Top Gear

Tonight... Richard drives a new Lamborghini.

James and I go on a caravan holiday.

And a rock god is in our Reasonably Priced Car.

Thank you, everybody! Hello! Hello and welcome. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, thanks. Now...

1963 saw the birth of two things I'm not very interested in.

The Porsche 911 and James May.

Apparently, however, there is now a new 911, which won't be new

in any way at all, and James has been driving it.

Here it is. And I agree.

In terms of appearance,

it's changed rather less over the last 50 years than I have.

The interior may be more ordered,

and Porsche nerds will spot that it's a couple of inches longer.

But to normal people, it looks just like another 911.

In truth, though, this is all new.

The body, for example, is now made from aluminium,

which means it is much lighter - and lighter is good.

The 3.8 litre flat-six engine has been upgraded.

There's a new seven-speed manual gearbox.

Which is fantastic.

And all new suspension, which does its job impeccably.

For 50 years, Porsche have bloody-mindedly stuck with

this daft idea of building a car with the engine at the back, but...

half a century of consistent fiddling around

and they've made it work brilliantly.

It's so good that it brought on a temporary attack of yobbishness.

Turn in, give it a little squeeze of power.

Feel it all tighten up.

How could you not like a 911?

And that question brings me on to an important point.

Strange to say it, but this car has a big problem.

And that problem is classic 911 enthusiasts.

To them, this car is the work of Satan,

and simply because it isn't an old 911. I'll give you a good example.

This car has electric power steering,

and, to be honest, I'm perfectly happy with it.

So would you be, I'm sure.

And if you put electric power steering

on a Lamborghini or a Maserati, nobody would bat an eyelid.

But on a 911, this simple technical development has turned

the faithful into an angry, roaring mob,

storming up from the village with pitchforks and blazing effigies,

shouting, "Witchcraft!"

What they actually want in a new 911 is a 911 that's new

and yet not new.

What they want is this...

the work of a small Californian company called Singer.

This looks like an old 911,

and some of its parts are indeed cherry-picked from past 911s.

But the whole car is custom-built.

And, where necessary, it's peppered with modern touches.

The engine is another classic 911 3.8 litre flat-six.

But this one has been fettled by Cosworth in California,

and develops 360 horsepower.

And a lovely buzz.

Gets you in there.

And although the body may look like it's come from a 1960s Porsche,

almost all of it has been remodelled in carbon fibre.

The result of that is that this 911 weighs 200 kilograms less

than a new one.

That's like taking a Harley Davidson out of the luggage compartment.

So, yes, it is a tribute band, but it can rock like the original.

No, better, actually.

The precision on the steering - you didn't feel that,

obviously, because you're not in here, but it's utterly intuitive.

Look, it's an old 911, it feels old,

and then I get to the hammerhead, and the brakes are tremendous.

0-60 takes 4.5 seconds, and the top speed is 175 miles an hour.

But, actually, in this car, those figures are irrelevant.

The interesting thing is, they could've overdone this.

I mean, it would be possible to put the turbo engine in this car,

they could have made it ludicrously powerful, but they haven't.

They've concentrated on the sensation of performance,

the noise, the vibration, the feel of the steering.

That's what actually matters.

Before we go any further,

you're probably wondering what all this excellence costs.

Well, the bottom line is, it's a lot. Around £280,000, in fact.

Now, that is a lot of money for a car, I know.

But, then again, £50,000 is a lot of money for one of those Dior

couture dresses, until I learned that

over 2,000 hours of immaculate handiwork goes into making it.

It's the same with the car.

The monks of this monastery of the 911 have prostrated themselves

before their icon and anointed it with exquisite gifts.

Each of these cars takes 4,000 man-hours to make.

And each one features unique touches - like the rev counter

in this one, that goes up to 11 as a tribute to Spinal Tap.

What this is, in truth,

is more than just the perfect bauble for the devoted 911 enthusiast.

What this is... Well, it's a bit like the Eagle E-Type that

Jeremy drove a few series back. It's a love letter to a car.

Can I just say... Hold on a minute.

That steering - what do you mean you're perfectly happy

with the electric steering on the new 911? I don't think it matters.

But the steering was the defining characteristic of any

of the generations of 911. It's about how it feels.

You said how the steering feels. I know, you're right.

You're talking about the little patter thing inside.

Well, I know what you mean. But it's better.

