Stunt in the Alps

[Alasondro Alegré]

Richard Hammond will be featured racing champion Speed Flyer – Francois Bonn – down the mountains of Les Arcs in Paradiski this summer when the popular TV programme transmits its latest man versus machine stint.

The article doesn't mention the car, but there's a small picture of what seems to be an Audi RS 6 Avant.

http://www.ifyouski.com/news/newsart...jectID=8331515

[jensked]

The programme will be aired on BBC 1 this summer – June or July to be confirmed

BBC1? June or July \o/

[Speedtouch]

Audi RS6?

I see this as a copy of the Cayenne stunt at the beginning of series 8. Lets hope he doesn't crash the thing this time.

[Ford Prefect]

so it´s Hammond in an Audi, powered by internal combustion, and most likely travelling on a road, versus a man with skis and a tiny parachute, powered by gravity and moving in a straight line... gee I wonder who will win

[stiggie]

I seem to remember footage of Jeremy racing a Jaguar down a ski slope against a skier, but I'm not sure if it was on TopGear. I think it was from something else but they showed a clip of it on TopGear.

[linkinparknl]

Originally Posted by stiggie

I seem to remember footage of Jeremy racing a Jaguar down a ski slope against a skier, but I'm not sure if it was on TopGear. I think it was from something else but they showed a clip of it on TopGear.

That was in the series Speed, they also showed a little clip of it on Top Gear with the Jaguar station review a while ago

[Viper007Bond]

http://www.topgear.com/content/news/stories/2955/

In the last series, Jeremy got very excited by the Mercedes E63 estate and the BMW M5 Touring, which he successfully proved were superior to a large 4x4 when it came to that most realistic of all tests - blasting down the runway at Manchester Airport.

Clearly someone at Audi was paying attention to this and decided to crash the fast estate party with the RS6 Avant, boasting a turbocharged V10 and wheel arches nicked straight off Gene Hunt's Quattro.

So we sent Richard to the Alps to find out if it was good enough to overthrow the Merc/BMW axis of power.

And to make things more interesting, we organised a race against two fearsomely fearless French professional skiers.

It was always going to be a close fight, but Hammond had two things on his side. Firstly, the small matter of 572bhp. And secondly, the hope his adversaries would get distracted by some chalet girls and waste half an hour demonstrating how sensitive they are by running through Jack Johnson songs on their iPods.

Warning: This item may contain a Top Gear presenter speaking French. Badly.

[Speedtouch]

My god I love that car. I need one, now.

[anti-net]

I love the RS6, soo much power in a car you can carry your dog around!

[nefarious79]

Series 11 countdown: GT-R v Bullet Train
The Nissan GT-R is clearly quite a car.

The kind of car that's built with such obsession that its tyres are filled with nitrogen so they don't suffer excessive pressure change when they get hot.

The kind of car that has an engine hand-built in a hermetically sealed room to ensure absolute precision and cleanliness.

The kind of car that got Jeremy so excited he was prepared to fly all the way to Japan to drive it.

Unfortunately, Richard and James insisted on tagging along too, so the Top Gear office came up with a very special race.

Could Clarkson in his technofest Nissan get from one side of Japan to the other before Hammond and May could do the same trip using public transport?

But not just any public transport. Japanese public transport: the most reliable and, thanks to the famous 186mph Bullet Train, the fastest mass transit network in the world.

As we said, the Nissan GT-R is clearly quite a car. But then, against that sort of adversary, it needs to be.

The new series of Top Gear kicks off at 8pm on Sunday June 22 on BBC Two.

Five days to go: Audi RS6 v skier

Six days to go: the Alfa Romeo Challenge

Read Andy Wilman's series preview blog: Part One

Read Andy Wilman's series preview blog: Part Deux

Watch the Series 11 TV teaser

http://www.topgear.com/content/news/stories/2961/

Looks like he is racing a skier in that episode

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by nefarious79

http://www.topgear.com/content/news/stories/2961/

Looks like he is racing a skier in that episode

Look 3 posts above yours.

[nefarious79]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

Look 3 posts above yours.

[Ottobon]

Originally Posted by Speedtouch

My god I love that car. I need one, now.

I kinda get the point, and then on the other hand, why can't they make it more beautiful and less generic? I mean its become a habbit, especially with the Germans, to just tack on some vents and a few wings call it "sporty" looking and expect people to rub their dicks all over it.

[MacGuffin]

The majority of the customers of such cars love the understatement they deliver. They do not want blaring, shouting design, they want sophistication.

The secret of German design is that it's "mass compatible". Evolution instead of revolution. Yet, when you look at BMW, Mercedes, Audi or Volkswagen, each of their cars has an own design identity, a brand look. Everyone knows in an instant what brand the car belongs to.

The only other non-German volume car maker I can think of who manages to do the same, is Alfa Romeo. The rest has been meandering in a more or less great design chaos over the decades.

When I was a kid, I could tell for each car on the road what brand it was. Nowadays I can't do it anymore. Especially all the Japanese/Korean stuff blends into one big design mush in my eyes.

If car design is too tame for you and you want a more pimped up car, there is still a big tuning industry that will be happy to oblige. They have to live, too

[CrazyRussian540]

I want them to put the RS6 up against the M5 Estate and the E63 AMG wagon. I think they jumped the gun when they did that comparo last season.

[MacGuffin]

They did it here in car magazines. The Audi RS6 is considerably faster around a track and in acceleration but also has a harder ride comfort.

In the end result the AMG Merc won, because in the opinion of the reviewers it still delivers the best allround package and has the best practicability and the best riding comfort. Audi RS6 came 2nd, BMW M5 last (!).

However, like always with these tests, they did not take into consideration how the cars will act when the road is wet and slippery. The Audi will be in its own league then, because it's the only car of its class, which can also deliver its performance when it's not so sunny outside. That may not be so important in Southern California or in the Australian Outback but it matters very much in all regions which actually have weather and seasons

In my own opinion the Aud RS6 is the best buy by far, because you can use it all year, making it the best choice for everyday life. When you look at it this way, it doesn't even matter that it's considerably more expensive than its competitors, because none of them can offer that 365 days per year usability.