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Tonight, a member of parliament in our reasonably priced car, a nice relaxing smoke in a new Aston Martin, and a mad Jag gone bare. Hello. Now, we got a bit of a Jaguar theme tonight. Later on, I'll be looking at the new XJ, but look what we've got in the hanger. This is the R coupé. It's the only one in the world. And honestly, have you ever seen such a beautiful car? No. Neither have I. But then, strictly speaking, it isn't actually a car. It's a concept. It's a one-off. It's a flight of fancy. Jaguar built it to show the world where they're going. But we start tonight on our track with where they came from.
1953. What a top year for being British. We climbed Everest. We broke the 4-minute mile and we raced this Jaguar Sea Type at Lamont. This was the first car to lap the Lemon circuit at an average speed of more than 100 miles an hour. But the really interesting thing is that the bloke driving was totally and UTTERLY DRUNK. His name was Duncan Hamilton. He and co-driver Tony Rol qualified for the 53 Lemon, but were then disqualified on a technicality.
Hamilton went into town. He found a local bar and he got hogwimperingly bladdered. Trouble is, the race organizers then decided that he could race after all. So, now we have the world's hilarious car on the start line of the world's most grueling endurance race. At the wheel is the world's most plastered racing driver. And guess what happened? He won. This set the tone for Jaguar cars for roers, for CADs, for absolute bounders. Do you know that has to be about my favorite ever motor racing story. It's I know what you mean. I know honestly. And the my favorite part of it was first few pit stops when they were refueling the car, they were giving the driver
Duncan Hamilton. They were giving him black coffee and he was going, "No, no, no, no. This is making me all jittery." So in the second half they were giving him brandy. SO TOPPING HIM UP, fill the car up with fuel. Fill him up with brandy. Send him off again. And apparently it went on because later in the race, you know, there's no windcreen on that thing at all. 130 mph bird. I bet he never noticed. Carry on. Oh, what was that? Oh, no. Hanging in tatters. No, I'm not giving up. And the thing is, Jaguar carried on in that spirit because then in the 60s they had this, the Mark 2. It was glamorous enough for David Bailey and yet gental enough for Inspector Morse and still fast enough for London's villains.
Let me show you one feature, one little detail that sums up the impact the M2 had when it arrived in 1959. [snorts] I'm not talking about the beautiful grill or that long bonnet or the wire wheels. It's back here. It's this badge. Dunlop disc brakes. And no, it wasn't just Jaguar showing off. You see, these were the same disc brakes that had brought them victory at Le. And Jaguar were worried that because they stopped the M2 so quickly, memortals might just pile into the back. That might sound twe today, but back in 1959, this technology was mindblowing. Good enough, in fact, to put the M2 in a league of its own.
Today, Jaguar may be locked in a constant struggle with its German rivals, BMW, Mercedes, and Audi. But let's look at how the competition stacked up back then. This is the Mercedes, a 220 saloon. M [snorts] racy. This is the BMW 2000. It's getting there, but power-wise, it's still very much in short trousers. And this is the Audi. They really weren't trying at all. They hadn't even bothered to exist in 1959. But not only did the M2 drive better than everything else, it also looked better than everything else. Quite a tricky double whammy to pull off. Even
more so when you consider that in 1959, Jaguar didn't even have a styling department. There were no professional style gurus employed to draw these glorious shapes. So William Lions, Jaguar's founder, would in the day work in the office, doing the paperwork, running the company, and then of summer's evening, he'd work on the prototypes here in his garden using the light, just looking to see how it fell on these gorgeous curves. And best of all, the head gardener of the time says that all the local boys and girls would line up along that wall and just peep over and watch him work. The 3.8 could hit 60 mph in 8 1/2 seconds. That was faster than all the Germans, faster than many of the purpose-built sports cars of the day,
faster even than some modern S-type jacks. And best of all, it was accessible because it was so cheap. In fact, if you take into consideration just changing fashions, it wasn't the Jaguar of its time at all. It was the Subaru Impresser. An Aston Martin DB4 came in at 3,200 quid with 300 brake horsepower, but you could have a M2 Jaguar 3.8 contained with 220 brake horsepower for 1,600 quid. Some people didn't even pay that much because the M2 was the car of choice for Britain's villainous getaway drivers. Roy James, who was the great train robbers getaway driver, was very particular about his Jag Moss. He'd always steal a 3.4 rather than a 3.8
just cuz he preferred the handling. Not a lot of people know that. The M2 ran for most of the 60s, but by 1968 it was all over. And not such a bad thing really, cuz by then Jaguar had been swallowed up by British land. And predictably, the BL Monster was doing its bit to screw up everything. So, it had its 8-year run like most cars, but for me, it remains the ultimate Jaguar. It wasn't the first time they'd used this kind of design or this engine, but as a package, the MK2 became the definitive Jaguar saloon. It might not have the ultimate knockout glamour of the E type, but the way we look at Jaguars today as fast, affordable, classy sports saloons was defined by this car.
