Top Gear (2002 TV series)/Series 1/Episode 8

Episode 8
A group of super saloons, as featured in the episode.
Prod. code	GFGA008E
No.	8 (since 2002), 557 (since 1977)
Runtime	59:05
Viewers	3.43 million
Prev ep.	Series 1, Episode 7
Next ep.	Series 1, Episode 9
Airdate	UK: 8th December, 2002
International Airdates WO: 1st January, 2003 NL: 14th November, 2003 PR: 28th December, 2004 PL: 9th April, 2005 RU: 7th August, 2005 BE: 30th July, 2006 (BBC Prime) FI: 28th January, 2007 AU: 12th April, 2008 KO: 25th May, 2008 CZ: 25th April, 2009 HU: 24th June, 2009 Data may not be 100% accurate.

Series 1, Episode 8 of Top Gear aired on the 8th December, 2002. It was the eighth episode of [[Top Gear (2002 TV series)/Series 1|Series 1]]; the 8th episode of Top Gear since the show's 2002 reboot and the 557th episode overall, including compilations. It was the 548th episode since Top Gear entered national broadcasting in 1978, and was the 9th programme to air in 2002 out of a total 11. Series 1, Episode 8 was originally broadcast in 576i at a 16:9 Widescreen aspect ratio on British television channel BBC Two. The episode was presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Jason Dawe, and Richard Hammond, alongside The Stig. Michael Gambon was the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car.

This episode is best-known for an incident which occurred during Gambon's lap in the Suzuki Liana. Approaching the final corner, at that point named Carpenters Corner, Gambon understeered in the damp track conditions and bounced off the outside of the previous corner, upsetting the car's balance. In an attempt to stabilise the car, Gambon then overcorrected, clipping the inside of Carpenters and momentarily sending the Liana onto two wheels. This incident resulted in the corner being renamed in Gambon's likeness from Series 2 of Top Gear onwards, which became its permanent name thereafter.

Synopsis

As narrated by Jeremy Clarkson:

• A Knight in our Reasonably-Priced car.
• Maserati's new Coupé takes on our track.
• And lock up your door mirrors; we set out to find Britain's fastest white van driver.

Series 1, Episode 8 begins with Jeremy Clarkson apologising for comments made during the previous episode where he alleged that he was going to kick a barn owl to death. The trio then deem their attempt to be ‘green’ a failure, and vow that this episode would be ‘scarlet’ instead. Panning to a BMW M5 in the studio, Clarkson then opens into a segment on super saloons, which he starts by revealing a graph comparing the amount of power 400 brake horsepower generates on a scale of double-decker buses. He implies that if condensed to a height of 6 inches, 400 BHP would cover an area the size of Belgium. It's then revealed that BMW are no longer the only manufacturer producing such a car, as the Jaguar S-Type R has come out with a 4.2 litre supercharged V8 also producing 400 BHP. However, Audi have also come out with their equivalent, and have moved the goalposts.

Super Saloons

^{Unabridged article: Super Saloon Film}
Using the Audi A6 as a base, the Audi RS 6 features a twin-turbocharged 4.2 litre V8 which develops an astonishing 450 brake horsepower. Along with a wide bodykit, the car is not only more powerful than the aging M5, but commands more of a road presence as well. Although it costs £5,000 more than the M5 (in 2002), Clarkson believes that the RS 6 is one of the best cars on the road at the time the episode was filmed. He also opines that cars such as the M5 and RS 6 are popular with middle-aged rock gods, and to demonstrate this, Clarkson takes the Audi to Wiltshire, where Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason makes a cameo appearance under the guise of helping Clarkson to find Steve Winwood's house, where he announces his intentions to buy an RS 6 that coming Christmas. Stars such as Mason choose cars like the RS 6 because not only are they powerful, but with the RS 6's 4 wheel drive "quattro" system and a firmed up suspension, are also easier to drive. Cue the Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG. With over 500 brake horsepower and a 5.5 litre V8 under the bonnet, the E55 AMG is even faster than the RS 6. However, Clarkson feels that the car would be uncontrollable without the assistance of its onboard computers as he can sense the traction control constantly working on the wet country roads. At the end of the test, Clarkson likens the Mercedes to Charlie Watts and the Audi to Keith Moon, with Clarkson always preferring The Who, therefore choosing the Audi.

