cars for five decades.
This year, 2022,
marks 50 years of the M Division.
So, to celebrate,
I thought I'd invite along some VIP guests.
And what a guest list this is. Oh, yes!
Over the years, the M Division has given us some proper legends.
But just think, none of these would be here today
if Ford hadn't been so annoyingly good.
You see, back in the late '60s and early '70s,
Ford was dominating world motor sport.
Its GT40 was a four-time Le Mans winner,
and in the European Touring Car Championship,
its gorgeous Capri was busy trashing rivals...
..like BMW.
Hellbent on getting their own back,
in 1972, BMW poached Ford's motor sport boss, Jochen Neerpasch.
His brief was to build world-beating cars
for the racetrack and road.
His department would become the M Division.
And here's what they cooked up first.
This is the precursor to all those wonderful M cars to come.
This, my friends, is a three-litre CSL,
also known as the Batmobile.
# Nobody gonna take my car
# Gonna race it to the ground... #
Lightweight, tuned-up, with proper working downforce,
it was nothing short of a race car for the road,
that wasn't technically road legal.
The idea was, you took it on a track,
you whizzed round all day, humming the theme to Batman,
and then, before you got back on the road,
you whipped off the rear wing, put it in the boot and off you went.
Obviously, it was the '70s
and, obviously, no-one did that.
Happier times!
The Batmobile was an instant icon.
And what better way for the M Division to follow it
than with a supercar.
The M1 arrived in 1978,
proof to the world that it wasn't just Italy
who could do the whole slinky, mid-engine performance thing.
But, pretty as it was - and reliable to boot -
the M1 was really a bit of a sideshow...
..because the car that would come to truly define the M badge
would arrive a few years later,
in 1986.
The birth of a legend.
MUSIC: Blue Monday by New Order
The original BMW M3.
It might be nearly 40 years old, but this is peak M car right here.
Pure,
raw,
joyous...
TYRES SCREECH
..M!
Just like the old Batmobile,
the M3 was shot through with motorsport DNA.
Suspension, brakes, gearbox -
all of it came from the racing world.
It might have had just 200 horsepower,
but trust me, that was all it needed.
It's light, it's sparkly.
It feels alive, this thing!
TYRES SCREECH
It's like a Border collie itching to get out for a walk.
"Get down, Shep, get down!"
MUSIC: Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
In fact, the only downside to the original M3
was that it did attract a certain crowd.
SHOUTS: Hello? What's that? No, I'm in an M3!
# Relax, don't do it... #
Yes, the '80s saw the arrival of the yuppie.
Those wannabe Wolves of Wall Street
all needed something cutting-edge and continental
to match their monster Motorolas and flash Rolexes.
The M Division's finest was the perfect choice.
Which meant the M3 did gain a little bit of a bad reputation.
You know all those typical BMW driver stereotypes?
Well, this is the car that started it all.
# Relax, don't do it... #
LAUGHING: But I can forgive all that
because this thing is absolute perfection.
Oh...
And now that the M Division had found their formula,
they set about refining it.
Understated on the outside, race-bred underneath,
the next couple of decades brought bigger engines,
more power, more speed.
And it all reached a bit of a head...
..with this.
The 2004 BMW M5.
You see, in the early noughties,
BMW's F1 car was powered by a big, revvy V10 engine.
So the good people at the M Division thought,
"Hey, why can't we put one of those in a family saloon?"
Well, it turned out...
..they could.
And it sounds like...
INTENSE ENGINE REVS
..the end of days.
Ha-ha! This is fast!
Whoa!
500 brake horsepower.
It'll still spin past 8,000 RPM.
If you take the limiter off this thing...
Oh-ho-ho-ho!
..they reckon it'll go up to 200mph.
It's absolutely bananas!
This was the M Division declaring to the world
that, when it comes to supercar-quick saloons,
nobody else comes close.
These are what the M Division are all about.
And, yes, over the years, they've dabbled with quick SUVs
and other odds and ends, but these?
These are the heartland.
In fact, you can trace a line right from the original M3,
through all of these, all the way up to this...
..the new M3.
A car that's channelling 50 years of M Division know-how.
HE CHUCKLES
Get round there!
Man alive!
It's packing 500 horsepower
from a twin-turbo six-cylinder engine.
And that's just the start.
It's got an eight-speed automatic gearbox.
A clever four-wheel-drive option.
You can configure the steering, dampers...
You can even do the brake pedal!
It is big, and it is clever.
Oh, and did I mention?
Very, very fast.
ENGINE REVS
Yes! You little German beauty!
