Richard Hammond VS James May – Plane vs Car RACE!

Hello, I'm Richard. I'm James. Brilliant.

And we've had a frankly brilliant idea, haven't we? Brilliant idea. It is a brilliant idea.

This came about because well, we're unemployed. Yes. Sort of.

And then over a drink, we thought um well, we miss races. It's a while since we did a an absurd race. Yes.

Absurd is key. And the race we've come up with is electric car versus electric airplanes because we got one of each. Yeah.

But the brilliant thing is we're racing from here. Where are we? Penstridge air drive.

Pence air drive. But where we're going, our destination is is filled with poignency and emotion for us. It is.

It's a place where I was once mistaken for Richard Hammond's driver. It's Dun's fault air drone where we used to make a certain car show that rhymes with mop fear. And I calculate, okay, it's no secret that I'm going to have to stop on route to recharge because that only has an endurance of about 50 minutes.

And you can't push it obviously cuz that's dangerous. So I'm going to stop at Thruxton for a charge and maybe a spot of lunch. All right, which means that we should each take overall I think just over two hours.

So we worked out that it is genuinely up for grabs. Either of us could win this. And there is a there is a forfeit.

Yes. Which I've devised in a totally selfish and self-promotional way. Yes.

is that the winner gets a James Ginonic. As many James Ginonics as he likes, and the loser has to have a soft drink and drive the car home. Should we go on with it?

Yes. This is like the old days. Come on then.

I'll wait for you when I get there. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. All right. See you later.

See you there. Right. What I've got for the race is a Porsche Tyan Turbo GT headline.

Four doors, four seats, naugh to 60, 2. 3 seconds, and up to,00 horsepower when I do a launch control. That's the main stuff.

It's on. That's it. I'm ready to go.

So viewers, I'm on board the Pepistral and it's slightly unfamiliar because there aren't a lot of the knobs and things that I'm used to with my conventional airplane. No mixture control, no carb heat, no magneto switches. James, are we ready to go?

I believe I'm ready to go. I'm expecting you to beat me off the line ham and I will be honest. What you ready to go?

Yes, I'm ready to go. You count us down. Hang on.

You're in an airplane. Isn't there going to be a lot of checking and faffing? It's an electric airplane.

It's on. You must be gutted. I thought that was your favorite bit.

Yeah, you're right. It is one of my favorite bits. But never mind.

This is the future. Are you going to count us down? Okay, I'm ready.

Are you ready? Have been for a while with my switched on electric airplane. Yes.

Okay, here goes. 3 2 1 go. Oh my god.

He's off and he's ahead. Right, I'm going to go this way now. I left him for dead to start.

Throttling back is perfectly silky smooth. That's amazing. Our journey at just over a 100 miles will take us across the edge of Somerset east towards Andover.

My Porsche can power straight on through to Dunfold without a single twinge of range anxiety as it boasts over 300 m of range on a full charge. Unlike James' state-of-the-art electric plane, how long do you think we're going to need to charge? Uh, about half an hour.

Okay. Where's where's the battery capacity? Uh, it's here.

So, it shows we got 50 minutes left. 49 minutes. Okay.

And flight time to about 22 minutes. Okay. So, we are cruising now at an indicated air speed of 70 72 knots.

Our ground speed is about just over 100 miles an hour. statue miles an hour. So, we're going much faster than Ammon.

One of the last times I raced an airplane in a car, the airplane was a Euro Fighter and the car was a Bugatti Veyron. But it's worth bearing in mind this on launch has more power than the Bugatti Veyron. That's mindblowing.

I should imagine James by now will be droning on at some length about the airplane. So, just to be clear in my conventional airplane going along, I'd probably do a quick check here on the fuel. Yeah.

The engine settings, the temperatures and pressures, no oil pressure, no oil temperature, no cylinder head temperature, no exhaust gas temperature. It is in fact a little bit like a fulls size radio control model, isn't it? Yeah.

Except you're in it. Traffic, traffic, traffic. This looks like road works.

No matter how powerful my electric Porsche, I'm stuck in road works. 42 minutes of battery left. I don't know why I'm feeling nervous about it.

It's obviously plenty, but we're in the air. Cheap. Make it easier to spot.

James, look at that electrochromatic roof. So I can have it Matt for a bit of peace and privacy or totally clear for looking for old men in electric airplanes. Where is he?

I reckon H's done at the most. 12 mi, maybe 15. I appear to be going through a bit of suburbia, which is rather clipping my wings when it comes to speed.

Okay, I may only be on the A350 to Warminster, which lacks the glamour of the skies, but at least I'm moving again, building up speed whilst remaining within official posted limits, obviously. But I'm making progress now, and I haven't got to stop to recharge. ETA in just under 12 minutes.

Well viewers, it's a long time since we've done one of these races because obviously we concentrated on specials towards the end of our time together. But here's a fun fact. The first ever race which was from London to Monte Carlo I think me and Hamad on public transport Clarkson in the Aston Martin was the origin of my catchphrase ock which is what I said when I ran round the corner and saw the car already parked there.

So there you go. It was all worth it. Right.

Big fast road up ahead. I'm going to get onto the A303. Now, I know that's a big road.

Hopefully, I can unleash some of the power from the mighty Porsche. No, there's a Kia in the way. So, just so that you know, viewers, I'm prepared for charging, which we're going to do as quickly as possible.

I've got a magic fob in my pocket which I think activates the charger as soon as we stand near it. Is that right? That's right.

Yeah. And we just plug it in and go and have presumably an airfield cup of tea and a baked sandwich or chicken and mushroom pie. This is what aviation light aviation is about, viewers.

It's about visiting other people's airfields and trying out their cafes. Okay. Making progress in the car.

No signs of a small electric airplane with a spananiel in it. We're down. Nice.

Charge. Charge. Charge.

There you go. Oh, hello. That's me.

Hello. Yes. Hello.

Have you crashed? No. No.

I'm at Thraxton. I'm charging. You're already at Thruxton.

I am. Yes. Right.

Ground speed of over 90 knots with a healthy tailwind and I'm up to 50% charged already. That's cheating. You're not supposed to be able to go faster than 75.

Well, it was 75 air speed. Yes. But ground speed with a tailwind.

You were winning, right? That's Yeah. Well, I'm pretty confident.

I In fact, if I were you, I wouldn't bother. I'd give up. Where are you?

Oh god. Um, I'm not far to I passed Stonehenge hours ago. Um, did you?

Yep. And I've probably I don't know about 30 miles to run. So, all in all, it's it's not worth your while carrying on.

Just give up now. Okay. In the direction you're going, which side of the road is Stonehenge on?

It's on. It was miles back on the left, but that was hours ago. So, yeah, just testing.

How long until yours is charged? Well, it's going to take about 30 35 minutes. Well, I'll be on my way just as soon as I've had a spot of lunch.

Don't eat too much. It's a very light airplane and every kilogram of burger makes a difference. I know.

Thank you. You carry on. Yes.

Okay, I'll see you there. All right, fool. Finally, the M3.

It's opened up. There's not a lot of traffic. James is still on the ground munching a sandwich and putting more electricity in his airplane.

I am flying. He isn't. I could do this.

I want to do this. Airfield chips. Life is good in aviation.

When we did these races back on the show in the past, that was the reality of it. You got stuck behind stuff, it cost you time. We'd always work out as we have done this one for Drve Tribe that on paper it could be a draw.

There is an actual race here. But then what happens on the day happens on the day and we always ran them for real. There's no rush.

The sort of speeds Hammond must be going. I know when I rang him up when we arrived here, I mean, he was pretending he'd already been past Stonehenge and things, but I know he hadn't cuz he couldn't even remember where it was. So, he'd probably done, I don't know, 12 miles.

So, I can enjoy this cup. In fact, I might have another one. I've got 42 minutes to run 26 miles.

James is still on the ground, still recharging. If he's got 10 minutes of recharging and it's at least a 30 minute flight from Thruxton to Dunfold, I am still in this race. Right, let's go.

Go, go, go. Skipper steaming the gun's fault. The really really clever stuff in this car is in the suspension because this car is also flying in a way.

Now the reason it's doing that is the suspension now it doesn't just pull. It doesn't just receive incoming bumps. It pushes.

If I go over a bump, the suspension lifts. But if it's a dip, this pushes its wheel down. Actively pushes its wheel into the hole to keep the car level.

I'm going to take a right hand bend here. So, it's going to push with its left hand side. And it can actually lean me into the corner.