You know, I like the MK2 hugely, but I didn't really get into Jaguar until they launched the supercharged version in 1994. That's right. There's nothing more sinister than a black XJR. Hannibal Lectar had one and he was sinister and I had one. But you're quite sinister. [snorts] And the great thing was is that if you parked it outside a post office while you were away, you always got the sense that it was in there robbing the place or eating the post mistress. But the lect has gone finished. This is the new XJ. This is the Jaguar saloon for the 21st century. And we'll be looking at it a bit later on. But now it's the news, right? Um, we start tonight with some Vauxhall news which will be of interest
to these two chaps because you've got an Astra diesel. What is he doing here? And he's got a Verra and not even the new one. Theory me. Anyway, we have managed to secure a photograph of next year's Astra. Who'd like to see what it looks like? No, not really. Not one. You would like to see me. Okay, fair enough. No, it is nice. It's unbeliev It'll never look anything like that at all. I thought that. So I rang Vz all up and I said, "Look, is it really going to look like that?"
He said, "Yes, if it doesn't, can I eat your dog?" And he said, "Yeah, okay. You can eat my dog. I promise you the three door Astra, apart from the back end, which will be a little bit different, will look like that." That's fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. Can I show you something interesting? Have a look at this. Okay, it's a Ferrari clearly. And this stripe is what we're interested in for the moment. Reading down this options list, how much do you reckon this costs? Well, I have it painted on. If you buy just the red car, but you want it as an extra from the options list that I have here.
1500 for a bit of paint. 2,000. I'll tell you 3,643 quid for a stripe. Seriously. 3,6 bargain says the man with the extra diesel. Extra diesel. This is the Stradala, which if I can explain, it's taken from they have a championship race where they these compete. This is the roadgoing version of the race car. So, it costs 30 grand more. It's £130,000, but it's lighter, it's lower, they firm up the suspension, lower the center of gravity, more power, about 425 brake horsepower, uh, naugh to 62 in 4.1 seconds. And it has got paddle shift. And before you bleed about like flappy gearboxes, it's actually quite good in that.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, everyone. Have you driven this car? I have. And what happened when you drove this car? Well, I crashed it. Tell the nice ladies and gentlemen about what happened. Well, I was going around a corner and the next minute I went around lots and lots of corners very quickly. It was span it several times. Actually, this is why it's called the F360, this model. Drive along and you go and then you do a 360. You know, you could be right. Um, I've got news. When Rover MG bought itself from BMW for a tenner a few years ago, they made some fairly
bold claims about what they were going to do. They said they were going to I've got a list of it here. They said they were going to have a new 45 by 2003. They said they were going to have a V8 engine in a ZT. They said there was going to be an SV supercar. They said they were going to make a space shuttle. Yeah. Space station. Yeah. Well, they were going to build a space shuttle to get to the rover space station. Rover space station would be fab actually, wouldn't it? It would be dark metallic green and it would have a grill on that would
sort of appear every 24 hours as it rotated and a really nice clock somewhere. Just thinking of the idea of RA launching something tusc it's 3:30 now we're knocking off m we'll do the launch in the morning. Um anyway no rover space station no supercar that we've been able to see. No Rover 45s. They've not annexed China or bought India or all the things they said they were going to do. But what they have done and I've got a photograph of it here is launched some hoops for the MG. Check it out. Yeah. You now buy those hoops which uh will cost you £280 inclusive of the AT or if you want them attached to the car, £339. Right. Reliability studies. We love these because No, we do because they tell us not uh you know which is the fastest n to 60 but which cars break
down and why. This is a good one. It's by a company called I think reliabilityindex.com possibly isn't the best of starts but this makes interesting reading. Here's their most reliable cars from their extensive survey work. Their top 10 goes as follows. Number one, Mazda. Fair point. Yeah, Mazdas are reliable. Anyone got a Mazda? Yeah. Does it ever break down? No. There you go. MX5 goes forever. Uh then in second place, Ford. I suppose nowadays if anyone got a Ford, does it ever break down?
