Sports Car Forum - MotorWorld.net - 5th Gear - S11 EP8 - 18th June, 2007

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Comedian and writer Dom Joly has fun creating mischief around the Cotswolds this week in Fifth Gear’s maddest-ever road test. Resplendent in the white livery of the UN, Dom pilots a road-legal tank around the sleepy villages of Gloucestershire as he goes about his daily errands, while the local residents look on bemused.

Meanwhile, Tom Ford and Jonny Smith enter a demolition derby in two unlikely vehicles: Reliant Robins. Each presenter has a day to modify their vehicle in secret, so Tom tunes his engine for more power, and uses a few tricks of the trade, like filling his tyres with water to add more stability. Jonny decides lightness is the key to winning, so takes an angle-grinder to the bodywork and ends up with just a roll cage on wheels, adding skis either side of the vehicle to prevent it from rolling over during tight turns. The next day the boys race head-to-head, with the last man standing being declared the winner. Suffice to say one car works rather better than the other – there have never been so many roll-overs in a race.

Also this week, Tiff Needell tests the latest Porsche 911, the GT3RS. This 192mph supercar costs £94,000 – exactly the same as the trackprepared racing version. So which car is quicker around Castle Combe?

Comedian Paddy McGuiness is back this week, fresh from his last outing on Fifth Gear when he passed his CBT training as the first step to learning to ride a motorbike. Today he takes his full test – it’s a nerve-racking day where one false foot down in the U-turn manoeuvre or a small indiscretion with the speed limit will spell failure. Has Paddy prepared enough to allow him to ride his dream Harley-Davidson?

Finally, Vicki Butler-Henderson drives the new Vauxhall VXR8, a 414bhp monster saloon with a six-litre V8, to see how fast it will actually go.

Jason Plato, meanwhile, tests Jaguar’s £65,000 XJR, the recently modified ‘gentleman’s express’.

GT3RS & VXR8.. not bad