But on the subject of beauty...
..it's hard to ignore
that massive-nostrilled elephant in the room.
There's no getting around it, is there?
Who signed that off?
I know they say beauty's in the eye of the beholder,
but come on!
Whoever designed that
needs to have a long, hard look at theirself in the mirror.
And talking downsides, for a car wearing that badge,
there is a bigger one.
It's overcomplicated.
Yes, it's fast and it's fun to drive,
but you feel disconnected from it.
The computer takes over and does everything.
So if you look at it on paper, it's the ultimate machine.
But is it the ultimate driving machine?
I'm not so sure.
The trouble is, over the years,
all cars have become bigger, heavier and more complicated.
And that's where M cars have gone, too.
But then, every now and again,
they go and build a car that lets you know
they haven't completely forgotten where they came from.
The 1M.
A purified, pocket-sized, back-to-basics coupe
that turned up back in 2011
as a true spiritual successor to the original M3.
It is good to be back.
I used to own one of these.
And, yes, I absolutely loved it.
Let's see if it's as good as I remember.
MUSIC: Block Rockin' Beats by The Chemical Brothers
ENGINE REVS
Oh-ho! Here we go.
This is what it's all about.
TYRES SCREECH
No fancy dampers, no multi-mode brake pedal.
Just a dinky car...
Whoa!
..with a punchy engine, rear-wheel drive,
and someone clinging onto the steering wheel for dear life.
Yes! Come on!
What made the 1M so special was that,
with just 335 horsepower, it was never about raw performance.
Its M-car genius was all in the feel.
Woohoo!
Oh, man, I love the little short gear changes.
I love the steering wheel. I love everything about this car.
You're totally connected to it.
Do you know what?
When they get it right, they get it right.
This thing is absolute driving joy.
Why did I get rid of it?!
Well, I know why -
me wife told me to.
Happy birthday, M Division.
And here's to 50 more glorious years.
TYRES SCREECH Get out there!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Double teapot.
I'm not happy either. Not happy.
McGuinness, how could you go and do that without me?
BMW M cars is my specialist subject. I can talk about them for hours.
That's exactly why we didn't send you.
LAUGHTER
Looking down the line, they're not getting any prettier, are they?
Well, I mean, what's going on with these grilles, Christopher?
I don't know. The car looks better if I stand here. Yeah.
Why, though? What was the reasoning behind it?
Well, they apparently designed it after Fred Flintoff -
two massive teeth down the front end. Oh! Oh!
Why? Oh... Why? I've got feelings.
And now, we must move on to talk about the future.
Cos we all know the petrol era is coming to an end,
which, for your traditional petrolhead,
might sound like bad news.
But don't worry, because we're here to tell you that the future of fuel
is starting to look very interesting.
Let's begin...
..with battery power.
Because for a long time now, if you wanted to go green,
batteries have been pretty much your only option.
But, let's be honest, it's only just lately
that they've really started turning heads.
Take the sensational Back To The Future styling
of Hyundai's IONIQ 5.
The Mustang Mach-E -
a family crossover that packs nearly 500 horsepower.
Or how about a car that looks to be heading
where no EV has gone before?
The CUPRA Born.
Strange name, interesting car.
This could be the first-ever all-electric hot hatch.
Wahey!
Now, it's based on VW's not-very-hot ID.3.
But over in the Spanish sunshine,
CUPRA, the new sporty wing of SEAT, has been busy heating things up.
Compared to the ID.3, this is lower, the suspension's sharper,
and this particular one is around 200 horsepower.
All very hot-hatchy. Whoa-ho!
What's a bit less hot-hatchy, though,
is that old eco problem of lugging around a big, heavy battery.
The weight's all low down,
which means it's pretty flat into the corners,
but it's just missing a little bit of zip,
a little bit of zing.
Nah.
It's more of a lukewarm hatch.
Tepid. Cool to the touch.
Cool-to-the-touch hatch.
So, no, at just over 30 grand,
the Born isn't going to tempt you away from your Golf GTI.
But it does show that more affordable EVs
are just starting to have some fun.
The Born is injecting a little bit of Latin flair
into the beige world of electric hatchbacks.
Which is all well and good.
But up at the top of the range,
EVs have been putting on a very convincing show for a while now.
Mostly thanks to this.
TYRES SCREECH
The Porsche Taycan.
The unbelievably quick, incredibly capable four-door saloon
that has been embarrassing petrol performance cars
since it launched a couple of years ago.
And now, to keep the great battery charge advancing...
..the Germans have sent in some backup.
The Audi e-tron GT.