Some do, some don't. Anyway, the second most reliable car. I think this reliability index gets a bit weak here. Third most reliable make of car. Fiat. I mean, then it's got, you know, Honda, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Toyota, BMW, Volvo, all the people expect. But in third place, Fiat. What have they got as being the most unreliable car? Well, this is good fun because according to them, the second least reliable make, least reliable make is Subaru. They don't GO WRONG. THEY'RE THE MOST RELIABLE CARS IMAGINABLE. I have never
in how long I've been doing this. 15 years. I've never had a letter from a Subaru owner ever saying my Subaru broke down. So that No. What was number one? What's the most unreliable car according to them? Toyota. It could be. I bet it's something Toyota and Niss. Jeep. Oh, Jeep was one. Yeah. Do you want that? Absolute rubbish. Well, this is interesting. a brochure about the opening of a new car park in Le Qark is not only changing the way people park but also the way they think about parking.
You don't. It gets better. Parking provides a vital link in the mobility chain. It does. You stop your car. An end in itself. Well, you don't just go out to do some parking. Darling, have a nice day. Oh, that's bad. I've been invited to the opening of this car park indeed. Yeah, I have to say I'm very disappointed in it because when I joined Top Gear, I thought, here we go. French film festival, Christristen. No, I've been invited to the opening of a car park and it says, "Yes, please. I would
like to come to the opening of the car park. I will be arriving A by car, B on foot." So, anyway, I rang them up and I said, "I'd like to come in the car. Will they be parking? Last week, if you remember, we launched our search for rubbish cars. Well, not rubbish cars, cars that have been ruined. If you remember, people have just done stupid things. Got a good example that's been sent in to give you an idea what we're looking for. Started life as a Volvo. Okay, sensible car. I've actually seen this car in real life. Look at that.
What? He's welded half a wheelie into it. Where on earth were you? When I saw that on the M4, there was a trail of traffic all trying to look not just at the car but at the idiot that did that to it. So, um, if that's you or if you've done anything like that to your car or you know anybody else who has, please drop us a line to I'm a clot and I've ruined my car, BBC Top Gear, London, Wales, W12, Scotland. Um, now in a couple of weeks we're having a bit of a theme to the show which is track days. So what we're looking for is people who've been videoing themselves or their friends going around the track when they made a complete holix of it and crashed. If
you've got any tapes like that, do send them to us. Usual address, top gear, London W12, England, Wales, Scotland, is of man, Northern Ireland, Beric. Now, when I hosted Have I Got News for You last year, seven people telephoned the BBC to say I was a very poor presenter. When my guest tonight hosted it, 85 people rang up and said he was an excellent presenter. He is the Conservative MP for Henley. He's editor of The Spectator, and it seems he's 92 times better than me at hosting topical news quizzes. Ladies and gentlemen, Boris Johnson,
how are you? Good to see you. How is he? Thank you. This Have I Got News for you, Malarkey. Yes, it is tricky, isn't it? Very tricky. I mean, tricky for me at least. Anyway, but it was tricky. It was trying to remember which bit you were supposed to be looking at any given time. I think Angus Deon earned his money. I think they should bring back Angus. Well, we all Who thinks we should bring back Angus? They should bring back. Not bring back hanging, but bring back Angus.
Yeah. The thing I've got to find out though really is most politicians far as I can work out are pretty incompetent and then have a veneer of competence. Yeah, you do seem to do it the other way round. Yes. Or you can't rule out the possibility, you know, beneath the elaborately constructed veneer of a, you know, blithering idiot there lurks of blithering idiot. Well, which is it? Are you No, of course not. No, no, no, no. My dear fellow, what's this about you driving a tractor through a barn then?
Yes, it's perfectly true that um this is a long time ago. U I'm you know if you ever driven a tractor very fast. No. Um nobody has. Well, this was actually rather a fast by my standards. Massie Ferguson tractor had a great many very complicated gears and at the crucial moment I couldn't remember which gear was the one you use when you wanted to slow down. And I just a sort of blankness descended and I went out through the back of the barn and um through the wall. Yeah. And anyway, it was all right in the end.
