Ben Collins Stunt Driver Page #4

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I do it all the time on the track.

- Really?

- Yeah.

All right, all right.

So, I have to do it fair and square,

loads of grip, loads of speed

and try and intimidate him.

Yeah, get as close as you can,

but don't hit him.

All right.

With the demonstration over,

it's time to take the wheel.

Well, I don't know how many points

I'm going to get for style,

but I'm just about

making it around this course.

But I don't feel I'm doing it

quite as neatly as Smokey.

Quayside, loads of toys.

This car is just so drivable,

it's unreal.

It feels like you can just

kick this thing anywhere.

550 horsepower, it's just so precise.

You can see why they tune these cars

so specifically for drifting.

Everything is just perfectly tuned,

but I can't stop sliding.

This doesn't feel very fast,

but it does feel spectacular.

Does feel like I could take it anywhere,

maybe even under that truck,

give it a go.

Impressive.

This could be the baby.

It's definitely the most fun car

I have ever driven, without a doubt.

Loads of power, super precise, I'm sold.

- Is that all right?

- That'll do.

Let's take him on, man.

I'm gonna take Shane down the town.

- I think you can do it.

- You reckon?

- Yeah

- Really?

I think it's different with

one than with two, isn't it?

- Yeah, it's a little bit different.

- All right.

- We'll see how you get on.

- Fair enough.

- Where is he? That way?

- Over there.

Mystery man.

Guys. Shane, you're to lead.

Ben, you must follow as close

to Shane's rear quarter as possible.

Shane, you ready? Ben, you ready?

Go!

Just when our epic battle

was heating up, disaster struck.

Shane's super charger on his

modified Nissan 370Z disintegrated,

resulting in catastrophic engine failure,

bringing our competition to an end.

It was just as well, really, because my

Silvia wasn't sounding too clever either.

Broken the diff. Mind you,

my pain is not as bad as Shane's.

This looks like a super charger belt,

another piece here.

We could try and knit

this together, mate.

That would make a lovely paperweight.

Technically... What about that?

That's default win, isn't it?

- No.

- His breakage is worse than mine.

- No.

- What do you mean "no"?

Do these things really break this often?

They do, unfortunately.

That's why we carry spares.

Spares... What do you mean "spares"?

Spares?

Barry hasn't got time for spares.

Where's he going?

These things are very unreliable, clearly.

And that's not gonna work well.

They're also quite slow, because...

It's great, their drifting,

they're amazing, they're spectacular

but you're going sideways,

you're not going forwards that quickly.

Top speed, 80 miles an hour...

Where is he... Where am I supposed to go?

Broken car. I'll follow him.

That came close, but no cigar.

The drift car made all the right noises,

but with that lack of

top speed and dodgy reliability,

I'd just be dead meat.

Adding some heat to the situation

is the abusive messages

I'm getting on my phone

from Barry, and the elephant in the room

is the small matter of finding a car

that actually can go fast off-road.

It's time to head west.

Hidden deep within

a rural valley in mid-Wales

lies over 10 miles

of demanding off-road track,

a network of punishing gravel roads,

which makes the perfect

testing ground for this...

The Ariel Nomad, an insane creation

that wouldn't look out of place

on the set of a Mad Max movie.

Ten years in the making,

this is the latest offering

from track day heroes, Ariel,

famous for their road-based

rocket ship, the Atom.

This machine is their idea

of what an off-road vehicle should be,

and it might just fit the bill.

Ariel will say that this car

will accelerate from 0 to 60 miles an hour

in just 3.4 seconds.

Now, that's Ferrari Enzo territory,

and if that's the case, these baddy soldier

people are in for some serious trouble.

That's first.

And that's second,

and that's straight to 62 miles an hour.

Like me, you're probably wondering

how the hell it does that.

Well, it's not doing it

with brute force,

because this engine

only pops out 235 horsepower,

which is practically a lawnmower.

Powered by a 2.4 litre Honda engine,

and it doesn't have a

supercharger or a turbo.

It's just good, old-fashioned torque.

The beauty of it is in

the power-to-weight ratio,

because the car

only weighs 570 kilograms,

which is about half a Ford Focus.

65% of that weight

is over the rear axle,

where you need it for traction because

this is rear-wheel-drive only.

I really thought that

would kill the steering,

but it doesn't.

This thing is so agile,

and just fires you

out of these corners, it's ridiculous.

Part of the grip story is from these

three-way adjustable dampers,

and these amazing all-terrain tyres,

that just eat the landscape

and spit it out the back.

Whoo!

It's almost easy to forget

why I came here in the first place,

which is to assess whether this baby

has got what it takes

to escape an aerial assault.

In terms of sheer straight line speed,

136 miles an hour...

Okay, it's not the

fastest thing in the world,

but you could pretty much

drive over anything at 80 miles an hour.

The thing that lets it down though,

there's just nothing protecting

the car's vital parts.

The engine is just covered

in the same plastic they use

to build traffic cones.

It's hardly bulletproof.

And I'm expecting some

serious flak from the sky.

It's with a very heavy heart,

but I'm gonna have to

say no to the Nomad.

However, I've got one more supercar

from the off-road world

that might just do the job.

This, as you can

probably tell, is a Mini,

but it couldn't be further away

from the run-of-mill estate agent chariot

you see every day in the High Street.

This one competes in

the World Rally Cross Championship,

one of the roughest

and toughest race series on the planet.

Okay, it's time to unleash

the fury of this baby.

There's quite a complicated

launch procedure.

I've got to hold of my

finger over the launch button.

Okay, I've got first gear,

gonna turn the anti-lag on.

There we go, I can already

feel the power surge.

Here we go.

Oh, my God, it's unbelievable power.

The kick in the back you get

is like from a Formula 1 car,

that does 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds,

up to 100 in five.

Absolutely ridiculous.

This model was originally designed

for the World Rally Championship,

but then they added an

enormous turbo so big...

Whoa!

...they had to give it a name.

Its name is Gerrard,

and when Gerrard gets angry,

you go very, very fast.

It kicks out 500 horsepower,

which is twice the Nomad had,

lancing itself very neatly

through this four-wheel-drive system,

just hammering me down this road.

Whoo!

It's also got this wonderful handbrake,

which has rear diff release,

which I admit, sounds like some kind

of bowel control problem.

What it allows me to do is

lock up the rear wheels

whilst applying the power

and just trim the nose

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