#TheGrandTour #OneForTheRoad #ClarksonHammondMay #FinalLap #ZimbabweSpecial
After 22 years of automotive mayhem, the trio—Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May—have reached the end of the road. In their final special, "One For The Road," they head to Zimbabwe in three cars they’ve always wanted to own: a Lancia Montecarlo, a Ford Capri, and a Triumph Stag. We dive into the most emotional moments, the stunning African landscapes, and the legacy left behind by the men who changed car television forever. Goodbye to the best car show in the world.
#AmazonPrime #CarReview #JeremyClarkson #RichardHammond #JamesMay #AutomotiveHistory
After 22 years of automotive mayhem, the trio—Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May—have reached the end of the road. In their final special, "One For The Road," they head to Zimbabwe in three cars they’ve always wanted to own: a Lancia Montecarlo, a Ford Capri, and a Triumph Stag. We dive into the most emotional moments, the stunning African landscapes, and the legacy left behind by the men who changed car television forever. Goodbye to the best car show in the world.
#AmazonPrime #CarReview #JeremyClarkson #RichardHammond #JamesMay #AutomotiveHistory
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MotorTranscript
00:00:28Transcription by CastingWords
00:00:58Transcription by CastingWords
00:01:29Transcription by CastingWords
00:01:35Transcription by CastingWords
00:01:42This of course is the home of those gloomy dramas where a weird woman in a jumper solves a murder
00:01:49by staring at a lake for six hours.
00:01:54This will probably be the joyous programme to come out of this neck of the woods since...
00:01:58Four funerals and a funeral?
00:02:00Yeah. Swedish rom-com that was.
00:02:02When Harry shot Sally.
00:02:06The girl with the pearl necklace? No.
00:02:10That's another song of Scandinavian films.
00:02:17Anyway, specifically, we are deep inside the Arctic Circle in Finland.
00:02:25There you go.
00:02:27And Finland, of course, Finland, of course, is home to every single racing driver currently...
00:02:34What? All of them?
00:02:36Well, apart from Nico Rosberg, who is Finnish, but for some reason claims he's German.
00:02:43LAUGHTER
00:02:45Why does he do that? I've no idea.
00:02:47Who else is there, then?
00:02:48Well, there's Mika Sarlow, Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen...
00:02:51Hang on, they're just anagrams of the same name.
00:02:55What have you got rallying?
00:02:56There's Tommy Makanen, Timo Makanen, Juhar Kankinen, Larry Vatanen...
00:03:01More anagrams.
00:03:03LAUGHTER
00:03:05Kinky Wankinen...
00:03:07LAUGHTER
00:03:08Manky Pantsedum...
00:03:10LAUGHTER
00:03:11LAUGHTER
00:03:12Really fun throwing away, though.
00:03:14Seriously, I went on Wikipedia last night to look for famous Finns who aren't racing drivers
00:03:19and put it up, here's the list, this is what I found, and I noticed something.
00:03:22They're all men!
00:03:24All of them!
00:03:25Are there any famous Finnish women?
00:03:29Finnish people?
00:03:30LAUGHTER
00:03:31I don't think it's a...
00:03:32No, all right.
00:03:33Errrr...
00:03:34I know why, OK?
00:03:35It's because all Finnish women, at the age of 19, move to England to be au-pairs.
00:03:42LAUGHTER
00:03:42I actually had three Finnish au-pairs over the years for my children.
00:03:46Did you?
00:03:46Yeah, and it was always funny, you'd go to Heathrow Airport to pick up your new au-pair,
00:03:50and there'd always be a row of 30-something fathers waiting at the gate for the Scandinavian au-pair to
00:03:57come out.
00:03:58LAUGHTER
00:03:58There was one year I've never forgotten.
00:04:01This huge moose lumbered out of the door, and the man next to him, he looked at his piece of
00:04:06paper and went,
00:04:07Oh, for God's sake!
00:04:10LAUGHTER
00:04:17Shall we get on with the show?
00:04:19Yes, good idea, because tonight, in our television programme about cars...
00:04:24I eat some cheddar!
00:04:28Richard says he doesn't want any!
00:04:30I don't want cheese!
00:04:33And James compares a Ford GT40 to a Ferrari P3!
00:04:38Avante!
00:04:41But first, if you're watching this in America, you may be amazed to hear that the Ford Mustang has never
00:04:48been sold officially in the UK.
00:04:50Well, until now, because Ford has now decided that the latest Mustang will be sold in the UK, with a
00:04:57V8 engine and right-hand drive.
00:05:00Mmm, and this has made our other resident American very happy.
00:05:05He was so excited, in fact, that when the first right-hand drive Mustang arrived at the docks in the
00:05:10UK, he was actually there to meet it.
00:05:14LAUGHTER
00:05:35It'll be here any minute.
00:05:49That is it!
00:05:50Are we ready?
00:05:51This is the moment.
00:05:52It's touchdown!
00:05:54Go, go, go!
00:06:03Look!
00:06:04It's a bit gloomy, isn't it?
00:06:06It's not very welcoming.
00:06:08Have you got anything more upbeat?
00:06:13Forget it!
00:06:14Forget it!
00:06:15Forget it!
00:06:16Forget it!
00:06:22I'm so excited!
00:06:23My tinkle is fizzing!
00:06:31Oh, yeah!
00:06:40Sorry about that. We really are useless over here.
00:06:43It's one of the reasons we needed your help in the war.
00:06:49I decided that, first of all, I'd show the new Mustang around, so I headed for London, which is the
00:06:56capital city.
00:06:57Oh, yeah!
00:06:59Oh, yeah!
00:07:16Ah, now this is Tower Bridge.
00:07:20Interesting. It's very, very old.
00:07:22But it folds completely in half so that in the old days, the horses could go through.
00:07:31Now that's the Houses of Parliament, which are a series of houses in which we keep all our idiots.
00:07:37That clock thing, that's Big Ben.
00:07:41I know it's not what you call Big, but we couldn't just call it Ben.
00:07:47And that is the Cenotaph, where we remember those who died fighting for us.
00:07:55Slowing down a bit here. Show some respect.
00:08:02No idea what that is. Wasn't here this morning.
00:08:07I know that's a cyclist. You've got to be careful of those small but very angry creatures.
00:08:14That's the army. They're the ones who shot at your White House. Sorry about that.
00:08:21Having seen all of the sights, we headed out of town.
00:08:25So I could do this.
00:08:31There it is.
00:08:33That is the soundtrack that Britain has been missing for 51 years.
00:08:38Real American V8 muscle.
00:08:44We just don't make cars like this on our side of the pond.
00:08:48We just don't make cars like this on our side of the pond.
00:08:48All that lazy but determined torque.
00:08:51Squeeze the throttle in any gear at any speed.
00:08:55And there's an inevitability to the way it moves off.
00:08:58It's like arm wrestling a solar system.
00:09:01You're going to lose.
