Sync by fant0m www.addic7ed.com
Bonjour et bienvenu a Paris.
Hello, Fifth Gear viewers.
This week I'll be testing the new £96,000 Maserati GranCabrio
by driving it from here to Monaco, darling,
while everyone else will be doing this...
Jason's in Noble's stupendous M600 supercar...
Absolutely brutal.
...trying to achieve a speed that has so far eluded us... 200mph.
While Jonny and I attempt the world's first electric car road trip
to see if batteries are the fuel of the future.
And it doesn't quite go according to plan.
Anything you do so may be given in evidence.
And so to the £96,000 Maserati GranCabrio,
Maserati's first full four-seater convertible. Keep your eyes peeled.
I'm going to be testing it by taking it on a grand tour
that cars like this were made for,
from one style capital here in Paris
600 miles away to Monaco.
We'll be going soon...
Just any second now...
The first thing I tested was the anti-skid control.
Going round the Place da la Concorde,
which is a big roundabout.
I've just come across a button. MSP.
Maserati Stability Program, I wonder?
On some cobbles.
Oh! Grip's all of a sudden gone when I press that button. How odd!
So, onto the autoroute, the A6
heading due south.
The first thing I have to play with is the engine.
It's a 4.7l litre V8 made by Ferrari to Maserati spec,
and it's got 440 horsepower.
And it goes like this...
Doing this sort of trip is absolutely fantastic.
But it does cost you a bit of an arm and a leg.
This Maserati is managing 20 miles to the gallon.
It doesn't sound a lot, but I think it's pretty impressive,
considering I have been gooning it.
The roof is triple-layered to minimise wind noise.
Doing 70mph, though, there is a little whistle around here.
It's as though the windows has quite been shut, and it is constant...
not exactly the last word in refinement.
Time for a quick lunch stop
to tell you about the few options.
Pearlescent paint is all yours for £5,288.
The wind stop... the black thing between the two front seats,
which reduces turbulence by 50 percent...
is £588.
And an iPod connector, £254.
But you do get a Maserati sticker on the cable.
That should tell you what sort of person will be buying this car...
somebody I'd like to hang out with.
So, how's life for the passengers?
News from the rear. You can get two adults in here,
and Maserati cares about you so much,
they give you individually styled seats,
very much like the ones in front, only a little bit narrower.
You do sit quite upright
and I think on a long journey that will be a bit of a bore.
But you do get a cracking view...
if only I could see it.
Driver, do your business or get off!
Let's go!
I've done 500 of the 600 miles now
and I am feeling as fresh as a daisy.
That is a lot to do with this car's character.
It is a proper grand tourer!
Maserati also says the GranCabrio has inspirational handling.
So I dropped into the hills above Monaco to see if they were right.
I could do with the steering just being a little bit sharper,
the brake being a whisker beefier.
And also I could do with even more punch out the corners.
Overall this is a Maserati that is coping pretty well
with these really demanding mountain roads, so I am impressed.
Monaco, we have made it! Oh, yes!
So what have we learnt about the car?
Well, it may not be the biggest adrenalin pump,
but there's something incredibly romantic about it.
It's exotic and it is very exclusive.
It's the thinking man or woman's choice. And whilst I'm here,
it would be churlish not to do a lap of the Grand Prix circuit
and go through that famous tunnel.
To announce our arrival, I'll press the sport button
which opens some valves in the exhaust,
and from 3,000rpm onwards,
well, it sounds like this...
We're at the challenging cathedral of curves
that is the Anglesey Circuit
for one of our famous shoot-outs,
where we test two similar cars to find out which is quickest.
We've got the performance versions
of two of the most stylish small cars on the market...
the Citroen DS3 DSport...
and the Alfa Romeo Mito Cloverleaf.
The Citroen costs £16,000
and uses a 1.6L 150-horsepower engine.
0 to 62 takes 7.3 seconds.
The Alfa costs just under £18,000.
Its 1.4L engine produces 20 horsepower more,
yet its 0 to 60 is two tenths slower.
It's a pretty boy grudge match!
We'll start with the Mito.
These engines are an interesting innovation
because they provide good economy
when you're just poodling around,
but also plenty of performance when you want to press on.
They do this because they've got valve timing
that can vary independent of the engine speed.
So it senses your driving mode
and gives you what you want.
The only drawback of this engine,
it just seems to run out of puff a bit. Whoa whoa whoa!
Change of direction isn't its best feature,
and a lot of afters here.
Anyway, here we go. Let's set a time.
It's reading at 105, 110.
Try and be patient, Tiff.
We head for the line and set the time...now!
The Mito crosses the line in 1 minute 25.9 seconds.
Can the DS3 beat that?
This 1.6L turbo-charged engine
goes all the way right round to its 6,800 limit
without really finding any horrible empty spots as the Alfa did.