Power Laps

Back in the studio, however, one final question remains: which of the two super saloons is faster around the track? Jeremy believes that the E55 AMG would have easily won in dry conditions due to its higher power output and more sophisticated electronics, but the laps were done in the wet, thus evening the playing field and giving track advantage to the Audi.

Position	Car	Time	Track Conditions
1	Audi RS 6	1:33.0	Wet
2	Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG	1:35.5	Wet

The RS 6 was a full 2 and a half seconds faster than the Mercedes and was easily the more controlled of the two, with the E55 AMG powersliding and aquaplaning on the wet surface. When adjusted for optimum conditions, the RS 6 would have set a 1:29.0 lap time, putting it on par with the Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG and Honda NSX-R from two episodes prior. To conclude the segment, Clarkson returns to his graph, stating that by 2008, cars would have 100,000 BHP underneath the bonnet, or enough power to span the distance from the Earth to the Moon. The idea of putting high-displacement engines inside regular 4-door saloon cars gives fellow host Richard Hammond an idea, and leads directly into the following segment.

Turning a Lada into a Lotus, Part One

^{Unabridged article: Lotus Lada Film}
Hammond hypothesizes that any saloon could be turned into a performance car given the right tuning, and who better to test this hypothesis out than Lotus? Previously known for their work on the Lotus Cortina and Lotus Carlton, which turned the likes of the Ford Cortina and Vauxhall Carlton saloons into notorious, powerful sports cars, the engineering team at Lotus are given a new challenge; a 1997 Lada Riva owned by Paul Sherwood. General Manager Chris Arnold takes a look at the car to see what can be done, before it is taken to the company's test track and thrashed around by test driver Gavan Kershaw to assess the car's performance. Russell Carr and his team then begin mocking up various ideas on what they wish to do to Paul's Lada, before the segment is halted so that The News can take precedence.

The News

^{Unabridged article: The News (4th December, 2002)}
Jeremy Clarkson begins the 8th installment of The News by talking about a parking ticket which football star Rio Ferdinand had recently received, wherein his Aston Martin Vanquish did not fit the designated lines in which one could park their car. Clarkson follows this up by recalling two humourous parking-related anecdotes that he had experienced, the latter of which was a "valet parking" system he had devised in times he was too drunk to drive his car home. The trio then briefly discuss the facelifted Citroën Berlingo Multispace, which Clarkson had previously reviewed in the first episode, before Jason Dawe tries to portray the Vauxhall Astra Turbo in a positive light, much to Clarkson's chagrin. Clarkson then reasserts whether or not the Audi TT is a cool car, where it's announced a 3.2 litre V6 model will soon be available in showrooms with a new transmission type called DSG, which basically entails two separate computer-controlled gearboxes acting as one. The presenters cannot comprehend how this transmission is supposed to function, so Clarkson hands the press release over to a member of the audience to see if he can understand it.

Fastest White Van Driver, Introduction

^{Unabridged article: Fastest White Van Driver}
Concluding The News, Clarkson thumbs through a massive stack of e-mail printouts, exclaiming that an overwhelmingly large amount of applicants wished to get on the show and participate in the episode's upcoming challenge, from which the production team ended up with 5 competitors after filtering out the "psychos". Clarkson then briefly interviews each van driver, asking them the van they drive and their taste in music, before deciding to root for Don, an older van driver from Kent with a penchant for Steely Dan.

Superminis

^{Unabridged article: Supermini Film}
In 2001, a third of all new cars sold in Great Britain were superminis, and Richard Hammond has decided to see if there is any to fun to be had with the current crop of these cars. The first car Hammond reviews is the Ford Fiesta, which he lambasts due to the design of the interior, although does complement the inclusion of air conditioning as standard. The Citroën C3 is next, and Hammond is more forgiving with this car, praising its funky looks, durability and comfortable ride, as well as its "personality". After the Citroën comes the Honda Jazz, which Hammond criticises due to its more MPV-like characteristics in addition to its steep price, in spite of various innovative design features and its popularity in Honda dealerships, which struggled to cope with consumer demand. The Jazz's immediate rival, the third generation Nissan Micra is next up, and Hammond mostly talks about the wide array of gadgets included on the car, such as climate control, automatic windscreen wipers, and reverse parking sensors, but does question whether these additions are excessive in a car such as the Micra. Finally, after all four of the previous cars failed to significantly impress Richard Hammond, the MG ZR is brought on to conclude the segment, which Hammond believes is the most like a 1980s supermini with its garish outwards appearance and sporty, visceral feeling. Hammond ends up favouring this car over its rivals.

