Top Gear
I really want to drive a car costs more than my house through southern France. Perhaps I should explain why I feel this way in case it isn't obvious to you.
This week's episode of Top Gear features a road trip with a Ford GT, Ferrari F430, and Pagani Zonda going through France to the Millau Viaduct, which is the tallest and one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. Top Gear is currently my favorite TV show and I have been following it ever since first watching it when I was in England last year. I love how they feature lots of high end sportscars and make no apologies for being highly opinionated and ruthlessly slamming cars that aren't that good. They also make a habit of running cars through unusual tests, like when they tested the handling of the Lotus Exige by trying to avoid missile lock from an Apache gunship with it. The Discovery Channel has been running edited versions of the show recently, and you can get your hands on the original BBC series through the interweb.
I think the Ford GT would be my first choice for which car to take through France because it is the fastest, best looking and probably the most comfortable to ride in. The Ferrari F430 is a close second because it has amazing handling and sounds fantastic.
In the episode, they pass through Paris on their way to the bridge, which illustrated very well why it is a bad idea to try to drive a supercar through a major city. A car that is very wide, low to the ground, and has poor visibility out the side and back is no fun to drive in a crowded area with narrow lanes. It was funny to watch the substantial effort it took to get the cars out of the hotel's parking garage without scraping any parts off them. Claude Lelouch demonstrated the only proper way to drive a supercar through Paris in his film C'etait un Rendezvous (watch it here):
"On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris. The film was limited for technical reasons to 10 minutes; the course was from Porte Dauphine, through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur.
No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit.
The driver completed the course in about 9 minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running real red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets."
This week's episode of Top Gear features a road trip with a Ford GT, Ferrari F430, and Pagani Zonda going through France to the Millau Viaduct, which is the tallest and one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. Top Gear is currently my favorite TV show and I have been following it ever since first watching it when I was in England last year. I love how they feature lots of high end sportscars and make no apologies for being highly opinionated and ruthlessly slamming cars that aren't that good. They also make a habit of running cars through unusual tests, like when they tested the handling of the Lotus Exige by trying to avoid missile lock from an Apache gunship with it. The Discovery Channel has been running edited versions of the show recently, and you can get your hands on the original BBC series through the interweb.
I think the Ford GT would be my first choice for which car to take through France because it is the fastest, best looking and probably the most comfortable to ride in. The Ferrari F430 is a close second because it has amazing handling and sounds fantastic.
In the episode, they pass through Paris on their way to the bridge, which illustrated very well why it is a bad idea to try to drive a supercar through a major city. A car that is very wide, low to the ground, and has poor visibility out the side and back is no fun to drive in a crowded area with narrow lanes. It was funny to watch the substantial effort it took to get the cars out of the hotel's parking garage without scraping any parts off them. Claude Lelouch demonstrated the only proper way to drive a supercar through Paris in his film C'etait un Rendezvous (watch it here):
"On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris. The film was limited for technical reasons to 10 minutes; the course was from Porte Dauphine, through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur.
No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit.
The driver completed the course in about 9 minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running real red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets."