All language subtitles for James.Mays.Cars.of.the.People.S02E02.1080p.WEB.h264-POPPYCOCK

"If I'd asked people what
they wanted," wrote Henry Ford,

"they would have said,
'Faster horses.'"

The coming of internal combustion
relieved the horse and the donkey,

and the mule and the elephant,
of their burdens.

And that was a good thing.

But these beasts still have
something to teach us.

Because they're all equipped with
a very intelligent 4x4 drive system.

A horse is rarely stuck.

An elephant doesn't generally
spin off on a bend

and throw you into a ditch.

Valuable lessons, then, for the
makers of the Cars Of The People.

But, first, something so horsey,
it's practically Princess Anne.

MUSIC: Horse Of The Year
Show Theme

This, with the best will in the
world, is not a car of the people.

It is a fully-loaded,
supercharged Range Rover.

It will cost you around £120,000.

It takes up more space
than it really ought to.

And it will be chronically underused
by the vast majority of its owners.

And that's a bit of a shame,

because this four-wheel drive marvel
is no show pony.

It can do some truly remarkable
stuff and, to be honest, it has to,

otherwise it isn't credible,
it's just a designer handbag.

Holy mother of God!
Look at that! Ha-ha!

It's sorting all that out
for itself.

This thing really is
bloody incredible.

I'm now going to drown it.

I know it's ridiculous,
you're not going to do this.

It would be like going gardening
in your best disco shoes.

But it's nice to know it can,
isn't it?

This isn't a car of the
people either.

It's a Lamborghini Aventador.

With a frankly unnecessary
700 horsepower

and a price for this particular one
somewhere north of £300,000.

And what many Lamborghini owners
don't realise is

just how far you can bend
the prescriptions of physics...

..if you take one of these things
on a race track.

Tricky left!

Again, if you couldn't do this,

it would just be a piece of designer
tinsel, not a proper supercar.

Not that you would do this with
your own Lambo. Not at that price.

"Hang on," you must be saying,
"these cars are for the rich."

Footballers, fund managers,
Saudi playboys

and Radio 2 DJs.

They're about as of-the-people
as Marie Antoinette's bread bin.

But they are relevant to
the story of the people's car.

Allow me.

It's reckoned by some that, by 2030,

half of all the affordable cars
built will be a 4x4 of some sort

or, at the very least,
inspired by the breed.

And why not? A tough, go-anywhere
4x4, more than any other car,

appeals to our innate
desire for liberty,

to our human pioneering spirit,
wherever we may be.

For the car truly
to serve the people,

it must be ready to sally forth into
territory as yet unformatted for it.

Elgar.

Go west, young man.

North, to the ice caps,
into the Australian interior.

across the desert on the sun's
anvil, as TE Lawrence put it.

Or, maybe up a slightly
slippery woodland track,

with your mountain bike
strapped to the roof. Whatever.

To explain how the
4x4 gave us this freedom,

we must, inevitably, go back to a
time when we almost lost it forever.

As the lights went out
all over Europe...

..the Allies faced a deadly race to
out-think and out-invent the enemy.

The Brits had their radar

and their bouncing bombs.

The Russians, the mighty T34.

And the Americans?
Well, they came up with this.

This, as I'm sure you know,
is a World War II Willys Jeep.

Now, General Eisenhower said the
three most significant instruments

in securing Allied victory were

the Douglas Dakota,

the landing craft and the Jeep.

I've just realised it may be
the most significant car ever made.

Yee-ha!

There had been four-wheel drive
army vehicles before this one.

There were four-wheel drive trucks
in World War I.

And, believe it or not, before that,

people experimented with
four-wheel drive traction engines.

But this was a new vehicle
for a new role.

It was a fast,
light reconnaissance car.

America knew that
victory would depend on

a massive land invasion of Europe.
If they could find it.

Here it is,
the so-called Blitz Buggy.

And it does look a bit like a Jeep.

The problem was, American Bantam
couldn't produce them

in the numbers required.

So, the American Government gave
their drawings to Willys and Ford,

who fiddled with them a bit.

Eventually, it was Willys who won
the contract, largely because

they had their excellent Go Devil
engine and three-speed gearbox.