00:09:12It is weird. Driving a Mustang from this side.
00:09:17It's like suddenly changing your mind after 50 years of marriage and sleeping on the other side of the bed.
00:09:23It's also weird driving a car with a big V8, reversing camera, air-conditioned seats, rain-sensing wipers, that you
00:09:30can buy for 37,000.
00:09:33That's half what you'd pay for a BMW M4. Half.
00:09:39Once we were in the countryside proper, I continued my sightseeing tour.
00:09:46Look, I've drawn your badge on a hill.
00:09:55Jeremy did that one.
00:10:00Sorry.
00:10:05Eventually, we arrived at Stonehenge.
00:10:10That, you'll be amazed to learn, is an ancient calendar.
00:10:16Four o'clock.
00:10:18Or a church.
00:10:19My tour of Britain was then interrupted by an unwelcome arrival.
00:10:26What are you doing here?
00:10:28Well, I have come to remind you, because you've obviously forgotten, because you're too giddy, that we have no need
00:10:36for the Mustang in Britain.
00:10:37Because if you want to spend, what, £30,000, £35,000 on a fast Ford, you'd buy a Focus RS,
00:10:44because that was designed for here.
00:10:46No, you'd settle for that in the UK, because you couldn't buy this, but now you can't, that is the
00:10:52point.
00:10:52That's what I mean.
00:10:53Would you wear chaps? No, because we have trousers. What about cowboy, oh, you are, cowboy boots.
00:10:59Well, it's appropriate, isn't it, I'm welcome. Listen, I don't want everything from America, I just want the Mustang.
00:11:04Stupid.
00:11:05No, American.
00:11:06It wasn't designed for here.
00:11:07Would you wear a Stetson?
00:11:09No.
00:11:10It's cold out, I'll wear a Stetson.
00:11:12No.
00:11:12You'd wear a bobble hat.
00:11:14That's a bobble hat.
00:11:15Oh, you're...
00:11:16No, hang on.
00:11:19I just realised.
00:11:20What?
00:11:20Um, I don't want to talk to you anymore.
00:11:42Anyway, anyway, we shall pick that up later on, but right now it's time to drop in a cog and
00:11:49hook a left.
00:11:50Into Conversation Street.
00:12:02Serious, it's serious.
00:12:03It is serious stuff, this.
00:12:06Now look, in Britain we're always being told that the Scandinavians are brilliant at driving and that's because, well, of
00:12:12course they would be because they have to deal with all that snow.
00:12:15Mmm, they're brilliant because what they do most of all is crash.
00:12:18Well, you're absolutely right, as it turns out, because I've got some interesting statistics here.
00:12:23Um, in Britain, 1.2% of accidents result in fatalities.
00:12:28Here, I'm afraid, it's 5.1%.
00:12:30Yeah, and it's not just the Finns either, if I may be so bold. Our senior international producer, that's his
00:12:37job title, came over to Finland the other day, rented himself a BMW at the airport, not a Ford or
00:12:43an Opel, you'll know, it's a BMW, and on his way to the location here, this happened.
00:12:49It did, it did.
00:12:51It did. When I say he's our senior international producer, he's now our junior international producer.
00:12:56Our junior local producer.
00:12:58Very local, specifically the station recovery.
00:13:01Yeah, that's all he's in charge of from now. How did he do that?
00:13:05The thing is, what I don't understand is how the Finns managed to go fast enough to have a crash
00:13:10of any sort at all, because the speeding fines here are insane.
00:13:15They're means tested, which means a guy here recently was caught doing 49 miles an hour through a 30 zone,
00:13:21and he was fined 112,000 euros.
00:13:26That's a speeding fine. Are they really that high in Finland?
00:13:33112,000 euros. Imagine getting that in the post.
00:13:36Well, it's interesting, actually, there was a Finnish minister recently said that the government needs those speeding fines to balance
00:13:44the books, they said.
00:13:45They actually said, speeding is good for the country.
00:13:49There we are.
00:13:51It is, it is, everything.
00:13:53Right?
00:13:54Who's going to adopt that?
00:13:56The speeding is good for you.
00:13:58It's a social duty.
00:13:59Bit more conversation for you.
00:14:01Oh, good.
00:14:03I think, with the exception of Rolls-Royce, Volvo now make the best car interiors of anybody.
00:14:10No.
00:14:11You didn't.
00:14:12That was very, very good.
00:14:13No, weirdly, I don't like to, but I agree with you, because I went in the new S90 the other
00:14:17day, and the interior is superb.
00:14:19No, we've got a picture of it here.
00:14:21Yes, that one.
00:14:21And the thing about it is, they use pale colours.
00:14:23They've got pale-coloured seats, pale-coloured carpets, pale wood, and that makes it feel light and airy and spacious.
00:14:28The only problem is, that in one of those, you couldn't enjoy a chocolate magnum ice cream.
00:14:36It's all right, I don't eat ice cream.
00:14:37I think it's something to do with being straight.
00:14:40LAUGHTER
00:14:43Well...
00:14:43What?
00:14:44Are you applauding it?
00:14:48What do you mean?
00:14:49Are you saying everyone who likes ice cream...
00:14:51Well, ice cream is a bit, you know...
00:14:53You're saying all children are homosexual?
00:14:56No.
00:14:57But there's nothing wrong with it, but a grown man eating an ice cream, it's, you know, it's a bit...
00:15:02It's that way rather than that way.
00:15:04It's just...
00:15:05Welcome to the inside of Richard Hammond's head.
00:15:08I'm right, I can't believe you can't see that, it's a fact, it's easy, it's in front of you.
00:15:12You could enjoy a 99 in there.
00:15:14You mean a 69?
00:15:15No, no...
00:15:1799, but you couldn't have the chocolate thingy.
00:15:19My case rest!
00:15:20Oh, the chocolate thingy!
00:15:22Exactly!
00:15:23But if you had a vulva, if you had that vulva, you could have a white magnum...
00:15:27True.
00:15:28...or a milky bar.
00:15:29Yeah, but not a double-decker.
00:15:31Well, a flake is worse.
00:15:33No, double-decker's worse.
00:15:35Double-decker?
00:15:36Do you all know what I mean by the double-decker, right?
00:15:38Because it is unique among chocolate...
00:15:41Silently breaks away.
00:15:43Goes down between your legs.
00:15:46And melts.
00:15:47So when you get out of the car, everybody thinks you've had some kind of trouser accident.
00:15:53A big brown stain, right?
00:15:55I know what you mean.
00:15:56I do know what you mean.
00:15:57It does happen.
00:15:58A flake is worse.
00:16:00No, it just isn't.
00:16:01A flake is advertised as the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate.
00:16:05It is worse.
00:16:06This is a hot topic on Conversations 3.
00:16:08It is.
00:16:08And I think we should settle it here and now.
00:16:11I'm going to go into our travelling box.
00:16:16Our travelling box of chocolate confectionery, and I'm going to...
