Fifth Gear Season 14 Episode 7
It’s really been a hectic time around here at AutoUnleashed but we still managed to write the reviews for the last two episode of this season of Fifth Gear. Episode 7 was a pretty good one, with highlights such as a dirt bike race between Tiff and Vicky or an Audi A3 which can park itself.
The show kicked off with Jonny’s experiment to improve on one of the most excitinghot hatches ever, the mark 2 Volkswagen Golf GTI. Although the normal car was a really good one, gaining Tiff’s praise, Jonny, together with some specialised VW tuners, managed in about a month to take the old car to new heights. After fitting it with special adjustable suspension, a revamped engine and special exhaust they created an even more powerful car which handled even better. So there you have it, you can improve one of the best cars made. Check out the video here.
“It’s new but is it any good?” followed, with Vicky testing Suzuki’s new city car, the Splash. They pitted it up against the current favorite city car of the Fifth Gear team, the Fiat Panda. A special test was put together, with the two cars being driven on cobblestones and the presenter tested which of the cars have the worst ride. It took into consideration how your groceries were at the end of the road, and how the confort of the driver was. The Fiat won, proving that italians do make better cars than the Japanese (in some ways).
Next up, Tim Shaw wanted to test how the tires impact the braking of a normal car, without ABS. There were 3 competitors in the test, the cheapest second hand tires, some reasonably priced Fulda ones and the top of the range and most expensive Continental tires. The pretty obvious conclusion was that you really get what you pay for. The Continental’s provided the smalles braking distance and the second hand ones managed to brake in the longest distance.
The Ford Fiesta was tested next by, who else than, Tom Ford. The stunning new city car from the American manufacturer is really good looking and will definitely be very popular. Popular like the iPod, according to Tom. Needless to say, the new Fiesta did really well on all aspects, like the exterior or interior styling, the styling, but did lack a bit of power. But that will be eventually solved by the speculated ST version. In the end, the car provided the same great experience of it’s bigger brothers, the Focus and Mondeo, but all in a much smaller package.
Next up, an Audi A3 Sportsback was the special guest. Special as in, this car has a system fitted to only by the high end car manufacturers, like Mercedes-Benz or Lexus, a parallel parking assitant. The only thing you have to do is control the pedals, the car doing all the steering for you. Although it does cost a bit of money, the system is sure to be a must buy for all those people who can’t make a decent parallel park even if their lives depended on it.
Vicky and Tiff followed in a quite unusual competition. No cars were involved, but special BMW dirt bikes. Their lack of motorbike experience plus the old British weather provided some really tough challenges. The first test was who could brake the furthest down a straight line. To the surprise of everybody, Vicky almost reached the distance set by their bike instructor. Tiff, although tried some interesting tricks, didn’t reach the distance set by the other presenter. A hill climb followed, which really gave Vicky a tough try, but in the end she fell and was forced to watch Tiff go up the hill. The last test was a race in a mud swamp. The course was purely flooded which made Vicky fell several times and Tiff win the dirt bike challenge.
In the last part of the segment, Jonny helped restore an old car, but not just any old car, an old Reliant Robin. Don’t think he found it on the scrap heap, this car is owned by legendary British boxer, Ricky Hatton. After quite a time of improvements, the Reliant was revived, a la Rocky (I had to do it), and gained the seal of approval from the automotive authorities. After the few choked engines, Ricky and Jonny were off to the boxer’s first training in a new gym. Let’s just say that the Robin really grabbed some interesting views, more than a Ferrari or Lamborghini, that’s for sure. Video here.
All in all a pretty interesting show, which was second to last of this season.
Here’s the new Ford Fiesta part:
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