This might just be the first electric car
you could buy on looks alone.
It's an absolute knockout!
And it's beautiful inside too.
They've not gone Tesla minimalist here.
It feels like a posh Audi - an even posher Audi than normal!
Underneath the fantastic fit and finish,
the GT actually shares the same chassis, gearbox,
and a lot of the same technology as the Taycan.
And do you know what?
It might actually be better to drive than the Porsche.
It's a bit more comfortable.
The whole chassis feels just a bit more intuitive.
This is an Audi that's better to drive
than the equivalent Porsche.
I mean, the world's been turned upside down.
There are no rules any more.
What there is instead...
..is power.
Now, this version has over 500 horsepower,
and this isn't even the fastest one.
But this is still absurdly quick, it really is.
You don't need a car faster than this.
And here's the best bit.
Crusty old journalists like me have complained for years
that Audis don't oversteer. Watch this.
TYRES SCREECH
Straight away, massive, massive rear-wheel-drive skids.
HE LAUGHS
So new electric cars - no longer boring.
And it doesn't stop there.
Because whether it's a charged-up Cobra,
a battery-powered Beetle,
or a Defender that's swapped diesel for DC,
there are now loads of companies out there
giving timeless classics a new lease of life
by swapping their fumey old engines for batteries and motors.
Although, it must be said,
for your traditional petrolhead, this is...
..a tricky area.
Hey, now, this is a bit of you at the end, innit?
What do you reckon about having an electric motor in one?
I just don't know. I'm so confused. Mm. I love my 911,
and I love it because of the sound of the flat-six. Absolutely.
I mean, this is what I lie awake at night thinking about.
So, I... HE SIGHS
I were going to say, we're going to drive one apiece.
I think I know which one you're going to go for.
I've got to have a go in it. Yeah. Do you know what I'm going to do?
The old e-Defender. I'm going to give it a whirl.
Why's it got exhaust pipes? Has yours got exhaust pipes?
What?
Sacrilegious as it may seem, though, what cannot be denied
is the performance this kind of transplant yields,
as we shall now demonstrate with a drag race.
Electric classics versus their old fossil-fuelled equivalents.
MAN ON RADIO: Three, two, one, go!
Whooooa! Oh, my God!
I've just been done by a Defender.
I'm in a Defender! Wow!
Wow, look at him go!
But now I'm going.
CAMERA CLICKS
There's the Porsche. Yes!
And now we're going away.
Over the line at 120. That's quick.
Wha-hey-hey!
Whoa! Oh!
Oh, my...
That Defender off the line, good Lord!
Oh, here's the other little Porsche.
Here he is.
Too late now. Already got it.
OK, electric...
..demolishes petrol in a straight line.
I have just literally left a Porsche for dead
in a Land Rover Defender.
What a time to be alive!
I want one of these.
Can you imagine just someone pulling up
at the side of you at the lights thinking, "Oh, I'll burn this off"?
And you're like, "Will ya?"
And the best part is...
Whaaaaaaaaa!
..when it comes to the future of fuel,
batteries aren't even the most exciting tech going.
Time for our next fuel of the future,
with Professor Harris.
Hydrogen.
The most abundant element in our universe.
And if you can get it on its own,
it's something you can power your car with.
Now, the science behind it is pretty straightforward.
In one end comes some hydrogen,
and it mixes with oxygen from the atmosphere.
There they go - mix, mix.
And through a complicated exchange of protons
and electrons and other things, you get - this is the clever bit -
electricity.
That and that equals that. Isn't it brilliant?
And the only by-product,
the thing that comes out of your exhaust,
is this - good old H2O.
Water.
Now, if you've extracted your hydrogen using green electricity,
the whole process is carbon-neutral.
And the even cleverer thing is...
..hydrogen packs a punch.
Now, in rocket A, we have two grams of petrol.
And in rocket B, we have two grams of hydrogen.
And we're going to find out which produces the biggest bang.
Serious science, this.
So, first up - petrol.
Lovely, explode-y petrol.
BEEP
OK.
And now - hydrogen.
BEEP
That's a clear win for hydrogen.
The only problem is...
..while a few companies
are developing this exciting, elegant technology,
up to now, the most exciting, elegant car
that anyone's found to put it in...
..is this.
The Toyota Mirai. Yes.
It essentially just drives like an electric car.
Well, that's what a hydrogen car is.
It's just storing its energy in different ways.
A normal electric car conventionally has a battery. This stores hydrogen,
and then uses a fuel cell to convert it.
You have a tank out the back,
and you can fill this thing up like you would a petrol car.