And I can feel it. And not only that, when I break, the car angles back. So, it slows down like a helicopter.

Another connects with flying. When I accelerate, it leans forwards to counteract the effect of the weight being thrown back. So all the time I'm driving this car, it is constantly controlling its weight, its altitude, its attitude in a way I've never experienced.

And it feels brilliant. Just waving at the helicopter there for no real reason. I'm trying to decide what I think about the electric future because I mean it works for cars.

There are a few problems with infrastructure and charging times, range anxiety, all those things that people go on about. I think it works in this airplane really nicely. I mean if you can increase the endurance by 50%, which I know you're going to be able to do, this would be a great toy.

This will be a fabulous thing to have. Boats and ships, I'm not so sure. big airplanes.

But I like the electric lifestyle. It's smooth, quiet, and polite. Right, the A31 to Guilford.

The very last time I drove this road on the way back from the very last Top Gear Studio record, I was a tear soaked mess. It was a big moment. And I was driving the bronze Land Rover I still have now.

I love that car. And it was low on diesel. But I was so tear soaked I couldn't stop to buy fuel cuz it would have looked a bit odd.

Which meant I ran out when I got to the end of the M50 at home. H. That's a long time ago.

Right back to the race. According to my satnav, I am less than half an hour away, but James, I think, will be back in the air. And I know he's half an hour away.

This is close. Battery update, viewers. We are on 67% which is plenty.

We should land with probably 50% remaining. We're not using very much electricity at all, but we're still knocking along at nearly 90. Yeah.

That's over 100 miles an hour in car money. Wait, that's not them. No, that's not them.

Actually, I wish it was. They'd be going the wrong way. God, this is the exact route I used to come.

Right at the beginning of Top Gear, waiting at this queue here for this crossing, I was just wound up and tense because it was we were starting something new. Today, I'm wound up and tense for a different reason cuz 24 years later, I'm hoping to beat my co-host. Back to the track.

We'll be there in 9 minutes. We're heading into the rain. 6.

1 mi away. Very much a 30 mph limit here. God, that's proper.

Yeah, but I think we're going to go through it. Oh, can I see the Yes. Our green roof is still there.

Where is he? I still can't see him, but it's a very small airplane. I've seen the 747.

Can I see that purple portion of Richard Hammond? No sign of the hamster where he could be hiding. If he is there before us, he won't make it obvious.

Hello. Let me in. Oh, take your time, chap.

Can I come in? You go where you going? Well, yeah, I used to work here.

Are you sure? Yeah, I did. I worked here for like years.

To the length of our runway. Can Can I? Yeah.

Yeah. You know where you're going. That was embarrassing.

Can I interest you in a drink, sir? I'd recommend the gin. Sadly, you can't have it because I am.

Right. I'll have a Coke. Cheers.

Come on. Cheers. That was an adventure and a good race.

It was. This hurts, though. The sweet taste of victory.

That's another gin name for you. It is actually. Yes.

Go on then. Make it live. What happened?

Well, I mean, you lost. Mhm. But I could blame me having an extra cup of tea.

Good one. The charging at Thruxton taking about 10 minutes longer than I anticipated or the weather. Do you know what they say?

Time to spare go by air. You going to ask me then? What was it like?

Well, you should ask that. um got stuck behind quite a lot of traffic. But to be fair, in that happens in cars, you're stuck behind everything because it's unbelievably fast.

So, it's one of those cars that everything is in your way as soon as you set off. So, oh no, everything's going to be in my way. But, it is tell you what, it's two tons of it.

It does not control its weight. Anyway, that was a good race. And um it was a good race and it was quite nostalgic in a way.

It was very nostalgic coming into land cuz I saw Dunfold from the air. I saw the old Boeing 747 there which we sat in once or twice and we used it as a I remember that coming in and I could see the buildings and I could remember it from flying in here when we worked here. I mean I'm not one for sentimentality as you know but you're not you're as sentimental as that table.

Shall we go for a leisurely lap and see if we can Well, let's be honest remember how it goes. All right then. Well, you better drive because um well because I haven't had a drink.

Yes. Good thought. Come on then.

Okay. I suppose I'll have to put the seat back, won't I? Yes, etc.

Was this follow through? I'd have carried straight on there, mate. But it's still there.

There's the hammerhead.