3 WILD Richard Hammond Moments | Top Gear Classic

0:03 Oh yes.

0:05 Yes.

0:08 HOW CAN ANYTHING SURVIVE THIS including me?

0:13 THIS MOMENT NOW.

0:14 SECOND.

0:15 THIRD.

0:18 WHAT A FEELING.

0:20 I AM A DRIVING SKULL.

0:25 NOW, now did you know that in this country

0:27 more people are struck by lightning than

0:30 are crushed by reptiles or injured as the result

0:33 of a prolonged stay in a weightless environment?

0:36 Yep.

0:37 It turns out lightning really is a hidden menace.

0:40 Your point being

0:41 Well, this what happens if you're struck by lightning in a car.

0:45 Oh, you' be all right though cuz you got rubber tires.

0:47 Ah,

0:48 not necessarily, you see, because car makers don't test for this sort of thing.

0:52 So, after being pelted by golf balls,

0:54 Top Gear arranged for a car to be struck by lightning with me in it.

1:02 There are very few places in the world

1:04 that have the technology to blast a car with lightning.

1:08 Two of those places are in Holland and Germany.

1:12 But only one of those nations is laid-back, liberal,

1:15 and fun-loving enough to let me actually sit

1:18 in the car whilst they hit it with 800,000 volts.

1:22 Yep, it's those zany Germans.

1:29 This is the Seaman's high voltage lab in Berlin.

1:33 Normally, this place builds and tests high voltage

1:36 equipment for power stations and the national grid.

1:41 These transformers can generate almost 2 million volts of pure electricity.

1:47 But today, they're going to use that electricity for something else.

1:51 To make lightning.

1:55 They're going to zap me and this car with 800,000 volts, which is a lot.

2:00 Stuff in your house runs on 240 volts.

2:03 If it hits me directly, they'll clear me away with a shovel.

2:07 You might be thinking that the tires are going to protect

2:09 me by insulating the car from Earth because they're rubber.

2:13 Now, if the electricity can make it from the sky to the car,

2:16 it can make it from the car to the ground.

2:19 What's going to protect me is this, the body shell itself.

2:24 Like all cars, the new Golf's body forms a Faraday cage.

2:27 And a Faraday cage is something that attracts electricity and then sends

2:31 it shooting around the outside so that whatever's inside shouldn't be harmed.

2:38 But the problem is this isn't like brakes or airbags.

2:41 Car firms don't test for lightning strikes.

2:44 So I've no idea how it'll go.

2:46 Right.

2:47 My life is now in the hands of Alevel physics.

2:52 The lightning will come out of these transformers along

2:55 the wires and then shoot down to the car.

3:02 What was that?

3:08 Okay, I was about to raise voltage.

3:13 He's starting to raise the wattage.

3:19 200,000 volt.

3:24 We did have a briefing with the scientists and he said,

3:27 "Keep my hands together towards the center of the car

3:30 and away from any metal objects." But it's a car.

3:34 It's made of metal.

3:37 400,000 volt.

3:40 I can hear a noise.

3:41 I hear a buzzing now.

3:47 600,000 volt.

3:51 It's really buzzing there.

3:53 I don't know what's going to happen when it does come.

3:55 I'm about to be hit by lightning.

3:56 I know I am.

3:59 It's building.

3:59 It really is building.

4:00 It builds a tension with it.

4:01 It's quite a strange.

4:05 You can almost feel the tension.

4:14 Oh, that's scary.

4:22 I'm being hit by lightning.

4:28 My hands are buzzing.

4:31 HEY.

4:36 OH, now it's doing stuff to my car.

4:37 I've got error up on the dashboard.

4:42 Handbrake light flashing.

4:53 So, it works.

4:55 Assuming I'm not now talking to you with wings in a harp, I'm alive.

5:01 Question is, is the car well the electric windows work?

5:04 Obviously, uh, lights, they work.

5:08 Stereo, that's nice.

5:10 Lovely.

5:11 Indicators, I mean, everything.

5:14 And it starts, it still works amazingly.

5:24 I'm talking of course about the taxi,

5:27 the lifeblood of people movement wherever you go in the world.

5:34 And Britain's contribution to this effort needs no introduction.

5:39 It's a staple of any London street scene.

5:43 There are currently around 19,000 black cabs moving people across the capital

5:49 and this vast fleet covers almost half a billion miles a year.

5:56 There's another.

5:57 It's now literally everywhere.

6:00 London life has caused the Black Hab

6:02 to evolve into an amazingly efficient vehicle.

6:06 Its famous tiny turning circle, for example,

6:09 is the result of the need to tackle the roundabout outside the Seavoy.

6:16 Then there's the black cab driver.

6:19 No cababie in the world has to go

6:21 through an ordeal as fearsome as the knowledge,

6:25 which requires that all London taxi drivers memorize 25,000 streets.

6:31 The test is so tough in fact

6:32 that cabbies develop an extra-large hippocampus which

6:36 is the area of the brain associated

6:38 with memory navigation and views on immigration.

6:43 Put this combination of man and machine

6:45 together and what you have is indisputable.

6:49 What you have is without doubt obviously unquestionably

6:55 no arguments the best taxi in the world.

7:00 or is it?

7:03 The thing is, a New York taxi

7:06 driver would probably disagree with that statement.

7:10 He'd say, "Yeah, you may have more space in the back,

7:13 but your London taxi is slow and the ride is terrible,

7:18 whereas my yellow taxi has a big V8 and proper suspension." But then

7:22 a cab in Delhi would say my Indian taxi is built to last longer.

7:26 Basically, every cabi everywhere in the world could argue

7:29 for one reason or another that their taxi is the best.

7:34 Which means if we really want to find

7:36 out which is the greatest taxi in the world, there is only one way to do it.

7:40 And that is as ever in the prison of the furnace

7:45 through the looking glass of the crucible of motorsport.

7:50 That means a race.

7:52 And the venue for our global showdown will be Lyen Hill in Kent,

7:57 famous throughout the motorsport world for being

8:00 the only racetrack with its own cab.

8:09 That plywood cab looks perilously close to the track.

8:13 I sincerely hope no harm befalls it.

8:16 Anyway, let's now meet our grid of taxes from around the world.

8:21 Representing Great Britain, we have a 1997 Fairway Driver,

8:25 which with a mere 320,000 miles on the clock is barely running.

8:35 From Mexico, a 1970 Volkswagen Beetle.

8:39 50,000 of these things ply their trade in Mexico City alone.

8:45 from America.

8:46 One of the titans of the taxi world, a New York yellow cab.

8:52 This particular one is a Ford Crown Victoria.

8:55 Rear wheel drive, 4.6 L V8, and in its day, good for 130.

9:00 That's one to worry about.

9:03 From India, the Hindustan Ambassador.

9:06 Very much the oldtimer here.

9:08 The Ambassador has been India's favorite taxi for an incredible 55 years.

9:15 Next from South Africa, we have this a Toyota Hias.

9:22 And whereas in most countries they will be rooting for their local taxi,

9:25 you can expect the South Africans to be booing because

9:29 these things are hated and feared for their wild aggression.

9:34 Moving on to this from Germany.

9:37 It's the Mercedes E-Class.

9:39 Neat, smart, and fastidiously maintained.

9:44 And finally, from Russia, a stretched Lincoln Town Car.

9:50 Now, that might not look like a cab, but it is.

9:54 In Russia, rich oligarchs hail limos just like this to get around.

10:00 So, if you think we've included a powerful rearwheel drive,

10:03 30 foot long car just in the hope it'll cause chaos,

10:07 get that thought out of your head.

10:09 So, there we are then.

10:10 the world's most iconic taxes,

10:13 each poised and ready to defend the honor of its country.