They docked my pay uh where I was working. But so it was perfectly easy to replace the wall. So it could have been you were what were you a tractor driver then? Part-time. Yeah. Part-time tractor driver. And now you write about cars. I do. Well, I do, but I you know, Jeremy, I'm I'm I sit at your feet in the terms of, you know, writing about cars. Anyway, I'm, you know, like East feasting at the, you know, some scraps from the rich banquet of Homer. Yeah. Well, that's a sort of thing. That's something that goes down big on Top Gear. That's a good thing.
It is a good thing. Yeah, because I mean I do enjoy your It's in GQ magazine, your motoring column. It's It is very good. It's very I don't know anything about as you know very you know I don't really know. I shouldn't say that actually. I do know I know more than I Can I just share a little observation that Boris made about the Maserati here? Look how much has been crammed in. The great big fat long things. The vast dudah with the squiggly bits coming out of the Just look at those sucking fat.
Now, I do think I do. What do you really know your stuff though about cars? Absolutely no idea. Yeah. I No. Genuinely, I have no idea how an engine works. People have sat me down and said, "No, no, no. The petrol goes in." Do you know? No. Not the faintest. No. And then there's pistons go up and down and somehow you go along. How does that happen? He'll know. Look, he's got a beard and a rover. You'll know everything there is to know about it. It is a miracle. But I am I'm a very keen cyclist unlike you. I think you're I loathe. And you talk on a mobile phone while you're doing it.
No, you do. I do. Yeah, I do. No, the when I said no, I wanted to make a point about the my willingness to learn and to reform because it's perfectly true that I did once talk on a mobile phone [snorts] um whilst cycling and actually why shouldn't you be able to talk on a mobile phone? Because you can't reach the brakes. You can with one hand. Oh, no. I have this exact same. Are you saying that people with only one arm shouldn't be allowed to ride a bicycle? Are you Because that I put it to you. That is you know that's that's discriminatory.
Yes. People with one arm should not be allowed to ride a bicycle on the basis that What do you mean? No one should be allowed to ride a bicycle. They take up too much space on the road and they don't pay to be there. No. Well, I think bicycles are absolutely wonderful. You wouldn't park in a cycle lane. Would you park in one? You wouldn't park in a No, but I do drive in them fairly regularly. You drive in cycles? Yeah. Bus lanes. I think the bus lane is a very good idea for you. Yeah. Because you think everyone's not in this. Fantastic. I'm late. I'll just zoom up.
I don't know. Is it Are you allowed to say that on Teddy? I just did. whether it gets I defy the makers of Top Gear to keep that admission in, you know, in the final edit. Well, now we're not a bit of a challenge until Sunday night. We're not going to know whether it makes it into the final edit or not. What? That I drive in bus lanes. Who here drives in bus lanes? One or two. Exactly. There's only three of us who drive in bus lanes. They're empty FOR I USED TO. SO, WHAT'S IT like on the road? Are you the kind of guy that has your car towed
away the whole time? Uh, it has been towed away now and then. Yeah, it has been turned away. I wouldn't hide it from you. But I have to say the last time it happened, it was in defiance of every bylaw. It was my car was legally parked. There was absolutely no question. And I had the testimony of two traffic wardens that it was legally parked in a resident's permit parking bay. Mhm. But the point I want to make is that once your car, do you know this? Once your car has one inch off the ground once it's in that dreadful hammock and they've got it, it is no longer yours. You have no rights
over that vehicle anymore. You There's nothing you can say to the chat the tower. I have a theory on that. Who'd like to hear my theory on that? Yeah. I think if you leapt onto the bonnet as it was dangling around and you got one wheel down onto the top. No. Health and there's no way in hell that a health and safety law is going to allow you to be swing. They'll have to put it back down again. I'm sure of that. Now, of course, you're here really to find out just how good a driver you are, I guess.
Yes, I have an idea about that. I don't really How good a driver do you think you are? Extremely bad. Really? Yeah. Extremely bad. Who'd like to see Boris's lap? Here we go. Well, that was a start. It's already been made clear to me by my coach. Stig, I'm the worst driver he's ever met. You got to aim for the apex. Aim Well, there we are across the line.