Into the hairpin. Nice gear change. Good feel to the steering.
Nice seat holding me well.
This might sock Alfa Romeo.
As we head off onto lap...
Start the clock now!
The gearing means I can stay in second for this short straight...
Get the nose down on the brake and find my apex.
At the first checkpoint, the DS3 is just two tenths ahead.
On that high-speed corner, I think it's got a big advantage.
At the second checkpoint, the Citroen has kept its lead.
Good traction.
And the DS3 holds on to win by two tenths,
proving the Citroen isn't just a pretty face.
There's no doubt the Citroen DS3 is one of the most stylish cars around,
and now we know it goes well, we couldn't resist giving away
this 2009 120-horsepower model with thousands of pounds worth of extras
like satnav, an upgraded hi-fi,
ambient lighting, parking sensors and 16-inch-wide alloys.
We'll also throw in £1,000 towards your car insurance
courtesy of elephant.co.uk
We're also giving you the chance
of a drive at Silverstone
hosted by VBH and a supercar experience at Thruxton
where you'll get to drive a Lamborghini,
a Ferrari Scudery
and be driven by me as sideways as possible.
That's still not everything.
We're also giving away a 40-inch LCD TV, an Xbox
and the Superstars V8 Next Challenge driving game.
Plus our favourite five-car game.
And a Garmin satnav
and a Pure Highway in-car DAB radio
AND a Supertooth Buddy hands-free kit!
For your chance to win this amazing prize package,
just answer the following question correctly...
Next, Jonny and I see if electric cars work in the real world.
Oh, God! We just pulled out in front of a car doing 70mph.
And Jason's on a mission to hit 200 in Noble's M600 supercar.
Welcome back to Fifth Gear.
This V8 Maserati around town will do 12 miles to the gallon.
Not everyone thinks that's acceptable,
which is why manufacturers invest heavily in alternative fuels
like electric power.
We challenged Tiff and Jonny to see if being powered by a plug
finally makes sense.
This is an electric car, the Mitsubishi i MiEV.
This is Tiff Needell and this is a shopping centre
in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which is about there.
Our mission is to go from here
to a meeting with actor and electric car evangelist Robert Llewellyn
at 4pm tomorrow.
There are now more public recharging points in the UK than ever before,
so this will help us find out if electric cars are finally viable.
Normally the journey would take five hours,
but in an electric car, it's not that simple,
as we were about to find out.
The Mitsubishi i MiEV costs a staggering £38,000,
but the fact the Metro Centre car park lets you charge up for free is some consolation.
How does it feel? Smooth.
Our 300-mile journey had begun quietly.
Theoretically the i MiEV has a maximum range of 100 miles.
But every time you decelerate, braking energy can be used
to top up the battery pack and thus extend the range.
Down this hill now. As soon as I lift off,
it's gone to charge.
With just 64 horsepower to play with,
Tiff's racing driver mentality
found other ways of conserving energy.
Brake. We've only got drum brakes on the back.
Carry the momentum through.
It handles well through the roundabout.
Tiff, Tiff, Tiff. But think how much power I saved!
I'm going to go full throttle.
No, no, don't! One bar!
Oh, no! We've got 6.5 miles to go
and how many bars? One.
And how many miles per bar? Four.
So it was out with the enthusiastic driving
and in with the slow.
Desperately trying to nurse the car to our roadside cafe recharge,
every yard counted.
No, don't! Don't Oh, God!
We just pulled out in front of a car!
We made it... just... and took immediate advantage
of the free juice on offer.
We worked our way through fry-ups
as it took six hours for the lithium-ion batteries
to get back to full charge.
The next stop was 70 miles away in Sheffield.
But it soon became apparent that driving with the lights on
was sapping much needed power from the batteries.
We weren't going to make it, so pulled off
in the hope of blagging a top-up.
Have you got a plug?
He did! The kindest security guard in Yorkshire
topped us back up to four bars in just over an hour.
But within minutes, disaster struck again.
We're being followed by the police.
Huh! We've just been pulled over by the police.
Hi. Hello. Are you all right?
Yea, yeah. Good, thanks. Just a bit suspicious, that's all.
I'm not surprised! I do have to tell you
that you don't have to say anything, but it might harm your defence if you don't mention now...
Driving suspiciously meant I was asked to produce my licence
within seven days.
But that was a minor inconvenience
compared to the next problem.
While we were waiting for the policeman,
I left the lights on and the indicators on, everything on,
and the car has used energy.
We're now almost back to the same kind of traumatic situation before,
because we've got three bars of energy left. No, no! No!
Yeah, we've got three bars. Seriously.
Don't do that! We're in so much trouble.
We're doing 33 on the M1, by the way.
We limped the last 20 miles to the recharge.
This 140-mile leg would take a normal car three hours,
but it had taken us one day!