00:16:20Let's settle it.
00:16:21Competition.
00:16:21Yes.
00:16:21I'm going to give you, James' flake, you, the double-decker.
00:16:25Right, so I'll just turn that over so then we'll see how much spills off as I eat the flake.
00:16:29Not much.
00:16:30Right, ready?
00:16:30This is scientific.
00:16:32Here we go.
00:16:33Oh.
00:16:34Some of it's already crumb...
00:16:35This is cheating, this one.
00:16:37OK, no, no.
00:16:38Clear away the debris.
00:16:39No, no.
00:16:40Jesus.
00:16:41That's part of eating it.
00:16:42It isn't part of eating it.
00:16:43I haven't even begun now.
00:16:44You've got to unwrap it.
00:16:46Shh.
00:16:46Cheat.
00:16:48Only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate.
00:16:52Oh, God.
00:16:53Tastes like chocolate.
00:16:54What?
00:16:54Jeremy, you know that advert?
00:16:56Girl in...
00:16:58Girl in the Field of Poppies?
00:16:59We're not seeing that right now.
00:17:02I am.
00:17:03I'm not.
00:17:03Right, ready?
00:17:04What's this?
00:17:05He's going in.
00:17:06First bite.
00:17:06Oh, it's a big bowl of chocolate.
00:17:09It's a spring...
00:17:10It's a heavy sprinkling, that.
00:17:11A light dusting of chocolate.
00:17:13Light dusting, yeah, OK.
00:17:14Right, James May.
00:17:15Moving over to this corner, James May and his double-decker.
00:17:17This is exciting, isn't it?
00:17:20This is a great car programme.
00:17:21Ground-breaking stuff, yeah.
00:17:23Quiet, please.
00:17:24I can't believe...
00:17:25I can't believe this hasn't been done before.
00:17:29He's going in.
00:17:30He's taking a bite.
00:17:33His poor old mass...
00:17:34His teeth...
00:17:34Oh!
00:17:36It's a catastrophic fall!
00:17:39It's a clear winner!
00:17:40The double-decker is worse than the plate.
00:17:45There's the plate.
00:17:46There's the double-decker.
00:17:48So, there we are.
00:17:49Using science we have now established...
00:17:51If you've got a Volvo, don't have a double-decker.
00:17:54Ever.
00:17:55Or an ice cream, cos he...
00:17:57Oh, no, forget it.
00:17:58Let's move a little further along conversation streams, shall we?
00:18:02A few weeks ago, Amazon, they ran an Amazon...
00:18:04...advert...
00:18:05...for our show.
00:18:06And we were rather pleased.
00:18:07See?
00:18:07It's got everything in.
00:18:08Yeah, there's a sense of travel.
00:18:10Logo.
00:18:10And there's even the goat.
00:18:12Yeah, no, that's perfect.
00:18:13Everything you need.
00:18:14That's all you need for the advert.
00:18:15I'll show you here, it's on the screen.
00:18:17That's...
00:18:17It's good, isn't it?
00:18:18Yeah.
00:18:20All the essentials are there.
00:18:21Everything you need.
00:18:23Everything you need to see.
00:18:28All the important stuff.
00:18:30Hammond, Hammond, I'm sorry to have to do this to you,
00:18:31but before the show launched, Amazon did another advert, okay?
00:18:35Which somebody sent to me on a tweet, which I did a screen grab-off,
00:18:38so the quality's not very good, but I have brought it along, okay?
00:18:40Here it is.
00:18:41Oh, for God's sake.
00:18:48I like their marketing department a lot.
00:18:52I think that's enough, Conversation Street, so let's get back to our film.
00:18:56Yes, earlier on, I was in the right-hand drive Ford Mustang,
00:18:59showing it the sights around our country.
00:19:01Unfortunately, he turned up and tried to argue
00:19:04that the similarly priced Ford Focus was a better bet.
00:19:07Yeah, I did do that.
00:19:08Yeah, and I responded by driving off and refusing to talk to you.
00:19:13A bit rudely, I thought.
00:19:20I'm sorry, this is my film, my tour of England,
00:19:24and I didn't want him spoiling.
00:19:30This thing's bloody awesome.
00:19:35Listen to that bellow, this thing squats on its haunches.
00:19:38This is what it's built to do.
00:19:41Every crackle, pop and bang is just connected to every synapse and sinew in me.
00:19:49Oh, no.
00:19:56This is like a first date for me, and on a first date, you don't want a fat, baldy uncle
00:20:02tagging along.
00:20:04So what I'm going to do now, is lose it.
00:20:12It's hammer time!
00:20:14Shock and awe!
00:20:15Ha ha ha ha!
00:20:22It's Bond versus Bond!
00:20:25It's Bond versus Bond!
00:20:32He's got 5 litres, I've only got 2.3.
00:20:36Is he going twice as fast?
00:20:38No, he is not.
00:20:45Corner coming up.
00:20:46Now, there's no need to panic anymore in a Mustang because, for the first time, the Mustang has independent rear
00:20:51suspension.
00:21:01The cornering speeds this thing can achieve, beggar belief.
00:21:15Oh, how does it grip that well?
00:21:22Ha ha ha!
00:21:24I'm in a car chase in a Mustang.
00:21:26I am Steve McQueen.
00:21:33I'll try that on.
00:21:38Put it in sport mode, which makes the exhaust bop and bang.
00:21:45Oh, my!
00:21:51Oh, my God!
00:21:54That's out, yep.
00:21:58He needs still grips.
00:22:01What is the point of traction control on this thing?
00:22:05I'm putting a nymphomania control on a nut.
00:22:18Oh, God!
00:22:34Where's he gone?
00:22:38How did he do that?
00:22:39How did he get away from me in something from the 18th century?
00:22:44Especially when I'm driving what is basically a turbocharged barnacle.
00:22:50This has the most sophisticated four-wheel drive system fitted to any car.
00:22:59Not even a Nissan GT-R could live with this.
00:23:07The Mustang, well, that's for cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway, listening to Don Henley.
00:23:14This is for storming up the Stelvio Pass, listening to The Clash.
00:23:22But, while it's a grippy technological masterpiece, it still has the blue-collar character of its ancestors.
00:23:31In many ways, this reminds me of the old Escort Cosworth, and that was a great car.
00:23:36I actually had one in the 90s. I called it Gary.
00:23:39It started every morning, and it always went,
00:23:42Do you want some?
00:23:43It was just John Terry, really, with windscreen wipers.
00:23:50Meanwhile, having got rid of the ape, I was back on my sightseeing tour.
00:23:56This is our Cheddar Gorge.
00:24:00Obviously, it's not as big as your gorge.
00:24:02The Grand Canyon is bigger, but it's longer, and deeper, and wider.
00:24:08Mmm, but it doesn't have any cheese in it.
00:24:10Why can't you just leave me alone?
00:24:12I'm just saying, everything in America comes with cheese, apart from the Grand Canyon.