Don't feel bad about the off-road excursion there. Was it uncomfortable? No, it was fine. It was a very good car, the Lana. It is a very good car. Very reasonably priced. I think you can buy them now for about 25p on that one for sure. Now, where do you think you're going to come here? Do you think you're going to be up with JK and Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay or you going to be more a Jonathan Ross, Harry Enfield? I think I'm towards the if not the very last. I mean, I have no idea what No, you couldn't be slower than Harry Edfield.
Well, you know, I don't I have no idea. I have not. He's He's terrified someone's going to come one day and be slower than But he's only 12 13 seconds slower than JK, isn't he? 13 seconds on that track is about four years. Real time. Anyway, I have your time here. You did it in 1 minute. 56 seconds, everybody. He's faster than Jonathan Ross. Ladies and gentlemen, Boris Johnson, Right, the new Jaguar XJ. Now, it looks well, it looks exactly the same as the old Jaguar XJ. Seriously, that can't have been a difficult day for them in the design office, can it? Really? What are
we gonna do for the new Jag? Well, I quite like the old one, actually. We'll do that. But in fact, it's bigger. And that means you get a lot of stuff you didn't get on the old XJ. Things like room in the back for full-size people. You all right there? Comfortable? Good. Actually, I've got to say, I never really noticed that as a big problem for some reason, but apparently there wasn't much space. You also get for the first time in an XJ a proper sized boot that you can get stuff in. Comfy. Yeah, very. But despite all of this, despite being bigger, it manages to be a fifth of a ton lighter than the previous XJ. And that's because the new one is made of aluminium. And a lighter car is going to be nimler. It's going to be
faster, more economical, and of course, kinder to the environment. The thing is though, the old XJ, the one that I couldn't fit in the boot of, that was made of lead and rock and like churches. So it was like a big velvet glove. pick you up at the end of a hard day at work and then gently deposit you at home. Now, this one, lighter, more high-tech. What worries me is that some of the jaguariness will have been lost. So, to find out, I designed a cunning test. Because Jaguars are supposed to ease the burden of travel, I thought I'd see how far I could go in the new one before I got bored and tired and irritable.
There are so many things that usually annoy me on a motorway, like people in Mondo's registration number 134 LWR who sit in the middle lane for no reason. But there is fun stuff, too. Well, here we are in Birmingham and I must say it's very nice of Bosch to advertise the program like that. So far as the car's concerned, however, I've nothing to report. It's fine. M the M6 all solid. If I were in a Mercedes, I'd be Come on. Come on, everybody. Get out of the way. in the Jag. I'm relaxed. So, they have an accident in road works and they're not even doing any road works. And ordinarily, that would annoy
me, but I'm not bothered. Eventually, I broke free from the obstacle course that is Birmingham and found the supercharged Jag has lost none of its superchargedness. The extraordinary thing about this is that whether you're doing 50 or 70 or even a little bit more than that, there's no difference in how it feels or sounds. It's amazing. This is Staffordshire now. Voted recently in a survey by Country Life magazine as the worst county in all of England. But they won't have looked at the important things like the quality of the slip roads going into motorway service
stations. And on that front, Stafford services is in a class of its own. And here we go. Looking good. Break hard. [snorts] Good brakes. Turn in. Hug the apex all the way around. Let it run wide. The air suspension working overtime here. keeping us flat and level into the head. And here we are coming up to the pit. Phew, what a lap. Can't believe how light this door is. You know those um little tights cars that all kids have? The red ones with the yellow roof door. That's what this feels like. Let's watch this. Sorry.
Still, it should pay dividends where it matters here. One of the worst things about the old Jag was filling it up used to all the time. This though going in smoothly so far. That's a big improvement. Out of the services, it was time for another jam. And guess what was at the other end of it? Chesher. I'm not sure that the Jag will play well here. I don't think it's bonnet is onyx enough. If you are interested in aesthetics, a bit of advice, you've got to either have a Sport or the XJR like I've got here because if you buy the SE, you get the worst radiator grill in the world. And S's the wheels are too narrow on them, so they look pinched like Joyce Grenful.
Except not just pinch, they've also got that silly grill. So, tell you what is nice. They must have been tempted to kind of go with the Conra Kevlar interior, but they've stuck with the wood and the leather. And even though the car is much bigger, you still feel hemmed in. You know, big tall center console and it's just nice. Feels like you're driving around in an idam. Now time for the traditional motorway travelers smogers board double decker. Well, that's the trouble with eating a double-decker. Bits of it fall off and go in your lap.