Back in the studio, Hammond personally recommends the Jazz as an economy supermini (though Clarkson makes fun of the paint colour, Iris Red, which is a metallic shade of pink), and the ZR as a sporty one, which justifies its credentials by setting a 1:34 on a dry test track, 2 seconds faster than any of its rivals (though it is not specified which cars it beat).

Turning a Lada into a Lotus, Part Two

Back at the workshop, the team at Lotus Cars have 2 weeks to turn Paul Sherwood's Lada into a sports saloon. They replace the brake system, hand-craft a new exhaust and seats, repaint the car with Lotus black paint from the East Bilney Coachworks, and replace the knackered 35 horsepower engine with an otherwise-identical Fiat-sourced powerplant which has been modified to produce 180 horsepower, with Lotus bringing in Fiat & Lancia twin-cam expert Guy Croft. Elsewhere, the car's interior has received further upgrades in the form of a racing steering wheel, gear shifter, pedals, and instrumentation, and the exterior has been finished with BBS alloys and a silver pinstripe containing the hammer & sickle symbol of the Soviet Union. Sherwood is then brought in blindfolded before being shown his new car, much to Sherwood's amazement and disbelief, where Gavan Kershaw is more than willing to throw the tuned Lada around their test track with Sherwood as passenger. The resultant Lotus Lada easily powerslides around the course and is clearly proof that any car can be made sporty with the right amount of work.

Returning to the studio, Sherwood is made to grovel in front of the Lotus engineers who upgraded Paul's Lada with £100,000 worth of parts and labour for free.

Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car

^{Unabridged article: SIARPC}
This week's guest is not just a star, he's also a Knight of the British Empire; Michael Gambon. After briefly talking about his Ferrari (a 348, much to Clarkson's displeasure), Clarkson compliments Gambon for his work in the 2000 TV miniseries Longitude, which chronicled the life of clockmaker John Harrison. Much like Harrison, Gambon tinkers with clockwork but also flies his own aircraft, where he regales the audience with a humourous tale where he faked a heart attack in order to frighten another actor who was afraid of flying. He follows this up with another anecdote of a trick Hollywood actor Christian Slater does on the Pacific Coast Highway in order to steer his Volkswagen Beetle; by sitting in the middle of the car and shifting his body weight around, he is able to steer the car as though he were a set of aircraft rudders. Unfortunately, during his later appearance on the show, Slater was unable to corroborate Gambon's story.

Behind the wheel of the Liana, Gambon is clearly in unfamiliar territory, glancing at the gear shift and driving with an expression of gritted teeth. He comes close to clipping the tyre wall at the Follow-through, much to Clarkson's delight, but on the whole drives a conservative lap around the circuit until the final two corners. He runs wide at Bacharach Bend, forcing him onto the grass, before overzealously counter-steering and clipping the apex at Carpenters Corner, lifting the car onto two wheels. He crosses the line without further incident and sets a 1:55 in the wet:

Position	Star	Time	Track Conditions
6	Tara Palmer-Tomkinson	1:54	Dry
7	Ross Kemp	1:54	Wet
8	Michael Gambon	1:55	Wet
9	Jonathan Ross	1:57	"Dry" (Wet)
10	Harry Enfield	2:01	Dry

He places 8th overall, which although slow, isn't too bad given the weather conditions. During his off-track escapade, Gambon would clip a braking distance marker with the right side of the Liana, destroying a wing mirror. Prior to filming his lap, he also comically asked Clarkson if it were possible to flip it, without knowing that he would come close to doing so during the lap. Clarkson then informs Gambon that The Stig thought that out of all the guests who had driven up to this point, Gambon had the best appreciation of racing lines. He was also driven around the track by him in the RS 6.