Then it was another six-hour fill-up slow, but par for the course
for electric cars.
Day two, and without the need for energy-sapping lights,
Needell hit an eco sweetspot!
That is textbook! That is lovely!
Over 50mph and charging!
We even established that electric cars can sit at motorway speeds.
Whoa! We're doing 70mph on the motorway! Feels good.
But our optimism was short-lived.
Real-world driving hadn't got anywhere near the 100-mile range.
Test before use.
Staring down the barrel of another six-hour recharge in Leicester,
it dawned on us that to make our appointment with Robert,
the only i MiEV user we know,
we were going to need some help.
There was nothing wrong with the i MiEV.
It's just, we needed an internal combustion piggy back
to get us back on schedule.
Lovely, sir! Thank you, chief.
So, how does a man who actually lives with an i MiEV
cope with the car every day?
We genuinely use it every day.
Electric power is so much more efficient than petrol,
and the electric motor is so much more efficient.
80 percent motor efficient in your car,
25 percent in the most super-eco, green petrol or diesel car.
75 percent of that stuff you're pumping in is wasted!
That is stupid, old technology! It's just this recharging...
People I've spoken to who've used electric cars for the last decade,
they use it to go to the shops, to the school, all those things.
They're not going to drive from Idaho from Californ-io using an electric car!
So they have two cars. Well, they rent a car.
And there's the essence. Electric cars are not a complete solution.
They really only make sense in a city environment
where the limited range is less important
and a lack of tailpipe emissions cleans up the local air.
We've learnt everything, don't you think? Yeah.
Let's have a Ruby Murray. Let's find a hotel. You drive.
To see more of our run-in with the police, plus Jonny and I arguing,
check out...
I think it's safe to say we won't be swapping the petrol pump
for the extension lead.
As a celebration of the persistence of petrol,
Jason has been using gallons of the stuff
as he tries to set a Fifth Gear top speed record.
No AVS. No air bags.
And a promise of 200mph.
Find out in a moment if we achieve that iconic figure.
But first, what is it?
Absolutely brutal.
Got to have your wits about you. It's so fast!
Just relentless!
It's the latest British supercar,
the Noble M600.
And because it's a Noble, you'll be thinking it's built by Englishmen
who get paid in Rich Tea biscuits and pots of Swarfega,
so it's going to be cheap!
You'd be wrong. Very wrong.
The M600 is minty. It costs 200 grand
and that's as much as two Audi R8s
AND a Porsche Boxster. Ooh!
Noble are justifying the ridiculous price
with some big claims.
They reference the awesome Ferrari F40 as a benchmark for handling
and a record-breaking McLaren F1 for speed.
Underneath the body are race car roots
with a space-frame chassis and a stainless steel tub.
That doesn't just make it rigid, taut and great through the corners.
It also means the M600 only weighs 1250 kilos
To put that into context, that's less than a Ford Focus.
The V8 engine started life as something found in a Volvo.
But after some tuning by Yamaha
and the addition of two turbos,
it's now got 650 horsepower.
So it's actually about as closely related to the Volvo unit
as I am to your mum.
But what it does mean is the 0-62 time will be mind-numbing.
So, to demonstrate...
60.
We didn't time that, but if you want to, rewind your telly.
Oh, go on, then. It was a scalp-tightening three seconds!
The steering is pin-sharp.
You get great feedback.
It's got lots of grip, but you just have to be a bit...
...a bit wary. When you squeeze out 625 horsepower,
it's got a tendency to give you a bit of a bite.
In the damp or wet, it's not the easiest car to slide around.
It's a bit on a knife edge.
A bit of a squirt, out comes the back!
You've got to have lightning reactions.
There's not many buttons, but there are two important ones.
The first is the traction control under the jet fighter-style toggle.
The second is a rotary switch
which decreases the engine power
and increases the traction control
and softens the throttle.
That way I can drive to the shops without embarrassing any Ferraris.
The bosses at Noble tell me this car is good for 200mph.
So in order to give you my conclusion,
that's exactly what I'm going to do.
And do you know what? It really is as simple as pressing one pedal.
It's almost too easy!
170.
180.
190.
They weren't lying!
It takes a very special car
to hit these kinds of speeds,
and it happens effortlessly.
It is magnificent.
On that double-ton note, we must end the show.
But here's what you can look forward to next time. From Monaco, bye-bye.
In the next Fifth Gear, Vicki takes a Rolls-Royce Ghost drag racing.
I test the £140,000 Aston Martin Rapide.
And finally here's a reminder of our amazing competition
to win a 2009 Citroen DS3,
£1,000 towards your insurance courtesy of elephant.co.uk,
a supercar experience at Thruxton, plus laps alongside me,
and our pick of the best driving goodies on the market.
Sync by fant0m www.addic7ed.com