"Hammer!" he shouted, digging frantically. "I’ve beached it! I’ve beached the bloody car!"
The defining moment of the special is, of course, the dune. Not a hill. A mountain of sand. Clarkson, in a fit of "power and arrogance," floored the BMW. He made it 200 meters. Then the sand swallowed the Bavarian beast whole. top gear middle eastern special
May, in the Fiat, attempted a sensible bypass route. He got stuck immediately. Hammond, laughing hysterically, drove the Golf around them—only to bury the front axle up to the headlights. "Hammer
What followed was an hour of sweaty, cursing, hopeless physics. The more they dug, the deeper the BMW sank. It was a metaphor for British foreign policy in the region, but funnier. Not a hill
Richard Hammond, ever the optimist, chose a £1,500 VW Golf Cabriolet. It was the color of a faded traffic cone, smelled of wet dog, and had the structural rigidity of a wet cracker. "It’s characterful!" he squeaked, as the chassis flexed over a speed bump.
The Top Gear Middle Eastern Special is not a car review. It is a testament to the absurdity of friendship. You don't do this trip to prove a car is good. You do it to prove that, no matter how hot it gets, no matter how many times the BMW breaks down, there is nothing better than driving into the unknown with your two best idiots.
This is the oral history of the most sweaty, sandy, and spiritually enlightening road trip in Top Gear history. The formula was classic Wilman. The budget: £3,500. The rule: It must be a convertible. The setting: The Empty Quarter (Rub' al Khali), a place so inhospitable that NASA uses it to test Mars rovers.