Let's try a twirl boost with guano. Oh, got it. New chunky Kit Kat Twix. Another old favorite. M. That's very good. That was a delicious lunch. Very much looking forward to my tea. William Hey once said to me that I was the sort of person who thought that the Lake District got in the way of the M6. It does. I mean, we have to go around all these corners just because of these silly lumps. It is pretty though. I hate car journeys. They're so mindcrossingly boring. But after 6 hours and 330 mi in the Jag, I was still relaxed, no matter what the irritation.
This is radio one. Now, normally that's like having a rusty screwdriver shoved into the side of your head. And I don't know, today it's fine. I mean, listen to this chap. He wants to slap his hoe. Why not? Good luck to you, fella. Let's try radio 4. Society has not always valued originality. Should we consider Oh, it's Melvin Bragg's philosophy show. plagiarist. To what extent is originality about perception rather than conception and is originality a concept without meaning today with not quite with you there I don't really understand your question and cultural theory at Cardiff University. So this is Glasgow and I'm still feeling fresh. I shall plow on.
Glad I did because in Scotland the Jag got even better. When I was on the motorway, it felt like a big comfortable cruiser like a 7 series BMW. But now the [snorts] motorway network has finished and it's all gone twisty and curly. It seems to have shrunk. I would swear that I was driving a car the size of a 3 series BMW. This is what we want. A car that soothes away the monotony of the motorway and then sticks its hand down the front of your trousers when the road gets curly, which it has done. The old XJR drank fuel like a space shuttle, but this one had brought me from Stafford to the Scottish Highlands on one tank.
Just I'm now playing what I like to call fuel light bingo. The rules are very simple. You let the fuel light come on. Then you let the needle go all the way through the red until it's bent like that round the bottom of the gauge. Then when you see a sign saying services 1 mile and 27 mi, go for the furthest one away. And when you get there, go past that one, too. If you win, you make it home. The next day, your wife drives your car and she fills it up for you. I think it's a great game. My wife doesn't like it very much, but I think it's brilliant. If you lose, you run out of petrol. When I finally coughed into a village
shop that sold petrol from one of Robert Louis Stevenson's old pumps, it turned out the Jag had done 22.7 MPG. Not bad for a supercharged 4.2 a 2 L V8. Oh dear, I seem to have run out of country. Still, this time of night should be quite a nice trip back. What's the verdict then, Jeremy? Well, I still like the fuse bar best of all. Uh, I tried that boost with Guana. It was like a double-decker. It just sort of crumbles down. You arrive with brown all melted.
Jeremy, you're not the car. Thank you. Oh, the verdicts on the car. Well, it's very good. Yes. And at £58,000 for that XJR, it's also extremely good value for money. That's a lot less than you pay for the equivalent BMC or Audi. Mhm. What's your favorite in the range? Uh the 4.2 SE. It's the most Jaguar. Yeah. Yours? Well, I'm not saying it's my favorite, but I just the entry level of the 3 L V6, which about 39. Yep. I think that's perfectly acceptable car. It is. But that's honestly I wafted up to John Gross, turned around and wafted back again. No backache, wasn't tired, wasn't stressed. It's a very good car.
The only thing I didn't like about it was the air suspension. And we're seeing this more and more on big cars nowadays. The old XJ used to glide around at low speeds, but with air suspension, it just can't absorb bumps when it's going slowly like the old one. So, you sort of crash into things. And we hope air suspension goes away very soon and takes with it those flappy gearboxes. Yes, obviously. Right. The cool wall, crucial point. Uh where's it going to go now? Black XJR. Where is it going? I think we've kind of proven. Cool. Is Yeah. Do you know I think it's bordering on super I think it could be so super blackjr it's there Jeremy it's also getting higher I'm not even going to go there this week I can't
be bothered then the rest of the range does have a problem I can you do it for us exactly like that isn't that uncanny that's incredible that is the most Isn't that a dreadful grill is a disaster Say yes, Jeremy. I have found a dealer who for 250 quid, that's uh 250 quid, will put you the XJR grill on any XJ. Really? That kind of admits it's wrong, but I reckon if it's got that standard grill on, I'm afraid, with the Jeremy's face grill on it. That's um that's uncool. Sorry. Just such a small thing spoils it. Exactly. Now, would you buy the Jag in preference to anything else? Um yeah, I'm a Jagman. Yes.
