Top Gear

Tonight, we completely save the countryside.

James and I completely ruin London.

And there be dragons in the reasonably priced car.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Hello! Hello and welcome!

And we start tonight where we finished off last week,

with the incredible Nissan GT-R.

Really.

We know that this car is faster round the Nuerburgring

than a Porsche 911 Turbo, which costs twice as much.

We know it's faster across Japan than the bullet train.

But what we don't know, cos last week I was on the public roads

and it was fitted with an electronic speed muzzle,

is what it's like when you really put your foot down.

So when the race was over,

I stayed in Japan for an extra day to see if I could find out.

This is the Fuji race circuit.

There's no speed limit here.

No traffic either.

And best of all,

no need to be worried by the Nissan speed governor.

On normal roads, all Japanese cars

But the GT-R satnav system knows when it gets to a racetrack...

..And simply turns the limiter off.

First of all, I must apologise for the sunglasses.

This is because yesterday I picked up a hideous eye infection.

And I really don't think you want to see it.

This though I think you do want to see.

Flap your paddle gearbox into manual.

We put the gearbox itself into race mode,

the suspension into race mode,

we put that button down to engage the launch control.

Left foot on the brake. Build up the revs.

Here we go!

God!

It's hard to say how much power the GT-R develops,

because each engine, as I said last week, is hand built.

Each one is therefore a little bit different.

But I think they put a million horsepower in this one,

because the acceleration is just blistering. It's just savage!

God! Face-ripping!

With the launch control engaged,

I did 0-60 in three and a half seconds.

And flat out, it's even more impressive.

Partly that's down to the million horsepower 3.8 litre twin turbo V6.

And partly it's down to the shape of the body.

It looks like a discordant mess, like Stravinsky designed it.

But every crease and every angle, even on the door mirrors,

is there to channel air to that big rear spoiler.

The result is absolute stability and a top speed of...

Well, since this track has the longest straight

of any Grand Prix circuit, let's find out.

160kph there.

90!

220...

Come on!

240!

Into sixth gear at 250kph.

260... 275...

I'm on the brakes.

It will eventually do 193mph,

and that's impressive for a car that's quiet and comfortable,

a car with four seats and a boot.

And it's especially impressive

when you think it wasn't really built for straight line speed.

Mostly it was built to mash your mind in the corners.

The axles are assembled on hydraulic rigs that replicate the weight of the car,

so the geometry is bang on

before the suspension is bolted to the body.

It uses its yaw sensor and G-sensor to measure actual yaw rate,

and can then adjust the DampTronic shock absorbers

and the four-wheel drive system every hundredth of a second

to bring the car into line with a pre-ordained target.

I don't understand any of that.

But I do understand this.

The GT-R can corner so fast and so violently,

each wheel has a special knurling on the rim

to stop the tyres coming off.

It is extremely hard to explain how this feels.

Agony is probably the best word.

The onboard readout is telling me that in that last corner

I generated one and a fifth more sideways gravity.

I wish my collar had a knurled rim - it would stop my head coming off!

When you really get going at this kind of speed,

you expect to feel detached from the action,

like you're playing a video game, just pressing buttons.

But incredibly, it feels mechanical.

It feels analogue, it feels human.

It feels fan-bleeding-tastic!

I thought when I drove the Mitsubishi Evo-10 the other day

that there was no way the GT-R could be worth twice as much money.

I just thought there's no way it could be twice as good.

But it is.

And some!

They haven't built a new car here,

they've build a new yardstick.

Now at this point I was going to tell you

about the incredible brakes and the turbo whistle,

and how Lotus secretly developed the spine of this car.

But before I had a chance, I had a bit of a problem.

Agh!

My neck's just gone.

What I need is painkillers.

Honestly, I hate to cause the fuss because...

APPLAUSE

You hopeless old fart - a Datsun broke your neck!

It was already weakened,

from endlessly craning down to listen to you.

LAUGHTER

Amazing rescue service they've got there, isn't it?

I was very pleased to see that someone had brought a lawnmower.

And a bin lorry.

The dustbin lorry did put the fear of God into me.

Much like I did with them actually when I took my sunglasses off -

"Oh, look at his eye, it's disgusting!"

I'll tell you the problem.

You know a lot of modern cars have those headlamps that swivel when you turn the steering wheel? Yes.

Do you know why the GT-R doesn't have that?

Save weight?

No, it's because the motors in that sort of headlamp can't keep up

with the speed that thing changes direction.

Honestly, it's just unbelievable. It corners faster than electricity.

Wouldn't it be great to know how fast it would go round our track?

Yeah, problem is, you think it's in Japan.

But it isn't. We've flown it 9,000 miles so it can be here today

in the hands of our tame racing driver.

Now some say that he isn't allowed by law

within a hundred yards of Lorraine Kelly.

LAUGHTER

And that he's never seen an episode of Top Gear,

because he's a huge fan of Midsomer Murders.

All we know is he's called Bergerac.

And he's off! Now remember, this £53,000 car

has monstered a 300g McLaren round the Nuerburgring.

But I doubt it will do that here, because this is a power circuit.

Very tidy through the first corner.

Stig's neck, of course, made of weapons grade titanium.

And he's still all over Elton John. Let's hope he showers afterwards.

That is planted around Chicago. A little wiggle on the way out.

Hammerhead - will the big V6 upfront drag it wide?

Not a chance.

Look at that - the Stig, four-wheel drifting for Japan

even though he thinks it's a fictional place.

OK, the follow through. Bang up the double clutch gearbox.

Sounds like a fighter jet through the tires!

Second to last corner, digital car and analogue animal in perfect harmony.

Gambon...

Super tidy, and across the line!

APPLAUSE

Mm.

Now...

Now, I was expecting it to be around here.

The Ferrari 430,

the Murcielago 1,22, 1,23.

It did it, 1,19.7.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

That's a £53,000 four-seater saloon car.

And it's quicker than Carrera GT, McLaren SLR...

Genuinely staggering.

Crikey! Small wonder that beat the bullet train.

Anyway, this week Renault have sent us something

they think we'd like to see.

And here it is - it's a mobile telephone.

Now your mobile telephone may come with something like a camera.

This one comes with a car.

And here it is, it's the Megane Coupe Concept.

And the amazing thing about it is,

it's all operated using this telephone.

I have, for example, just opened the 1970s doors with it.

I can also switch on the headlights like that.

On the inside, I can even turn on the funky disco lighting.

You can do pretty much everything on this car using the telephone.

You can even start the engine.

The only problem is they're never gonna put it into production.

I have better news from France,

because this is the Peugeot 308 RCZ,

and they are going to put this into production.

Well, look at it! It's fabulous.

It's got the same 1.6 litre turbo-charged engine

you get in a 207 GTi and a Mini Cooper S.

But it's been tweaked to give 218 horsepower.

Up here this double bubble carbon fibre roof also produces down force,

so this car doesn't have to have an ugly spoiler on the boot lid.

Yeah. Not all brilliant though.

Peugeot say it's got four seats,

but I mean, come on, even I'd struggle to get in there!

You're probably better folding them flat, which you can,

and if you do that,

Peugeot say there's room in the boot for a mountain bike.

Now we've heard this car will be coming to Britain in 2010

at prices starting from £20,000. How about that?

And I think actually, Hammond, that on that basis,

the Scirocco that we had in a couple of weeks ago, possibly a bit dull?

Yeah. It also means I want to ask Peugeot a question.

If you could make this car all along,

why did you waste our time

with all that other dreary rubbish, you pillocks?

LAUGHTER OK, time to do the news.

And we're starting with...

Well, you know Mercedes now has the AMG division?