00:24:17Whereas this canyon does come with cheese, and it's delicious. Here, have some.
00:24:21I don't want cheese.
00:24:22He's better than Monterey Jack in a tube.
00:24:24You're ruining this.
00:24:25No, you are, because you are telling everyone that the Mustang is better than the Focus.
00:24:32Well, it is.
00:24:33It isn't.
00:24:34It is?
00:24:35No, it isn't.
00:24:37Look, I'm not saying this is perfect, because it isn't.
00:24:40There's a vertical choppiness to the ride, which is annoying.
00:24:43If you put your phone in the phone holder in front of the gear lever,
00:24:46and then accelerate, it shoots out and goes under the seat, you'll never see it again.
00:24:49The petrol tank, way too small, and the styling is a bit... yobbish.
00:24:55A bit?
00:24:55But, Hammond, look at this.
00:25:00Oh, yeah, you're right.
00:25:02Half a century of Mustang history, heritage and pride,
00:25:06but it hasn't got a small plastic strip on the door in case you're a bit clumsy.
00:25:10No, it's brilliant there, and this is faster.
00:25:14Well, no, it isn't.
00:25:16It is.
00:25:17No, it isn't.
00:25:19It is.
00:25:20It isn't.
00:25:22At this point, I decided to abandon my tour and head for the nearest airfield,
00:25:28to teach Clarkson a lesson.
00:25:35Right, I've got 410 horsepower, that's 100 more than him,
00:25:40but there's something else on here that's missing on his focus,
00:25:43and it's this.
00:25:44Line lock.
00:25:45So, engage it.
00:25:46Press OK to initialise.
00:25:49Initialising.
00:25:50Initialising complete.
00:25:51Firmly apply and hold brake to engage.
00:25:53Engage.
00:25:53Press OK to begin.
00:25:57What that's doing is locking the front brakes,
00:26:01so I can warm up my tyres.
00:26:04That is an ideal feature for people who wake up in the morning and think,
00:26:09do you know, I've got too much tread on my tyres.
00:26:18Yeah, I'm doing that automatically.
00:26:28What a moron.
00:26:30With my tyres warmed up, I took my place on the start line.
00:26:38Right, race mode, launch control, overboost facility on the turbocharger,
00:26:46four-wheel drive and a man with lightning reactions at the wheel.
00:26:50This car is going to boing off the line like a spring lamb.
00:26:57Launch control, first gear, and we're ready to go.
00:27:18Oh, he's away first!
00:27:21The most incredible launch control in the world!
00:27:26Come on!
00:27:28Come on Jeremy!
00:27:29Come on!
00:27:30Come on!
00:27:30You're winning!
00:27:42No, no, no! That's simply impossible!
00:27:46Well, bless it for trying.
00:27:52Things I don't want to see right now, number one.
00:27:55So, er, I won then?
00:27:57Yes, but your car doesn't have a drift button.
00:28:02A what?
00:28:03A drift button.
00:28:04What does that do?
00:28:04Well, you push it, and then when you go round the corner, the car drifts.
00:28:09Does it?
00:28:10Yeah.
00:28:10Do you know what? I'd love to see that in action.
00:28:12I'd love to see you doing that.
00:28:14Yes.
00:28:14I'll watch. Yes, show me.
00:28:16I'm going to. You stay there.
00:28:17Oh.
00:28:17Even James May could drift this.
00:28:20Here we go!
00:28:20I can't wait to watch!
00:28:31Check it out, ladies and gentlemen. Check it out.
00:28:35Drifting.
00:28:37Ha-ha! Where do you got that, Hammond?
00:28:39Where do you got that?
00:28:46Hammond?
00:28:50Hammond?
00:28:52Hammond?
00:28:53Hammond?
00:28:53Hammond?
00:28:53Hammond?
00:28:54Hammond?
00:29:02Hammond?
00:29:03Hammond?
00:29:03Hammond?
00:29:04Hammond?
00:29:04Hammond?
00:29:04Where did you go?
00:29:05Well, I left you because you were being moronic.
00:29:08Who wasn't?
00:29:09You were?
00:29:09Seriously, who's going to buy a Ford Focus when, for the same money, you could have a V8 engine Mustang?
00:29:14No one.
00:29:15What?
00:29:16Nobody would.
00:29:17Mustangs got so much more character.
00:29:19Hang on, so you agree with me?
00:29:21Oh, of course, yes, if I had the choice of those two cars, I'd have the Mustang every day of
00:29:25the week.
00:29:27So you ruined my day out for no reason at all?
00:29:30I ruined your day out because it was fun to ruin your day out.
00:29:34Good work.
00:29:35It was good work.
00:29:36Sorry about that.
00:29:37But anyway, we must now find out how fast those Fords go round our track.
00:29:41And that, of course, means handing them over to our other resident American.
00:29:45A man who thinks that shower gel is basically communist.
00:29:50It's the American.
00:29:53There he is, looking bewildered.
00:29:55And he's away!
00:29:59Sounds like a bunch of goddamn mice in there.
00:30:05Why the hell don't they just start with eight cylinders?
00:30:09Strangest mice I ever heard as he powers down the isn't.
00:30:13That is a good noise.
00:30:15Arms working the wheel like he's wrestling a drifter, which, of course, he is.
00:30:20And already, is it your name here?
00:30:22Tyres squealing, but it's clinging on well.
00:30:25And now the climb back onto the isn't.
00:30:27Ain't got no room in it.
00:30:30No place to put your beer.
00:30:32I think he and I look for slightly different things in a car.
00:30:36Anyway, now hard on the brakes as he turns into old lady's house.
00:30:43Yep, he is dispatching that with no dramas.
00:30:45And now he can get the hammer down with a bumpy sprint to substation.
00:30:50Looking good.
00:30:51Four wheel drive cars can, of course, understeer.
00:30:54But nope, not a whiff of it here.
00:30:57And field of sheep tidy through there as well.
00:31:00And across the line.
00:31:03Now, I think he might enjoy this one.
00:31:07And he is wheel spinning away.
00:31:10All right.
00:31:12American muscle, baby.
00:31:145.0 Mustang.
00:31:16This thing is badass.
00:31:20Got a trunk.
00:31:21Got a place for my golf clubs.
00:31:23Pack up the old lady.
00:31:25Go for the weekend somewhere, this thing.
00:31:27And you can haul ass while you're going.
00:31:29Something there about an old lady and hauling the bottom.
00:31:33Anyway, he's on the isn't and he's flying into your name here.
00:31:37The mighty Mustang has filled the American with vigor.
00:31:40But he's been surprisingly tidy.
00:31:46That's what us Americans want.
00:31:47We want to smoke the tires.
00:31:49We want this thing to just get shit and git.
00:31:53Literally no idea what he's on about.
00:31:55It's just a noise.
00:31:57This thing stops, man.
00:31:58It stops on a dime.