But what really made
the Willys Jeep stand out

was its astounding
all-terrain performance.

A special gearbox allowed you
to transfer into extra-low gear

to tackle the toughest conditions.

Even in 2015, you can sort of see
why the Willys version was

so popular with
the military authorities.

It has excellent
low-down torque characteristics.

The sort of thing people talk about
in their 3 series diesel BMWs.

Anyway, over 600,000 Jeeps
were produced during the war

by Willys and under licence by Ford.

While we're at it, we may as well
get to the bottom of the Jeep name.

A lot of people imagine
that it's a reduction of GP,

for general purpose, but I'm afraid,
actually, this isn't true.

GP only appears on
the Ford versions,

and it's part of
an internal coding system

where G means government contract,

and P is a code letter meaning
a wheelbase of 80 inches.

A more likely origin
is Eugene The Jeep,

a strange animal
from the Popeye cartoons.

Popeye's Jeep was small,
with wide-spaced eyes,

and who would always
do his master's bidding.

A bit like Michael Gove!

So, sorry about that.
But, if it's any consolation,

Princess Anne really did own
a Reliant Scimitar.

Bologna was liberated
on the 21st April 1945.

And we don't know this for certain,
but it seems likely that

the very first Allied vehicle
that the locals saw

entering the Piazza Maggiore where
I'm standing now was a Willys jeep.

It had proved the worth of
a light, compact, all-terrain car.

It really had played
a major role in saving the world.

But now it would start another war.

Willys Jeeps were now
scattered around the globe

like army surplus combat trousers
in a student house.

And they would become
an inspiration.

One of those left-over Jeeps
made it to the Welsh holiday home

of a man named Maurice Wilks

who happened to be the chief
designer of the Rover car company.

Post-war, Rover were
in a bit of a tight spot.

And Wilks was looking to build
a simple, rugged 4x4 vehicle

using readily available materials,

to keep the company ticking over
while the economy recovered

and people started buying
proper cars again.

Wilks' first effort was based
around his old Jeep chassis

and had a strange
central steering wheel.

But, pretty soon,
it had turned into this.

The Series 1 Land Rover.

It is powered by a
50-horsepower, 1.6-litre engine

from the Rover P3.

And it has a transfer gearbox,
just like the Jeep.

But it is permanent four-wheel
drive, which people loved.

There is none of that
upstart American Jeep left

but it is no surprise really
that the wheel base is

exactly the same at 80 inches.

Or that the four-wheel drive system
works in roughly the same way.

But let's not forget
the people in all of this.

It is estimated that
the first car ever seen

by one-third of the world's
population is a Land Rover.

And that's a lot of
potential customers.

Land Rover had the remains of
empire as a ready market.

It had Britain's record
in vehicle exporting,

and it had a car
that represented salvation

and everything that was
good about Britain.

Land Rover should have cleaned up.

And yet...

And, as an Englishman,
this is quite difficult because,

well, it's a bit like saying
Melton Mowbray are crap at pies,

but Land Rover
got their butts kicked.

In the ancient Shinto tradition,

this is where Konohana,
the daughter of the mountain god,

gave birth amidst volcanic fires.

And, 65 years ago, this mystic place
would bear witness to the rebirth

of a slumbering Japanese giant.

This is the road leading up
to Mount Fuji, a Japanese icon.

And this car I'm driving
is another one.

Now, this is a model from 1980.
But, for the moment, I'm in 1951

and reliving the work of
the Toyota test driver Ichiro Taira

who drove up the side of
the famous mountain

in pursuit of a new altitude record.

JAPANESE TV NEWSREEL

He made it all the way to the sixth
stage of the Mount Fuji ascent,

that's 2,500 metres.

That was further up the mountain
than any car had ever been before.

Ichiro's pioneering drive, however,
would deliver far more

than a mere altitude record.

It would turn a company
on the brink of ruin

into the greatest car firm
in history.

If the post-war world
was bad for Rover,

it was disastrous for Toyota.

Toyota had been established in 1911
as a weaving company

and a maker of powered looms.

In the 1930s, they branched out,
rather cautiously,

into car and truck making.