10:18 Now, the cab drivers, and naturally,

10:21 because of the magnitude of what's at stake here,

10:23 each country has sent its very best.

10:27 But they all must have got lost or something.

10:29 So, instead, we have the usual ragtag bunch of racing drivers.

10:34 For Russia, touring car legend Anthony Reed.

10:39 For South Africa, touring car legend Matt Jackson.

10:45 For Germany, touring car legend Matt Neil.

10:50 For India, touring car legend Gordon Sheddon.

10:55 For Mexico, touring car legend Paul O'Neal.

11:00 For America, touring car legend Tom Chilton.

11:05 And in the black cab, me.

11:09 So, here we are, ready to plunge once

11:11 more into the abyss of motorsport-based scientific research.

11:23 I should point out it is the custom for Indian taxi drivers

11:26 to carry a figurine of their chosen god on the dashboard of their car.

11:31 I think our guy may have overdone it a bit.

11:41 Guys getting impatient.

11:42 That's good.

11:43 Grab the 5-second board.

11:52 Yeah.

11:55 Well, the South African is through.

11:58 New York taxi alongside German tax.

12:01 Every everybody, everybody is through.

12:03 Absolutely everybody is past me.

12:07 But this is a marathon, not a sprint.

12:11 As ever, I'd issued strict instructions for the drivers to avoid body contact.

12:17 Clearly, the South African hadn't got the memo.

12:23 The South African was completely insane, largely out of control.

12:34 Huge slide from the limo.

12:36 That's incredible.

12:40 But while the Russian limo may have been struggling in corners,

12:43 I had issues everywhere.

12:50 Yeah, I've quite badly outpaced on the hill, on the straights, and in the turns.

12:59 This is all I've got.

13:01 However, I had a plan.

13:03 When it comes to cunning, remember, black cap drivers do the knowledge.

13:08 I know where all the shortcuts are.

13:11 I'll nip down enough.

13:13 Thanks to my super tight turning circle, I can make this.

13:17 That's me back in the race.

13:18 I'd say more than back in, I am leading it.

13:22 Sadly, my fellow cabbies weren't impressed by this tactic.

13:26 And when they caught up with me, they were quick to show their displeasure.

13:31 It was just ramming me.

13:33 That is JUST OH, YOU'RE JOKING.

13:43 YEAH.

13:43 Some good naturatured jostling from the other nations.

13:53 With the race now at the halfway point, no clear leader was emerging,

13:57 which meant inevitably the drivers began to turn up the heat.

14:10 There has been a crash, but we're okay.

14:15 Fed up of the South African's hooliganism,

14:18 the limo gave him a taste of his own medicine.

14:30 WHOA.

14:31 GETTING A PUSH NOW.

14:33 This is by far the way the fastest I have been.

14:36 Oh Jesus.

14:38 Sorry.

14:39 Sorry about that.

14:41 Oh god.

14:42 It's Mexican, isn't it?

14:43 Oh, it's going to be bad.

14:46 With just two laps to go, everybody was still running.

14:51 But then, oh, Limbo takes himself off entirely.

15:03 Oh my word.

15:04 That is Russia taken out.

15:07 In fact, America taken itself out as well.

15:14 Right, still in play.

15:15 We have the Beetle, but the Mercedes holding up well.

15:21 He's really sustained very little damage.

15:24 But the marauding South Africa had other ideas.

15:33 Oh, bad luck.

15:35 Now into the final lap and desperate to beat the remaining runners,

15:39 I took another sneaky turn.

15:50 There is the finish line.

15:55 I think I could win this.

15:59 I think I could win.

16:01 Oh, no.

16:02 No.

16:02 No.

16:07 It's entirely possible that I am a bit last.

16:12 Nevertheless, the crucible of motorsport had once more given us the answer.

16:18 As it turns out, the greatest taxi in the world is the Hindustan Ambassador.