It's a liquid. So, fill it up, away you go.
A couple of minutes, 400 miles of range.
Try that in an electric car. Now, I must say,
that is quite a good thing compared to electric cars.
That's what drives me mad with electric cars.
Exactly. Is the amount of time you've got to put...
So where do you fill up an hydrogen car?
There are fuel stations all over the country.
How many? 12.
12? 12.
Last year... Yeah?
..there were 15 people born in this country... Yeah?
..given the name Lucifer.
LAUGHING: No, there weren't!
So you've got more chance of running into a baby Lucifer
than you have of finding a hydrogen fuel station.
Well, it's got its downsides, OK?
But these are the upsides, all right?
First of all, we're not carting around a great big battery,
which is really, really heavy.
Second of all, you read all these stories about
digging up nasty metals from the ground
and all the stuff that goes on with that.
Cobalt. There's none of that, OK?
And thirdly, you can use the existing petrol network.
So, if you go to BP,
where there's LPG, there could by hydrogen.
Come on, get on board, Pad.
I am on board, believe it or not. And this goes quite well. Come on.
Yeah, the science stacks up, no denying that.
So why have they put it all in something so vanilla?
We need a hydrogen supercar.
I agree. Er, can we now do something more exciting?
Cos I am getting quite sleepy here. Yes.
Indeed we could.
Because what if there was a way to go green
without giving up on the combustion engine?
MOTOR REVS
A way to go green without giving up all that noise.
MOTOR REVS
That drama.
That soul.
MOTOR REVS
Introducing synthetic fuel.
TYRES SCREECH
Look at the go on that Lamborghini!
Man alive!
Whoa-ho-ho!
What a machine.
These synthetic fuels,
they're pretty big news at the moment.
The fuel that's in this car
was the brainchild of genius Formula 1 engineer Paddy Lowe.
So I am literally Paddy-powered, but in the right way.
What very clever engineers like Mr Lowe have managed to do
is create a petrol made not from oil
but from carbon dioxide captured from the air
and hydrogen extracted from water.
The result is a fuel that, when burned,
emits only the CO2 that was extracted
to make it in the first place.
So, as long as you're using green electricity to power production,
it is completely carbon-neutral.
And the really good thing about this is,
it'll work in any petrol car, no matter how old or how new.
You can even mix it with your regular fuel.
It's absolute genius!
And it might just save some of these old dinosaurs
from extinction.
Ah!
They say the Aventador will be the last Lamborghini
without electrical assistance.
The last free-breathing, pure V12.
And just listen to that noise!
759 horsepower.
ENGINE REVS
This new GT3 just ticks all the boxes.
Flat-six, normally aspirated, revs at 9,000 RPM.
ENGINE REVS
Whoo!
Before you go thinking this is the answer
to all our petrolhead prayers, though...
Ah!
..we should point out a couple of drawbacks.
The main issue being you can't just pop into your local petrol station
to fill up with synthetic fuel.
This stuff is experimental. It's extremely rare.
Which means it's expensive.
And if you want a number -
at the moment, about ten quid a litre.
But, while we wait to see whether synthetic fuels
will one day become affordable enough for the masses,
what we do at least now know...
..is that with the sun setting on fossil fuels...
..the new dawn is starting to look very bright indeed.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Oh, just stupidly fast.
Huh?
I thought it was going to do a wheelie. They're crazy.
Oh, man. That was very informative, boys.
But what I want to talk about is these electric classics,
cos if I was going to get an electric car,
apart from that Rivian, that's how I'd do it.
All the fun, all the looks, none of the maintenance.
And I've got to say,
the first five seconds of being in this car,
that acceleration,
compared to everything I've driven on Top Gear,
that's the most fun I've had, ever. Anything?
Aston Martin Victors, Ferrari Romas, DB5s...
This, for that first five seconds, was bonkers.
You know how he squeaks? That was peak squeak.
That was. Oh, it was. Right up there.
It was amazing. It was full squeaking.
And also, synthetic fuel, hey, hey? I'm all over this.
He's been on the internet again. Here we go. Oh, no.
It's all the fun of a petrol engine, completely green.
That's the magic bullet right there. It could be, but it just depends
if they can make it cheap enough, doesn't it?
If they can, then we might be having a lot more fun
in silly petrol-engine cars for some time to come.
Fingers crossed.
And on that unusually optimistic note,
we must end the show, and the series. What?!
AUDIENCE AND HOSTS GROAN
It was like being in panto, that.
We'll be back later in the year.
Thank you so much for watching. Goodnight.
CHEERING