Yeah. So would I. You. Well, I definitely wouldn't buy the 7 series BM. No, it's too ugly. Audi AA isn't quite there yet. Slass Mercedes merchant banker. Yeah, very much a merchant banker's car. So, yeah, I would have the Jag. But there is one slight problem. In a few weeks, we're going to be running a road test of this. It's the new Volkvaren Feton and I suspect that this will put a large German fly in Jaguar's ointment. Now then, Hammond, do you have 585,000 to spend on a new XJR? Cuz I don't. No, you don't. Well, this is inside a dealing where we've got more sense than money. And I found that the original XJR, now this is the 1994
one, the first supercharged one, six cylinders, but still a very nice car. Possibly a bit more raw than the 8-cylinder ones as well. essentially like this but with different wheels. I found one 70,000 miles in black. Very Hannibal less than £8,000. They are a tempting buy. But you're going to say, "Well, I'm I've just got a slight reservation on them. My worry is always this. Buy one by all means. It's a great car. It'll look like this. You'll be very happy." And I've nearly done this a couple of times. At the wheel about to buy it, bear in mind it will lose money and never stop losing money. You pay eight grand for one now, that'll be half next year and the year after until you got to pay somebody a grand to take it
away. I'm not saying don't buy one. I think they're fantastic. But buy one in the knowledge that you're going to have to keep it cuz it'll lose its value. Car supermarkets. Do you remember when these started? They tended to be full of three-year-old ex- rental cars and fleet stuff and it was, you know, boring. A bit shabby. Yeah. And a bit worn out. All of a sudden, these are full of really fantastic new car deals. Now, I'll explain why this is. If you're a main dealer, you have to take a certain allocation of cars off your manufacturer or importer. That's part of the deal of
being a dealer. As we know, this year is not such a good year for car sales. They've got too much stuff. Now, they don't want to put them on the forcourt at a discounted price because it looks bad and in the long term, it'll be bad for business. So, what they're doing is they're quietly shoving them into the car supermarkets and they're bargains. Now, how about a Range Rover? Not the new one, I'm afraid. The previous model, the very boxy one. It was a 50 grand car, but it's only 30,000. That's the start. Yeah, it's not bad, is it? And it's still a new car. It's not the completely new. It just hasn't been sold yet. That's a good buy. But that's rubbish compared with this. I love this one. The Alfa Romeo
166. When was the last time anybody actually saw one of those on the road? You don't. But it's a really elegant car. Absolutely fabulous. It looks terrific. The inside is fantastic. It makes a great noise. It's Italian. All the rest of it. Now, these are in car supermarkets. Let's take the 2 L twin spark model. This has a list price of £20,750. I've seen it for less than 13. Okay. Oh, that is a saving. That is a fantastic saving. But here's a better one. The 2.5 L V6 model.
This is the quad cam engine. Generally acknowledged to be one of the finest engines in the history of the Italian car. This car would retail at 24,250. I found it for less than 15. Less than the list price of a Focus diesel. It's focus money. It's an elegant car. That is a very good bike. Absolutely fabulous. This is the ultimate underground car. It's called the Jaguar XKRR. It's lowered. It's got racing seats, racing seat belts. There's somewhere in there to put your helmet. It's got enormous wheels. It's got exhausts by Matrix
Churchill. It's a concept, but unlike the Arupe that we saw at the start of the show, this one actually works. Unlike any XK that's gone before, this one has a manual gearbox and you can do 58 mph in first. They've also changed the rear suspension, which was always an XK Achilles heel. In fact, they've changed the entire rear end and fitted a limited slip dip, If you try to do this in a normal XK, you'd spin. But this just grips and goes. It's a cat. Don Ferrell. I love this car, but sadly they can't put it into production because Jaguar has a sister company, Aston Martin, and this would jump up and down all over Aston's new car, the DB7 GT.
This shape has been with us for 10 years now, but neither time nor Aston's misguided attempts to improve it with new wheels and flared sills have managed to ruin it. [bell] For the GT, they've really gone mad. There's a new boot lid with a sort of spoiler on the end of it. There are lumps on the bonnet with louvers and there's a new radiator grill. Now, all these things are terrible, but look at it this way. When Shan Connory grew a beard, my wife still fancied him. Inside, you still get a handmade feel. When I close the center console lid, for instance, the ashtray opens and this window doesn't close properly. So, once
you're going more than, say, 50 mph, you get a little squeak of wind noise. Mind you, that's not the most annoying sound that the Aston makes. and stop this bong by closing the door, but then when you turn the ignition on, you get a new bong. It's presumably for the American market. Remind them that they're in a car. Actually, you couldn't sell this to an American. You wouldn't fit. I mean, I don't. There's nowhere for my left leg. There's nowhere for my head. You have to remember that underneath everything, this is basically a Jaguar XJS. It's a 30-year-old design. And how much are they charging for all this? £14,000.
