Top Gear USA - First Season

Now on "Top gear".

Tanner drives a car mid of wood.

Michelle Rodriguez *** Suzuki SS4

get some.

And I get my sea ***

Holy crap.

Welcome to "Top Gear".

On this show, nobody will live in a house together.

Nobody will be fired.

But if you can hold a conversation

about zero-to-60 times, this is where you belong.

I'm Adam Ferrara,

that's Tanner Foust, and this is Rutledge Wood.

We've got a ton of great stuff coming up,

including a race between a plane, a boat, and a car,

and Michelle Rodriguez is out on our test track.

But we start with this. It's a Morgan.

If you haven't heard of it, that's no surprise,

because it's built in a tiny town in Britain,

and to buy the latest model, you've got to sit on a two-year waiting list.

And to find out why somebody would wait so long

to own an obscure British car,

I jumped across the pond to drive one.

This is the tiny town of Dorchester-on-Thames.

Neolithic people lived here 4,000 years ago before the romans marched in,

a place where you half-expect to see Shakespeare or Robin hood,

or some other dandy Englishman running around in tights.

Of course, the Americans that come to england always mention three things...

Warm beer, mushy food, and questionable dental work.

But we didn't come here for that.

We came here because the Brits are at least very good at one thing,

and that's making cars.

Or at least they used to be.

Over the last few years, England's lost more car companies,

than they've lost colonies.

The classic British makes have fallen to foreigners.

Jaguar and land rover are now Indian,

Rolls-Royce and Bentley... German,

lotus... Malaysian, Aston Martin... Kuwaiti.

Sadly, there are only a few boutique car manufacturers left.

But one stands out.

And it makes its cars out of wood.

But that may not be such a bad thing...

... Because this...

Is the Morgan Arrow Supersports.

It looks like no other car, sort of retro-futuristic,

like something they would have drawn up for flash Gordon in the 1930s.

If Al Capone were still alive, this is what he'd drive.

The Morgan family started making cars in 1911,

and it's run today by the grandson of the founder.

Morgans are still made by hand,

and the car reflects the company's history.

It's got the classic swooping fenders,

the big grille, side exhaust pipes.

The chassis is built from aluminum,

or, as they say here, aluminium.

But in the frame, they actually use wood.

Laminated Ash... a little old-school,

but it's light, flexible, and incredibly strong.

And because they're hand-built, no two are the same.

What we call a hood the Brits call a bonnet.

And this bonnet opens from the side.

No fancy buttons here...

This is the "retro" part of retro-futuristic.

And what lies beneath the Morgan's plaque,

is a BMW 4.8-liter V-8 engine.

Yeah.

Let's go scare some natives.

The first thing you notice about these beautiful English countryside roads...

Is they drive on the wrong side of the road.

That was so close.

This is a car that is extravagant and simple both at the same time.

The interior is pure function.

It's just minimalistic. You have a speedometer and a tachometer,

temperature and fuel.

You have this beautiful leather everywhere.

It's thick and designed to be worn in like a baseball glove.

As environmentally unfriendly as that seems, it was worth it.

On the smoother English roads, the Morgan is perfect.

The suspension is actually really, really good.

It's kind of soft yet controlled.

But to really get to know the Morgan,

I had to get away from the 30-mile-an-hour speed limits.

Once you put your foot to the floor,

it's a beast.

This thunders through the forest like a bugling elk looking for a mate.

It's awesome.

Forget the ancient towns...

Buzzing through the labyrinth of country lanes,

I had found the Morgan's spiritual home.

Now, that's a sheep right there.

Empty roads twisting through fields of green...

This is what this timeless car was designed for.

But this car is called the Morgan supersports.

Its makers claim it's high performance,

and that was something I couldn't test on the roads.

I needed somewhere special.

This is bruntingthorpe proving ground...

Two miles of open asphalt.

Built in 1962, bruntingthorpe was actually an American air force base

during the cold war.

And now, like so many closed military facilities, it's used to test cars.

But we're not here for a history lesson, are we?

That's a manly sound.

That's not British "I drink tea at 6:00" sound.

Oh, no.

At 376 horsepower in a car with about 2,700 pounds,

you're looking at the power-to-weight ratio of a Porsche 911 gt3.

But high-performance cars aren't just about driving in straight lines.

Pushed to the limit in the corners,

the supersports became twitchy and unpredictable...

... In short, a handful.

Morgan claims a top speed of 170 miles an hour.

And with two miles of asphalt ahead of me,

it was hard to resist.

The thing that scares me... That the car is an old-school shape.

In reality, all of these curves are like wings,

lifting the car off the ground.

And 170 miles an hour is a very modern speed

for the body shape of an old car.

In all seriousness, this is a... Pretty dangerous thing to do.

Wow, that's 70 already.

80.

90.

100.

110.

Getting kicked by every single little bump.

But that's 120.

125.

130. Little bits of wind.

Going to fifth gear.

140.

It's getting very loud in here.

I can't hear a thing. It's 142.

Full-throttle. 150.

It's moving around now. This is getting bad.

Oh, the front end's starting to float.

It's 160. Still full-throttle.

162.

Oh, my God.

And I'm out.

Flogging it on the track seemed as inappropriate

as taking the queen to a frat party.

This car is all about being classy.

That was about the scariest thing I've ever done.

I don't think I want to do that again.

That loud, that much speed,

and the front end just starts moving around on you. It's...

I don't know what to say.

Morgan only makes about 600 cars a year,

and only 200 of them will be the arrow supersports like this one.

If you want one, get in line.

And the cost... 150 to 200 grand.

Driving this car is... It's not a supercar.

It's not made to compete with Ferraris and Lamborghinis and Porsches.

It's a gentleman's sports car.

It might seem a lot to pay, but you have to consider,

when buying a Morgan, you're not just buying a car.

You're buying a piece of history.

I like it.

At 150, the front end started coming up off the ground,

and you kept going.

Yes. Had to.

I'm very proud of you.

Well, I mean, this is a '53, and the shape is virtually the same.

It's just not a car that's meant to be flogged, you know?

It's almost like a violation to drive it that hard.

It's for cruising.

And when you do cruise in the car in the countryside, it's perfect.

You know, there's only one of them in the U.S.

- One of them? - One.

Who'd want to own something so obnoxiously British?

Simon Cowell.

- Yeah, actually. - Perfect.

Coming up, an epic race between a boat, a plane, and a car.

Welcome back to "Top Gear."

Here on the show, we pride ourselves in providing

pertinent and accurate automotive information to consumers.

Specifically, we wanted to help Floridians who maybe need to get

from their plastic-surgery appointment in Miami

to their vacation home in key west as soon as possible.

This question is facing literally two to three people every year.

What is the quickest way to get between these two points?

We decided to find out.

Miami, Florida...

A steamy, sultry, tropical paradise.

This is where America goes to party.

But we weren't here to party. We were here to race.

We were told to meet at Jones boat yard on the Miami river.

This was the heart of Miami,

and the starting point of the race.

The finish line... 160 miles away in key west,

the southernmost point of the United States.

Well, guys, I've seen "Miami Vice" enough

to know the fastest way around this town is in a boat.

I'm taking the 38-foot Donzi speed boat and have a professional driver.

Look, Tubbs, what's with the boat?

This is a car show. You see that lotus?

I'm gonna get in that lotus, and in 160 miles,

I am gonna get out at the finish line,