In case you think the Stig smashing the Ariel Atom’s lap record in the Pagani Huayra is the only exciting thing that happened in the first episode of Top Gear’s 19th season, you’d better reconsider.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from watching the BBC TV car show over the years it’s that you can count on the three hosts to do much more than test cars or hand over the keys of the latest supercar to their tame racing driver for a quick lap around the TG test track.
As a matter of fact, that is one of the selling points of the show: that you never really know what they’re going to come up with.
You may think, for example, that a Bentley has no place in a rally stage – at least until they roll out the EXP 9 F SUV, that is. James “Captain Slow” May thought otherwise, so he rode shotgun with rally driver Chris Meeke in the fastest Bentley ever, the Continental GT Speed. Even Meeke conceded that it was “a stupid idea” but went ahead and did it anyway.
Not to be outdone, Jeremy Clarkson created the P45, a contraption based on the running gear of a 200cc quad bike dressed in a hand-crafted aluminum “bodywork” that, as he claimed, is road-legal.
Enough spoilers; you can watch the two videos right after the break.
By Andrew Tsaousis
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