But that means they've changed it. Shut up!

All 911s are exactly the same.

That's like saying all babies are the same. They are! They are identical.

And that one that Singer has modified, that is

completely different. Oh, he's still going on about it.

It's like a sort of 911 greatest hits.

That's like a Showaddywaddy greatest hits!

Can we please stop talking about the 911?

Please, let's do the news, let's do the news. OK.

And now, it's time for the news.

Porsche has announced a new 911.

Oh, for crying out loud. I'm going. Oh, this is going to be good!

It revs to 9,000rpm. Shut up about your glorified Beetle!

It's not a Beetle, it's a magnificent thing.

That is going to be about £100,000, the end of this year,

it'll be here. It's going to be wonderful. All right, all right.

We'll move it on.

Now, there is a new Porsche 911.

This is the Turbo and the Turbo S.

Clues to identification begin with that...

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Didn't Porsche say a while back

they were never going to make another 911 Turbo?

Actually, they did in the '90s, they did say that. Exactly.

So, not only are they crap engineers, they're liars.

You cannot level crap engineers at Porsche. Yes, I can. Yes, I can.

They haven't evolved.

They had one idea and they just produced it

year after year after year.

You've got to move on. Look at this show...

Maybe we can edit that out. We'll edit that out.

So, that's interesting.

So, what you're saying is, Porsche had an idea and stuck with it,

and I respect them for that.

Right, let's move onto proper news. Oh, now, yes. Bad news.

Mr Cameron has decided there should be a ban on internet pornography.

What are you going to do?

That means we will no longer be able to look at pictures like this.

Wait a minute, is this wise?!

He hasn't banned it yet. Have a look at this. Oh, I see what you mean.

Oooh.

That is strong pornography. It is. It's actually a one-off Lamborghini.

It's called the Selfish. It's not called the Selfish.

It is. It's called the Egoista. It's Italian for "selfish".

Anyway, you won't be able to see that.

And nor will you be able to see this.

In what way is that pornography? Well, it's orange.

The thing is - this is a true story, OK?

A friend of mine has a website, and it has an orange backdrop.

Now, in various offices and work places that have this porn filter

on the internet, OK, orange is picked up as a skin tone -

which, of course, it is in Cheshire, yeah?

It's picked up, so it will just see that as a naked lady with

a sort of vajazzle in the shape of a Renault badge.

And then it won't let anyone see it.

So Mr Cameron's porn filter is just going to stop us

looking at things that are orange?

Yeah, David Dickinson's had it. He's gone!

I think it's a bit more sophisticated than that.

I think it looks for words and things as well. On search engines.

Certain words? Obviously.

Volvo. They've had it.

Why?

Well, it's a bit close to... Oh, I see!

What about Fuchs alloys?

You're never going to be able to see a Fuchs alloy.

Bell helmets. No.

You can't look at them.

You know we were doing the Africa special last year,

and I got my BMW stuck on that termite mound thing, and I said,

"Right, James, you reverse onto me,

"and Hammond tug me off from behind."

I said that. That won't be showing up on iPlayer.

No, Mr Cameron, don't ban it.

Now, Ford has obviously decided the problem with modern cars

is they don't have enough radiator grilles,

so this is their new one, this is the EcoSport.

It has one, two, three, four, five radiator grilles.

It's only got a one-litre engine under there -

it's going to need a blanket, it'll be draughty.

It'll be shivering in a corner, "I'm cold!"

That massive car hasn't got a one-litre engine. No, it's not massive.

It looks it, but it's basically a Fiesta on stilts, it's a small car.

Can I just say, the thing that baffles me most

about this car - I'm going to quote for you here, OK?

It says, "As a first in Europe, the Ford's SYNC App Link system

"will offer drivers voice control of mobile apps on the move,

"including the music streaming service Spotify."

Does anyone here have the first idea what any of that means?

Does anyone really know? What is it? Spotify? What is Spotify?

It's a music streaming service,

so you can listen to music over the internet. Any music? Any music.

So, if I were just driving along and I said "Roxanne", it would

play Roxanne? Maybe. Well, hang on, that's not going to work.

Because we know the voice recognition in cars is rubbish -

it never works, does it? So, if you just say, "The Police",

it will probably actually ring the police.

No, it will! It will, it will!

Because this car's got a feature on it that if you have an accident

or get into problems, it calls the emergency services for you.