Insider Dealing

^{Unabridged article: Insider Dealing}
Two and a half million cars were sold in the UK in 2002, a new record up by 80,000 in contrast to the year prior, with Ford in first place and GM/Vauxhall second overall, Peugeot third and a catfight developing for fourth between Volkswagen and Renault. Desperate to claim fourth place, Volkswagen are now selling some of their stock at 30% off regular retail price to try and shift some extra units. For instance, a Passat 2.0 S, which was normally £14,600, could instead be had for £11,900. Meanwhile, a northern Suzuki dealership has rung Top Gear and informed them that they are selling a fully-loaded Techno Blue Liana for £7,495, a further reduction from the last time the car was featured on Insider Dealing. Jason then goes on to talk about pre-registered cars, noting that Renault are selling pre-registered examples of their Scénic for £9,000, £3,500 below its normal price, and Ford are likewise selling pre-registered Focuses typically priced at £10,500 for just £7,995. Finally, the cheapest pre-registered car on the market as of December 2002 is the Fiat Punto Mia, available from just £4,995.

Maserati Coupé

^{Unabridged article: Maserati Coupé Film}
At one point in time, Jeremy notes, a Maserati was as desirable and unattainable as nylon or a banana. However, as the years have gone by, the Maserati name has gradually lost its prestige. Under the ownership of Ferrari, Maserati have slowly been gaining back their lost reputation, and Clarkson has decided to test drive their newest Coupé to see if it's as good as the cars from Clarkson's youth.

Admittedly, the car is not new; much of the body styling is derived from the earlier 3200 GT except with a tail light design that was less polarising than its predecessor. Under the bonnet, however, is a 4.2 litre V8 developing close to 400 BHP. Inside, the car is a proper 4-seater and is called the Cambiocorsa due to its paddle-shifter gearbox, which Clarkson holds in high disregard as he struggles to get the car going. However, the car does have a regular manual transmission option. Once on the track, Clarkson enables Sport mode, which softens the suspension up, and then turns off the traction control, which renders the car uncontrollable and very tail-happy. He states that the Coupé is the first car he has been unable to get around Hammerhead, and because of its poor handling, cannot consider it a driver's car. He postulates that it's instead supposed to be an Italian alternative to the Jaguar XK, except that the interior is lacking a certain "opulence" that the Jaguar possesses.

The Stig then takes the Coupé round for a lap in very cold, wet, and foggy conditions. Listening to "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow, The Stig has little difficulty in getting the car around the track in spite of the conditions, but the resultant lap is very slow:

Position	Car	Time	Track Conditions
7	Lotus Elise 111S	1:35	Wet
8	Ferrari 575M Maranello	1:35	Very Wet
9	Aston Martin V12 Vanquish	1:36	Very Wet
10	Maserati Coupé	1:38	Very Wet
11	Bentley Arnage T	1:40	Wet

Setting just a 1:38, the car is barely quicker in the wet than the much heavier Bentley Arnage, meaning it isn't a very good car on the whole.

Fastest White Van Driver

The episode's final segment picks up from earlier on, with the van drivers now at the Top Gear Test Track. Though they've brought their own vans to the airfield, they won't be needed as they will all be doing their laps in the Ford World Rally Transit, a promotional vehicle extensively modified by Ford to produce 200 brake horsepower and allegedly reach a top speed of 130 miles per hour, putting the van on par with the company's Mondeo ST200. Along with a stiffened suspension, stripped racing interior with instrumentation from the Focus World Rally Car and bespoke wheels custom-made by OZ, the WRT is no ordinary Transit.

The first of the van drivers to have a go in the Transit is John Wattrip, from the Royal Mail. He completes a rather uneventful lap whilst Hammond shares some banter with the rest of the drivers. Steve Hogan from Iceland is next, and his lap is more chaotic, shifting into the wrong gear and going off-road near the end of the lap, bending the front bumper bracket. Hammond notes that the day before the challenge was filmed, Hogan reversed his van into a police car, writing it off. Don's next, and he immediately stalls the van off the line before the driving the rest of the lap at a leisurely pace. Dale Millar is the penultimate driver to take the Transit round for a lap, and he drives very aggressively, puncturing the front right tyre on the outer embankment surrounding the start/finish line. With the van repaired, Roger the plumber is last out and like Dale, he drives very aggressively, cutting the corner at Chicago and causing the tyres to emit smoke.