00:32:00It'll stop on a dime.
00:32:01Give you nine cents a change, what we say.
00:32:04You really can't shut him up about this one.
00:32:06Anyway, he is keeping it neat round old lady's house.
00:32:10And then unleashing that V8 fury over the rough stuff to substation.
00:32:16Hard on the brakes.
00:32:17Ready for the 90 left.
00:32:19Blip it up to field of sheep.
00:32:21Here we go.
00:32:23Flurry of exuberance and across the line.
00:32:27Thank you!
00:32:28Good morning.
00:32:31Ok, here's the lap board!
00:32:34Let's have a look.
00:32:34First of all, where the focus went.
00:32:38So...
00:32:40Oh, there it is. Faster than an ST200, perhaps not surprising.
00:32:44Just as well.
00:32:44Now let's bring up the Mustang.
00:32:47Oh.
00:32:51Well, that's not embarrassing, is it?
00:32:54The car that you, me and the American all prefer
00:32:58is quite a lot slower than the European Focus.
00:33:02Yes.
00:33:03Anyway, listen, let's move on, shall we, to Celebrity Brain Crash.
00:33:16Now, our guest this week isn't just my favourite Formula One driver,
00:33:21he's also a local boy.
00:33:24Oh, yeah, this is the chatty man of motorsport,
00:33:27Mr. Effervescent, ladies and gentlemen, Kimi Raikkonen!
00:33:32Here he comes.
00:33:37What? What are we going to ask him?
00:33:39It doesn't matter what you ask him.
00:33:41It doesn't, because he won't get a coherent answer.
00:33:44Is he all right?
00:33:48No, hang on. Whoa.
00:33:50Oh, no.
00:33:51Not again.
00:33:54No, he has, I'm afraid, ladies and gentlemen,
00:33:57literally drunk himself to death.
00:34:00Damn.
00:34:01Does that mean he's not coming on, then?
00:34:04Well, his liver has failed
00:34:05and he's now slowly solidifying
00:34:07in the freezing dusk of an arctic night.
00:34:09So that's a no.
00:34:12Yeah, but it doesn't matter.
00:34:13Well, it does, because I actually rather liked Kimi,
00:34:15but it doesn't actually matter,
00:34:16because I can think of something else we can do to fill the time.
00:34:19Here's the thing.
00:34:20If you're watching this on the day
00:34:22the programme is actually released,
00:34:24it is December the 23rd.
00:34:26There are two days to go until Christmas
00:34:28and if you're a man
00:34:30you won't have done
00:34:31any shopping yet.
00:34:34But don't worry,
00:34:36because we've got your back.
00:34:37We have trawled the internet and the shops
00:34:39to find the best gift ideas.
00:34:42Yes, and here in our special
00:34:44grand tour
00:34:45Santa Land Grotto.
00:34:47Yeah.
00:34:49Nice view.
00:34:50Nice evidence.
00:34:52Yeah.
00:34:53We begin with this rather brilliant tray,
00:34:56which apparently is the ideal place
00:34:58to put your laptop
00:34:59or your breakfast.
00:35:00We have a picture of it in action here.
00:35:04I can see a couple of problems with that.
00:35:08Yeah, I can too.
00:35:08What else have we got?
00:35:09Well, now,
00:35:10the reason I don't play chess anymore
00:35:12is it's just so exhausting
00:35:14to move the pieces around.
00:35:15Oh, I know what you mean.
00:35:16They're far too heavy
00:35:17picking the queen up
00:35:18moving her along
00:35:18but it's okay
00:35:19because Ferrari
00:35:20has answered that problem with this.
00:35:23It's a lightweight
00:35:24carbon fibre chess set
00:35:26and it's yours for
00:35:271,400 pounds.
00:35:301,400 pounds.
00:35:33And that is the funny thing.
00:35:34You take something ordinary,
00:35:36write a car name on it
00:35:37and suddenly it becomes expensive.
00:35:39This bear, for example.
00:35:40I know about bears.
00:35:42It's an acrylic fibre
00:35:44stuffed with industrial waste.
00:35:46£2.75.
00:35:47But because it's got
00:35:48a Honda t-shirt on,
00:35:50£10.
00:35:52£10?
00:35:53Yes, but it's Honda Bear.
00:35:55Oh, yes.
00:35:56Another Christmas morning
00:35:57Honda Bear.
00:35:58I love following his adventures.
00:36:00How about this lovingly crafted
00:36:02I love my Hyundai pillowcase?
00:36:07What woman is ever going to leap into bed
00:36:09with the man whose pillows bear that legend?
00:36:12OK, Hammond.
00:36:13I'll tell you exactly what woman.
00:36:14The woman who would wear this thong,
00:36:17which has written lovingly on the front,
00:36:20the legend Elantra.
00:36:23Erotic.
00:36:24Erotic.
00:36:25Can I just say
00:36:26the perfect Christmas gift
00:36:28for the Hyundai owner
00:36:29is a BMW.
00:36:31Well, yes, look,
00:36:32we realise that branding stuff,
00:36:34obviously there's some money in it,
00:36:35so we thought,
00:36:36since we're in Scandinavia,
00:36:38we would launch our own range
00:36:40of car-branded Christmas jumpers.
00:36:43Ooh-ooh.
00:36:44Oh, yeah.
00:36:44Yeah.
00:36:45Talk among yourselves, everybody.
00:36:47Hold on a moment.
00:36:48This is modelling time.
00:36:51Mine is a simple turtleneck,
00:36:54very, very warm,
00:36:55bearing the name of a legend
00:36:57on the front.
00:36:58I know, it's very special.
00:36:59A bit Christmassy.
00:37:00Yeah?
00:37:01I have gone for a very fun
00:37:03and Christmassy cardigan
00:37:06bearing the name,
00:37:07as you can see,
00:37:07of a car I absolutely adore.
00:37:10Yeah, and here's the thing, OK?
00:37:12Mine is a crew neck, actually.
00:37:18What is everybody?
00:37:22Why are you applauding?
00:37:23I don't know.
00:37:26I think...
00:37:27Why are you...
00:37:29Is it because they haven't seen us
00:37:30in knitwear before?
00:37:33Anyway, we've had a go
00:37:34at making some Grand Tour-branded stuff.
00:37:36But here's the thing,
00:37:37we haven't gone for the obvious stuff
00:37:38like jumpers and mugs and umbrellas.
00:37:40We've gone for things
00:37:41that other people haven't thought of.
00:37:43Things like this,
00:37:45haemorrhoid cream.
00:37:47We all need it.
00:37:49I don't.
00:37:49No, I don't either.
00:37:51Well, this is mine.
00:37:53Bought it for £2.75,
00:37:55but now it's got Grand Tour on it.
00:37:57We could sell that for £20.
00:37:59I'll tell you what really good idea
00:38:02we've had
00:38:03is condoms, OK,
00:38:05which have been...
