[10x05] October 23rd, 2006

[SL65]

[10x05] 2006.10.23


Jason Plato takes the new Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 for a test-drive to find out if it’s the ultimate American muscle car. Available only as an exclusive import from the US, it’s the cheapest production car available with 500 horsepower. Is this £40,000 coupé with supercar performance any good, or will it suffer from the traditional deficiencies of an American car and handle like a shopping trolley?

Elsewhere, Jonny Smith races the world’s biggest mower, the £250,000 Claas Cougar. This giant machine looks like something out of ‘Thunderbirds’, and with its record-breaking 14-inch cutting width could mow Hyde Park in just three hours. Jonny is given a Volkswagen Touareg, the best 4x4 for pulling things, and a gang mower to tow behind it. Which will mow ten acres first?

Also this week, Tiff Needell finds out if you can have as much fun in the tiny Suzuki Swift Sport as you can in a Ferrari. The Suzuki is a new sporty version of their small shopping car and costs just over £11,000. Tiff sees if a Swift, tuned at the famous Nurburgring race circuit, is as rewarding to drive as a supercar across some epic Welsh roads.

Tom Ford finds out if quad bikes are dangerous, as the high-profile crashes by people such as Ozzy Osbourne and Rik Mayall might lead us to believe. Now that road-legal quad bikes are available to buy, their sales are increasing. After participating in an official training course, Tom takes to the road and nearly comes a cropper at the first roundabout...

Finally, Tim Lovejoy chases criminals with the police’s Rapid Response Unit. As well as revealing new technology that lets a police computer scan the number plate of every vehicle that drives past a police car, Tim discovers there is still a place for oldfashioned policing techniques when they pull over a succession of suspicious drivers. He also gets some inside knowledge useful to every driver.


Looks like a pretty boring ep. It's becoming clear that Fifth Gear wants to go in the entertainment direction like Top Gear but as we've seen - they're no good at it.

The only hope in this episode is Jason Plato test driving the Shelby GT500 (even if it is Jason whose driving it). I that Mustang!!

[Cobol74]

I'll watch. Quite like the Stang and Swift bits. Lawn mowers?

[bartboy9891]

GT500, Swift, and quads will be interesting. I hope they find a clever way of sending Tim to his death

[m4t3y]

looks like a good one to me.....not much cool cars, but might be itneresting to see....looking forward to see that mustang and the quad bikes....also knowing what police have is good if u wanna know if they can keep up with you, but it will be a struggle to watch that gay lovejoy....and a 250k mower?...lol wanna see that one


btw that mower is really 14inch or 14feet cutting area ?

[ahpadt]

More from Jason&Tiff - good stuff.

[The_Clincher]

lookin forward to the GT500, swift, and quad bits...yet looks pretty pointless

[Explorerman]

looks like a good one to me.....not much cool cars, but might be itneresting to see....looking forward to see that mustang and the quad bikes....also knowing what police have is good if u wanna know if they can keep up with you, but it will be a struggle to watch that gay lovejoy....and a 250k mower?...lol wanna see that one


btw that mower is really 14inch or 14feet cutting area ?

Even if it is 14 feet it's still not record breaking. I've got one of these on the golf course I manage....
http://www.toro.com/golf/mower/rough/gm580/580.html
That mower has a 16 foot width and only runs about $60000 USD.

Edit,
I looked up that Claas Cougar. It's a 45' width (14m)
http://www.claas.com/countries/gener...ang=en_US.html
Now that is a mower that I could use on the golf course

[cobs]

Hmm, always interested in an American car review, even if just for the humour - still, it is a Shelby.

Lawn moving? No. I enjoy a well cut lawn as much as the next person, but mowing races? I'm sure that there's a small pay-per-view channel for it, and that's where it should stay.
What next, motorised paint mixers, where the aim is to produce the fastest drying acrylic - "let's watch how they dry". Fingers crossed it'll be fun.

Interested to see the Swift - they ran a journo demo around a track in NZ - Taupo I think, and liked it.

Tom - yay I'm not a fanboy, but like his style.

No mention of VBH doing anything special - so I guess that means cafe gum flap w/Tim, unless the Police lock him up for crimes against presenting.

[Viper007Bond]

http://forum.finalgear.com/viewtopic.php?t=14683