It's time, therefore, to tuck the DB7 up in bed with a nice mug of cocoa and let Jaguar make that brilliant XKR instead. Except for one tiny detail. This GT version is not just a cynical marketing exercise. It's not just a beard to cover up the wrinkles. What it is amazing. It may be cramped, old, and expensive, but it is epic fun. The old DB7 was never that much cop to drive, but in this, they've been through it with a fine tooth comb, changing just about everything. rear wishbones, damper settings. They've
stiffened up the bushes at the front. And I cannot tell you, I cannot stress enough just how much of an improvement it is. It's not just better than the old DB7. I don't know of any other car which offers such an intoxicating blend of grip, handling, and surprisingly ride comfort. Oh, and there's something else in the mix as well. power. God, it's fast. The 6 L V12 is more powerful than you get in a normal DB7. And then there's its party peaks. Let me show you something.
I'm going to stop, put it into fourth gear, and off we go. Sets off five in fourth. Foot hard down. And we're now going 40 mph, 50 mph. 60 mph. 70 80 really into its stride now. 90 100 Really gathering pace. Still in fourth. I haven't changed. 120 130 mph. 135. We're on the rev limiter. That's naugh to 135 in one gear. For the last few years, the DB7's been an aging rocker, still trying to cut it in a coldplay MP3 world of Porsche 911s and Foo Fighter Ferraris. But now, thanks to a cocktail of Botox
and Viagra, it's up there with the best of them. What a car. I know. The thing is, I really don't like all these sort of bumps and louvers they put on it. So, I had a wizard we like Boris Johnson has. Anyway, what you should do, buy a used DB7 V12. Okay. Take it to Aston Martin and I've checked they can do this. They will put the GT suspension stuff on it and then you can have one of these. They'll even do the engine as well if you want. I mean, that's brilliant. Yeah. So, how much does that cost then Jerry? Well, used DB7s are around about I don't know 60. get a good one and then uh 10 to 12,000 for the suspension and another
10 though you don't really need it for the engine. That's brilliant. Is that your idea of a used car tip? So what you've done is take a really expensive car and turn it into well it's still a really expensive car. It's 80 grand. It's all part of the Top Gear service as of course is our lap. So it's time to pump up the ST. See how fast he can make it go round. So away you go. Oh, lots of wheel spin there. And up to the first corner. 6 L V12 working hard. Stigy's in a mellow mood I think today. Now down to Chicago. Last week we had the Alpena Z8. It was rubbish on the road. Set a blistering time round our track. The Aston probably going to be the other way around. Look at it in the hammerhead. It's that soft
suspension makes it so good on the road. Oh, that is really mad driving from the stick. Not sure it's going to be fast here. That's what worries me. That is very fast through the follow down to the penultimate bend. Sliding all over the place. Oh, Sting. Come on. Up to Gamble. Lurching in several different directions here. And across the line in 1 minute 30.4 seconds. That's actually very quick. And you know what? Aston Martin reckoned it would have gone even quicker, but it had a full tank of fuel and that slowed it up a bit. But that puts it there. It's faster than an Audi S4 just behind the AS1 and behind the Alpena. But I don't care because as road cars go, that's one of the best I've driven in years. Now,
who'd like to see the XKR do a lap? So would we. Trouble is, since I drove it, it's been back to Jaguar, and for reasons I don't fully understand, they've been fiddling with the rear suspension. So, when we rang them up and said, "Can we have it back for the Stig to do a lap?" They said, "Well, yes, but it's handling at the moment like a greasy weasel." And they said they didn't think the Stig would want to drive it in that state. And they probably have a point. He wouldn't have done if we'd have told him. Here he comes now down the first corner getting himself all Oh, look at already.
Come on, St. Try to stay with it. And that's a full 360 from the ST across the line backwards. Good old ST now. on that multidirectional bombshell. I'm afraid we've got to go, but we'll see you next week. Good night. Bye.