00:38:06Well, they've been branded
00:38:07with well-known expressions
00:38:08and phrases
00:38:09that we often say.
00:38:10I'm going to demonstrate using...
00:38:12Whoa!
00:38:13You flatter yourself, sir.
00:38:16Au contraire.
00:38:17Oh, really?
00:38:18So we simply roll the condom
00:38:20over the rolling pin.
00:38:23Here it is.
00:38:24There's the GT logo coming up.
00:38:26And on the other side,
00:38:27how hard can it be?
00:38:30We're very pleased.
00:38:37We're very pleased with these.
00:38:39Various of our slogans have been used.
00:38:41I'm going to put mine on this
00:38:43disappointingly small carrot.
00:38:46And it bears
00:38:47one of my expressions.
00:38:49I can't...
00:38:49Don't blat it!
00:38:50Well, I can't open the thing.
00:38:52Use my...
00:38:52No, there's one of those
00:38:53little tear things.
00:38:55Hold on, love.
00:38:55I'll be with you in a minute.
00:38:56No, no.
00:38:57Look, you're not going to be here
00:38:59to help me when I'm using it,
00:39:00are you?
00:39:01You don't know.
00:39:02I bloody do.
00:39:03I'm pretty sure you won't be.
00:39:04It's quite the wrong thing to say.
00:39:06Are you in?
00:39:07Yeah, I'm in...
00:39:07What?
00:39:08Can I have my glasses back?
00:39:10No.
00:39:10No, I want my glasses back
00:39:11before you start...
00:39:12Right, hang on.
00:39:12...messing around with sex things.
00:39:14Oh, right.
00:39:14Let me just...
00:39:15Ooh, it's a bit baggy.
00:39:16I've actually torn it
00:39:17with my teeth,
00:39:18which makes the slogan on it
00:39:20quite appropriate, really.
00:39:21That's not gone well.
00:39:24Can I just say
00:39:25that is by far and away
00:39:27the least erotic thing
00:39:28I have ever...
00:39:30Don't tell me
00:39:31that's not an unfamiliar sight.
00:39:41Oh, you?
00:39:42Have you done one as well?
00:39:43Of course I have.
00:39:43Very sensibly,
00:39:44I put mine on earlier.
00:39:47Branded with the GT logo
00:39:49and my own personal catchphrase,
00:39:50I was the first to arrive.
00:39:57Now, are you bored
00:39:59with having two
00:40:00fully functioning ankles?
00:40:02Yes.
00:40:02Well, don't worry if you are
00:40:03because this Christmas
00:40:04the market is awash
00:40:06with products designed
00:40:07specifically to break them,
00:40:09such as this,
00:40:10Ibot 9.
00:40:11I thought that was a vacuum cleaner.
00:40:13No, it's incredibly heavy
00:40:14because it's packed full of pain.
00:40:16Basically, you put these things
00:40:17out on the side,
00:40:18you stand on that
00:40:19and you whizz about
00:40:19but within seconds
00:40:20of getting on there
00:40:21you will be falling over
00:40:22and breaking your ankles.
00:40:23Probably so.
00:40:24Yes, and on the other hand
00:40:25there are also these.
00:40:27These are called
00:40:27the rocket skates.
00:40:29They will cost you
00:40:30just £900
00:40:31and they are guaranteed
00:40:33to power you straight
00:40:34to casualty.
00:40:37They're fine.
00:40:38No, they're really not.
00:40:39Oh, you're all right.
00:40:40I could have a go on those.
00:40:41Who'd like to see that?
00:40:44You said it.
00:40:45Honestly, I mean,
00:40:46honestly,
00:40:49how hard can it be?
00:40:51See, I knew it would come in handy.
00:40:53I can bludgeon.
00:40:54No, seriously,
00:40:55I'll have a go there.
00:40:56Yeah.
00:40:56Can I wear my shoes in them?
00:40:59Are they like ski boots?
00:41:01Yes, Jeremy,
00:41:02apart from they've got wheels
00:41:03and you're indoors.
00:41:04I am not going near them,
00:41:05by the way.
00:41:06Just put my foot in them.
00:41:07I don't want to.
00:41:09I can't see what I'm...
00:41:11Degrading and unpleasant.
00:41:13Do I suppose to take my shoes off?
00:41:15Put your great cloven hoof in there.
00:41:17It fits.
00:41:18You can go to the ball.
00:41:21There.
00:41:22Thank you very much.
00:41:23Now what are you going to do?
00:41:23You're not going to do it.
00:41:29Is that it?
00:41:30Have you started?
00:41:30Not yet.
00:41:32I might have faced the other way,
00:41:33haven't I?
00:41:35Looking good.
00:41:37These are worth every...
00:41:38What were they cost?
00:41:39900 quid?
00:41:40900 quid.
00:41:41Literally every penny.
00:41:43Wait, hold it there.
00:41:44Hold it there.
00:41:45Look out, girls.
00:41:46Mr. Darcy's arrived.
00:41:49Looking good.
00:41:55Oh, this is brilliant.
00:41:57Wow.
00:41:58I can see why they're called rocket skates.
00:42:02Come on, man.
00:42:03Oh, God.
00:42:04He was trying to move.
00:42:06What do you mean, lean back?
00:42:16Jeremy?
00:42:17What?
00:42:17Stephen Hawking would make a better job if it's not a skates than you.
00:42:22Where are you going?
00:42:24You've got to get one.
00:42:26Do you remember that thing?
00:42:27Oh, oh, oh.
00:42:29It's a disaster.
00:42:33Sorry.
00:42:35Don't worry, Jeremy.
00:42:36I will come and rescue on my nine-bun.
00:42:37Bloody hell.
00:42:39Oh, my God.
00:42:39It's going mad.
00:42:41Right.
00:42:42Right.
00:42:42Put my foot on there, and I go like that.
00:42:43This is a really good ambulance service.
00:42:50I'll be there in a minute.
00:42:52I don't know that this works.
00:42:54I've got to go.
00:42:57Shit.
00:42:58I've got cramp.
00:42:59Ah!
00:43:01Oh, that was a brilliant idea, but never mind, because I have a perfect Christmas present
00:43:06here.
00:43:07You control this with your mobile phone, and your face comes on it, and the brilliant
00:43:11thing about it is that it means you can have your favourite celebrity round to your house
00:43:16for Christmas lunch, and with that in mind, ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome
00:43:20into the studio, he's actually in his office in London, and yet he's also here, on top of
00:43:26a stick, it's Bob Geldof!
00:43:32We're going to say hello to Bob.
00:43:34I can't say hello to Bob.
00:43:35He's coming.
00:43:36Oh, look at his going south.
00:43:38It's Bob Geldof, everybody.
00:43:41Hello, Bob.
00:43:42Let me go.
00:43:43Bob, we're over here, Bob.
00:43:45Bob.
00:43:46Bob.
00:43:46Bob, we're over here.
00:43:47Where are you?
