Episode Archive - Series 5

On a downhill Top Gear, Jeremy thought his Ferrari would beat a plane to Switzerland. James, in a Mitsubishi rally car, raced Richard in a bobsleigh.

On the face of it, racing a Ferrari 612 against a plane to the Swiss Alps might seem a bit pointless. But Top Gear doesn't play it safe. Jeremy set the climate control for a pleasant 23°C, then headed to Dover. Meanwhile, Richard and James took a long walk to the bus stop and waited. Finally, after a bus ride, train ride, bus ride, then a 90-minute wait to check in, the intrepid duo were in the air.

What followed was a thrilling race across three countries, which ended with Jeremy turning up as Richard and James tried to find the finish line. Needless to say, it was in this final stretch that driving a car was a distinct advantage. Not only does it keep your bottom warm, it goes quicker than a man who refuses to run on television.

Bobsleigh racing consists of four men jumping into something that looks like a bath tub to hurtle down a mountain on sheet ice. The laws of physics dictate the bobsleigh will find its way to the absolute bottom, even if it turns upside down. Which would be a pain in the neck for the people in it.

Perhaps the only thing dafter is letting a crazy man drive you down the same mountain, on the same sheet ice, in a Mitsubishi Evo. It was not a huge surprise when James nearly made the profanity filter in the edit suite explode.

First shown on: 19/12/2004