If you’re in to cars then it’s a great 2 part video. If you’re not then there’s some great scenery from around country and city Japan.
Nissan have outdone themselves with the GT-R and Carlos Ghosn’s aggressive effort to get Nissan back to being a great car maker has made some big steps with this car.
Top Gear [11x04] GTR vs bullet train (part 1) [sub
Top Gear [11x04] GTR vs bullet train (part 2) [sub
Via Hector and for all the technical info on the car check out the Official GT-R site.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Long time reader, first time (I think) commenter. I LOVE this episode of Top Gear. Especially funny how Clarkson tries to fool the speed cameras! I honestly didn’t think that the margin would be so small since the trains there are so efficient. Perhaps the producers did something to make it that way so as to increase the suspense. Either way, it was a very entertaining episode.
Hi Paolo, nice to have you comment. Watching this episode makes me remember how much i loved Top Gear. When i get home tonight i’ll download a heap of seasons i’ve missed out on since living here. Now, i’m off to check out http://paologaspar.com/
It`s a well known fact that these Top Gear races are engineered to be entertaining, of which they are. Still, the route they choose for this race proves little and is rather strange. I wonder how Clarkson would feel if the Japanese abandoned trains and switched to cars? But I honestly can`t tell if Clarkson sincerely believes cars are superior to all other forms of transportation or if he`s playing a role.
That car really is something. Although, it appears to be a high maintenance kind of machine. I would like to see how much abuse it can take.
mate if its any thing like its predecessors it can take a lot of it. the good side of it its that they are actually going to have license maintenance garages for em. don’t know how familiar you are with its predecessors but the R33 and the R34 where gray imports so getting parts for em was impossible unless you got em from Japan what was expensive as hell. for instance the R33 has some gearbox problems and the R34 has no mechanical problems at all but its tiers tend to be a problem. they don’t wear out on the outer side, the part of the tire that you actually see but on the inner side so you’d have to go and turn the wheel all the way and go with your hand to see if you’d need to change em. but back to the new model. as longs as they will be imported you don’t have to worry to much about it, since its build to be bulletproof.
Shitloads i`d say Ryan. I saw a doco on the making of it a few months back, fantastic. It was on Discovery so check it out if you see it advertised.
I would love to push that thing around on some mountain roads and then open it up on a straightaway to the full 300km/h.
Fantastic videos, thanks for finding & posting! I am so NOT into cars but this is hilarious.
Public transit deserves the win – he shouldn’t be allowed to go over the speed limit.
Ridiculously awesome article, though
What a great episode. Very silly, but that’s what Top Gear is all about.
I can’t believe they let him get away with the line “He can spot your beaver from a mile away” to the female petrol pump attentand while hiding behind his Bill Oddie mask!
Yeh, the subtle and not so subtle humor makes the show …. i sent it to a Japanese friend and she didn’t get the majority of it .. and she understands English.
I missed most of this episode, so it was good to see this. That said, i do remember how it ends. Basically the Tokyo traffic jams turned out to be nonexistent and he went straight through. Meanwhile the other two got split up because they got in different carriages of the train which were seperated. Still Clarkson only won the race by about a minute in the end.
I seem to remember Mister Clarkson strained his neck in this car?
That was a good episode. Japanese are the only people on earth whose public transport are really on time I think…
BTW how strict is the rule that you are not allowed to speak on your phone in Japanese trains? Do they really get angry? Just wondering.