00:43:47He's better.
00:43:49Bob Geldof, how are you?
00:43:51Bob Geldof.
00:43:52Happy Christmas.
00:43:53Oh, ****.
00:43:56Are you on your Christmas, Bob?
00:43:57Oh, no, he's Bob.
00:43:58Ladies and gentlemen, Bob Geldof is lost.
00:44:01He's gone in the wrong direction.
00:44:04Oh, James May is coming to join in.
00:44:06Where's May?
00:44:06I'm coming to talk to Bob Geldof.
00:44:09Whoa!
00:44:10Mate has kissed Bob Geldof.
00:44:12Hello, Bob.
00:44:13How are you?
00:44:13Get out of the way.
00:44:15I'm travelling.
00:44:16No, straight ahead, Bob.
00:44:17Bob, no.
00:44:17Left hand down, Bob.
00:44:18No, Bob.
00:44:19Bob, you...
00:44:20Just attack someone's not.
00:44:23Oh, stop attacking the crowd.
00:44:26Where is he going?
00:44:27Oh, Bob!
00:44:30Right, I'll rescue Bob.
00:44:32Hold on.
00:44:33Straight ahead, Bob.
00:44:34That's perfect.
00:44:34Straight ahead, straight ahead.
00:44:35Bit of right hand down.
00:44:36Bit of right hand down.
00:44:37Don't get me driving to it.
00:44:39Stop head butting the tree.
00:44:41This is ridiculous.
00:44:43Where's the reindeer at Santa Claus house?
00:44:46Oh, no, hang on a minute!
00:44:49It's ruined Christmas!
00:44:50Does he know it's Christmas time at all?
00:44:53Well, tonight, thank God, it's him instead of us knocking the Christmas tree.
00:44:56Absolutely right, it's ruined it!
00:44:59Anyway...
00:45:01This year marks the 50th anniversary of the greatest battle in motorsport history.
00:45:07The story begins in the 1960s when Ford realised that they could sell a lot more cars
00:45:13if they were a lot more successful on the race track.
00:45:16So, they formulated a brilliant plan, but unfortunately...
00:45:24It went disastrously wrong, didn't it, Bob?
00:45:32Ford knew that if you wanted to rule in motorsport, there was only one race that mattered.
00:45:38The toughest and most dangerous of them all.
00:45:41The 24 hours of Le Mans.
00:45:43Lovet's Mercedes collides and blows up.
00:45:46The problem was, for all its might, Ford didn't have a clue how to win at Le Mans.
00:45:52However, over in Italy, someone did.
00:46:04In the early 1960s, Enzo Ferrari's cars ruled sports car racing, Le Mans especially.
00:46:11At the start of the decade, he had won the famous and gruelling 24-hour race three times on the
00:46:16trot.
00:46:17However, the company was in deep financial difficulty.
00:46:21So, when Ford offered to buy the entire business, Enzo agreed.
00:46:29At first, all went well.
00:46:31Enzo Ferrari and the head of Ford, Henry Ford II, quickly settled on a price of $16 million.
00:46:40And on May 21, 1963, Ford executives arrived in Maranello to sign the deal.
00:46:49Ford turned up with an army of suits.
00:46:51Enzo Ferrari sat opposite them with just the local town lawyer.
00:46:55Now, they read through the contract and it all seemed well.
00:46:58But then, suddenly, Ferrari stopped and he took out his famous fountain pen full of purple ink.
00:47:03And as you can see from this accurate copy I have here, he drew a big exclamation mark and he
00:47:08wrote,
00:47:08No, that's no good.
00:47:11Now, what had angered him?
00:47:12Well, it was this clause here.
00:47:14You see, Enzo Ferrari wanted to retain control of the motorsport side of his business.
00:47:19But this bit effectively handed control to Ford.
00:47:24There followed a tirade of abuse, in Italian, after which Enzo said to his lawyer,
00:47:29Let's go and eat.
00:47:30And they got up and they simply walked out on the stunned Ford executives.
00:47:34That was that.
00:47:36All of this, for nothing.
00:47:39Back in Detroit, Henry Ford II, apoplectic with rage, gathered his lieutenants and issued the order.
00:47:47Build me a car that will crush Ferrari at Le Mans.
00:47:54To beat Ferrari on European soil, Ford needed European expertise.
00:47:59So, he hired a small British motorsport company that set up shop here, in this very building, on an industrial
00:48:06estate in Slough, just outside London.
00:48:09And the challenges they faced were enormous.
00:48:13They had to build a car that would race at over 200 miles an hour, which was something that had
00:48:18never been done before.
00:48:19And it had to be reliable for the 24 hours of the Le Mans race.
00:48:23A race in which you changed gear 9,000 times and drove flat out for 3,000 miles.
00:48:30And as if that wasn't bad enough, they only had 10 months to do it.
00:48:39Out of that insane timetable emerged this.
00:48:45The Ford GT, thanks to its sleek shape and a body that stood just 40 inches tall, it promised to
00:48:52cut through the air like a missile.
00:48:55Add a 4.2 litre V8 and the magic target of 200 miles an hour seemed in the bag.
00:49:03The trouble is, a racing car is just a collection of hopes and dreams until it gets on the track.
00:49:10And that's something that Ford learned in a very brutal way when they took the GT40 to test at Le
00:49:16Mans for the first time.
00:49:19And so to the first Le Mans practice session.
00:49:22On its first outing, the renamed GT40 was fast, but it was also terrifyingly unstable, spinning its wheels on the
00:49:31straights.
00:49:33I'm not talking about when you set off, I mean it was happening at 170 miles an hour.
00:49:41Now the problem was either aerodynamics or suspension, but they never got themselves to find out because later that day
00:49:47the car crashed at 160 miles an hour.
00:49:51Well that was okay, they had a spare one of course. The next day that crashed as well.
00:49:57The Le Mans was just two months away.
00:50:03Against all odds, Ford got their act together in time for the 1964 race.
00:50:09The Le Mans 24 hour race at last, and three gleaming Ford GTs are present.
00:50:15But during the race itself, all the cars broke down or caught fire.
00:50:21Leaving bitter rivals Ferrari to take another one, two, three victory.
00:50:30In Detroit, Henry Ford decreed that they would be back next year to take on Ferrari again.
00:50:36And to head up the campaign, he turned to an American motorsport hero.
00:50:41My name's Carroll Shelby, and performance is my business.
00:50:45Shelby was a former chicken farmer from Texas, who took nitroglycerine pills to keep his heart going.
00:50:51But he'd also racked up countless victories as a driver and team owner.
00:50:56Given the task of turning the GT40 into a winner, he put his top man on the job.
00:51:01Coming up is Ken Miles, one of the best sport car drivers in America.
00:51:07Miles was a former Second World War tank commander from Birmingham, the one in England, not Alabama.
00:51:14He was renowned for speaking his mind and developing racing cars.
00:51:19Miles took the car for a shakedown and he got out and he told Shelby and the Ford executives it's
00:51:25bloody awful.
00:51:26Then he got to work, improving the brakes, the engine, the aerodynamics, the handling and taming the car's terrifying high
00:51:35speed instability.
00:51:37However, and even though he and his team took amphetamines so that they could stay awake all night,
00:51:43there simply wasn't time to develop the car properly for Le Mans.
00:51:47The GT40 may have been faster, but it was still fragile.
00:51:52At the 1965 race, six cars started, none finished.
00:51:57And the Italians humiliated Ford once again.
00:52:02So, untold, millions of dollars had been spent since the first GT40 emerged from this building here.
00:52:09And yet not one car had even finished the race.
00:52:13So Ford now faced a difficult choice.
00:52:15He could throw in the towel against Ferrari or he could fight on.
00:52:19What he actually did was he had some business cards printed and he distributed them to his Le Mans team.
00:52:25And on the cards it said, you'd better win.
00:52:28And so, a year later, the American giant returned to Le Mans with his hopes resting on this.
00:52:44Okay viewers, this is historic race car bucket list moment number two.
00:52:50Because this is an actual GT40 that competed at Le Mans in 1966.
00:52:59If I don't go mad there, it's worth 15 million quid.
00:53:05Sod it, let's make some noise!
00:53:13Yes!
00:53:17In this new GT40, Ken Miles had racked up thousands of test hours.
00:53:23Now the car was no longer horribly unstable, but would sit rock steady at 210 miles per hour.
00:53:30And the Brummie tank commander had the backing of Ford's huge R&D department, who tackled the car's appalling reliability.
00:53:40The brakes no longer went into thermal shock at the end of the long straight.
00:53:46The engine and transmission were run on a computerized test rig that simulated the whole of the 24 hour Le
00:53:53Mans race.
00:53:54Now that's standard practice in Formula One today, but in 1966, that was witchcraft.
00:54:02They weren't mucking about these blokes.
00:54:05But neither were the opposition.
00:54:08Over in Italy, in response to the new threat, Ferrari produced this.
00:54:20Called the P3, it looked as sleek as a GT40.
00:54:25And at just 37.4 inches tall, it was even lower.
00:54:34How about it?
00:54:39Woo! Holy mother!
00:54:42Let's be a little bit careful on this narrow road.
00:54:44It's worth 20 million pounds.
00:54:49Where the GT40 boasted a top speed of over 210 miles an hour,
00:54:55the P3 maxed out at just 190.
00:54:58But Enzo Ferrari was willing to trade outright speed for gains elsewhere.
00:55:05The Ferrari was lighter, it was more agile.
00:55:09Ferrari reckoned he could make up the difference in the beds,
00:55:12and he wouldn't have to stop so often for fuel.
00:55:16A David and Goliath battle was looming.
00:55:20At the 1966 Le Mans race, Ford arrived with an armada.
00:55:25Eight cars, 20 tonnes of spares, and a squad of world-class drivers,
00:55:32including Ken Miles himself.
00:55:34In comparison, Ferrari turned up with just a trio of P3s.
00:55:39But Enzo had an ace up his sleeve.
00:55:40The undisputed fastest driver on the planet.
00:55:44Formula One world champion, John Surtees.
00:55:49He had come to me and said,
00:55:51John, we've got to beat the Fords.
00:55:54Go out and do it.
00:55:55I thought there was only one tactic, to have at least one car be the hare.
00:56:01I said, look, I don't mind being the hare.
00:56:05The moment that flag goes down, we need to be back off,
00:56:10tempting the Ford drivers to perhaps overdrive a little bit.
00:56:14If one could push them hard enough for long enough,
00:56:17then there was more likelihood, obviously, of being able to break them.
00:56:22The plan was set.
00:56:24But as zero-hour approached, everything unravelled.
00:56:28Shortly before the start of the race, we learned that he wasn't going to drive,
00:56:31and we asked him about it.
00:56:33Yes, unfortunately, you've heard correct.
00:56:35I won't be driving.
00:56:37What is the reason?
00:56:39Well, I suppose it's best summed up at this stage by saying political reason.
00:56:45The problem was that the Ferrari team manager was playing his own political game.
00:56:49He had no particular liking for Surtees, and he nominated another driver to go out and start the race,
00:56:55to be the hare, even though Surtees was clearly the fastest man available.
00:57:02And I just stormed away, drove back, and had it out with the old man.
00:57:07As the Italian papers put it, they showed a picture of me walking out the gates and saying the divorce
00:57:14of John Surtees and Enzo.
00:57:20With Surtees out of the way, the Fords took the top four slots in qualifying.
00:57:26And as the clock ticked down, Henry Ford II prepared to drop the flag, praying that this time he would
00:57:33get his revenge.
00:57:36Live from Le Mans, France, it's the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
00:57:53At first, the Fords stormed into the lead.
00:57:56But a few hours in, it was beginning to look like a depressing repeat of 64 and 65.
00:58:03As night fell, the Ferraris, using their greater agility and their greater fuel efficiency, were leading the race one, two.
00:58:11Four of the eight GT40s were out of the race altogether.
00:58:16Worse still, the Ford drivers had strict orders not to go balls out for fear of breaking the cars.
00:58:24But one man wasn't listening to those orders.
00:58:28Ken Miles put the hammer down, set blistering lap times and retook the lead for Ford.
00:58:35The Ferraris had no response to this crashing pace.
00:58:39And by morning, they had either broken down or crashed.
00:58:44That afternoon, Henry Ford watched his cars cruise home to a spectacular one, two, three finish.
00:58:54First place for the Ford GT Mark II.
00:58:58And a first time win for America at Le Mans.
00:59:02Ford would go on to win the next four Le Mans races.
00:59:06But the man who had contributed so much to the team didn't get to see these trials.
00:59:12Ken Miles was killed two months after their first win, testing the latest GT40.
00:59:21It's impossible to calculate how much Henry Ford spent on his three-year campaign to break Ferrari.
00:59:26But experts reckon that at the very least, in today's money, it was £360 million.
00:59:34Now that's a big bill for settling a spat with an angry Italian.
00:59:40But look what we got out of it.
00:59:43One of the world's greatest cars.
01:00:03I hate you.
01:00:04I know.
01:00:05No, but I really hate you now because you've driven the Ford GT40 and I never have.
01:00:10I mean, what is it next week? You're going to lick Helena Christensen?
01:00:12Look.
01:00:14I'm sure you could drive a GT40 if you really wanted to.
01:00:18I can't. I'm too tall.
01:00:19Yeah, you mean fat.
01:00:30Tall.
01:00:34Horizontally tall.
01:00:36But listen, whatever dimension is the problem, I can't drive one.
01:00:40And on that terrible disappointment, it is time to end.
01:00:43Thank you so much for watching.
01:00:45Good night.
01:01:10Good night.
01:01:13Good night.
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