Fastest White Van Driver Results

Position	Driver	Time	Notes
1	Dale	2:02	Awarded 1st place trophy by Dawe
2	Steve	2:03
3	Roger	2:05	"Heating Engineer"
4	John	2:09
5	Don	4:55	Got lost

Despite rooting for Don, he proved to be the slowest driver due to getting lost on the track. As a consolation prize, he was awarded pieces of Michael Gambon's smashed door mirror from the Suzuki Liana.

After that, Clarkson concludes the episode. He states that an episode will not air the following week due to the final of the 2002 UK Snooker Championship, but will return the week after.

Reception

Contemporary reception to the episode was generally positive on PistonHeads, with 8 positive reviews against 3 negative, averaging out at a score of 72.3%. This places the episode as the third highest-rated of the series of the 6 episodes that were reviewed by 10 or more users. On the whole, Series 1, Episode 8 was key in cementing Top Gear's future, as the Lada segment no doubt helped to inspire Cheap Car Challenges from Series 4 onwards. Furthermore, Gambon's mishap in the Liana became an integral part of Top Gear lore, with the corner being renamed in his honour.

FinalGear

On FinalGear, Series 1, Episode 8 was received in a lukewarm manner, likely due to episodes which aired later, placing joint-fortieth in the FinalGear Best Episode Poll held from 2004 - 2006 to determine the best episodes of Top Gear at the time. The episode received just 1 of the 231 votes cast.

Reviews

Speaking in August 2010, Estonian critic Kadri Umbleja remarked that she felt the episode was good, but not up to the calibre that she was expecting. Umbleja held particular regard for the Fastest White Van Man challenge, in addition to Michael Gambon's lap, but was not as impressed by the car review segments. One moment Umbleja enjoyed in particular was Clarkson's car park woes he told during The News.

Retrospective Reception

From a retrospective point of view, this episode is perhaps the only episode from Series 1, barring the pilot, which is significantly remembered in any capacity. On IMDb, the episode currently holds a weighted average score of 7.3/10 from 223 votes, a score it maintains even when outliers are removed to account for rating bombs and the score subsequently adjusted to reflect this. In addition, the score balances out to a 6.8 arithmetic mean, with a 7/10 median score. On Ratingraph, the episode is ranked 176th out of the 226 episodes listed as of November 2021.

Topgearbox Poll

In September 2015, Series 1, Episode 8 would be voted as the 85th greatest Top Gear episode of all time.

Airing history

^{For a concise, detailed report on this episode's international airing history, see Airing history.}
As Top Gear was not yet as successful as it would eventually become, broadcasts of this episode were very limited, especially in its original 59 minute form. In addition, after the later success of host James May, episodes from Series 1 would become undesirable and as a result, would be pulled from the BBC World Sales Catalogue after 2009. This was likely due to the fact there were now more than 100 other episodes available for syndication.

United Kingdom

Series 1, Episode 8 would premiere on BBC Two on the night of the 8th December, 2002. Unlike later episodes of Top Gear, the episode would not be repeated following its initial airing, though it would be edited down into a 45 minute version by Red Bee Media for usage on UKTV channels such as UK Horizons, where the episode began airing approximately 2 weeks after its premiere on BBC Two.

Worldwide

Internationally, the episode would first premiere on BBC World on New Year's Day 2003, 3 weeks after its UK release, although some regions wouldn't receive the episode until the end of January. It would then be shown in the Netherlands on Veronica from the 14th of November, 2003, 11 months later, before appearing on BBC Prime at the end of December 2004, and then the likes of TVN Turbo in Poland and NTV in Russia during 2005, the latter in a similarly cut-down form to how the episode was shown on BBC World. The episode would be reshown in a handful of countries thereafter, but would not premiere in many Baltic and Balkan nations such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Estonia until as late as mid-2009, a full six and a half years after the episode was first shown in the United Kingdom.

Further reading

This article is intended serve as a basic summation of all the content depicted within Series 1, Episode 8, and deliberately omits or abridges certain details in order to ease reading comprehension and reduce overall page length.
For a fully detailed, in-depth analysis of this episode, please visit Top Gear (2002 TV series)/Series 1/Episode 8/Unabridged.