Now, World War II was
excellent news.

That meant loads of orders
for trucks.

But, come the defeat,
Toyota was seriously short of work.

By 1950, what is now the
world's most successful carmaker

was on the verge of collapse.

In that year, Toyota, still
discouraged by the occupying forces

from making passenger cars,

produced just 300 trucks,
like this one.

And they suffered the first and
only strike in their history.

It lasted for two months.

What could save Toyota?

Well, perhaps ironically,
it was the occupying Americans,

and, in a roundabout way, the Jeep.

Cue another timely armed conflict -

the Korean War of 1950.
MACHINEGUN FIRE

The Americans rushed to the aid
of the South and needed trucks fast,

and since the US ran Japan,
they gave Toyota the job.

Bingo!

Or pachinko, which is what
they actually play in Japan.

There now comes another twist,

because the occupying
American forces were so depleted

by the events that
had taken place in Korea,

unarmed Japan suddenly felt
very vulnerable,

so a limited re-armament
programme was permitted,

including, critically, the provision
of 1,000 four-wheel drive vehicles

to the NPR -
the National Police Reserve -

essentially, Japan's Territorials.

Toyota swiftly came up with this -
the BJ Jeep prototype.

It was bigger than the original,

produced more power
and used an all-new drive system,

but, despite all this, the police,

who'd been forced to walk
everywhere since 1945,

seemed poised to commission copies
of the Willys Jeep

from Toyota's rivals, Mitsubishi.

Until, that is,

the heroic Ichiro-san
went up the mountain...

..after which the NPR placed
an order for 289 Toyotas,

making it their
preferred off-roader.

Remember the great multitudes
of saddle-sore Land Rover users?

Their prayers, and those
of the beleaguered Rover company,

were about to be answered.

Land Rover's response, in 1970,
was this - the first Range Rover.

Still a very pukka off-roader,

but now with modern coil-springs,
disc brakes,

a hefty V8 engine
and a luxurious interior.

Music: Layla
by Derek And The Dominoes

Rover's great new hope
was born in an era that gave us

polyester loon pants, Carry On
Camping and overblown guitar solos.

As a result,
the distinctly classy Range Rover

came as a welcome surprise
for early '70s Britain.

When I say "luxurious",
that's all relative, of course.

Given what was to come,
this Series 1 Rangey still feels

incredibly basic and hosed-down.

It is literally hosed-down -
the seats are made of vinyl

and so is the upholstery on that
central tunnel,

and you can actually come in here
with a hose pipe.

I just made the classic off-road
error and left my thumb

inside the steering wheel...
HE GROANS

..but we'll overlook that.

# Let's make the best
of the situation

# Before I finally go insane... #

And it was, and is, a genuinely
very capable all-terrain vehicle.

The first one, in fact,
to cross both bits of the Americas

in one go -
including the Darien Gap.

So there.

MUSIC: Theme from The Avengers
by Laurie Johnson

The go-anywhere derring-do
was still there -

but the new Range Rover
was subtly aimed at

a whole new class of customer.

It wasn't necessarily
someone who looked like

David Bellamy with a bad hangover.

It could be people who looked
more like Purdey from The Avengers.

That wasn't going to do
any damage, was it?

Perhaps more importantly,
you could drive it into the town

without looking like
some mad relation

who'd escaped from Mudfordshire.

The Range Rover looked cool...

..and the world agreed.

Almost instantly,

Britain had a stylish hero to
thwart her foreign commercial foes,

and with each
increasingly luxurious model,

more and more well-heeled customers
would fall under its spell.

The Range Rover would soon allow
the beleaguered Brummies,

still reeling from the success of
their challenger from Japan,

to conquer quite possibly the most
inhospitable place on Earth -

Hollywood.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

With 1.8 million sales worldwide,

the Range Rover brand,
like Bond, is a global icon.

The original Ranger Rover's
upmarket appeal would leave

the redesigned Land Cruiser looking
like something from CBeebies.

But if Toyota had
been snubbed by the toffs,

they would be welcomed with open
arms by an altogether rougher crowd.

This is the Hilux -

most people, though, know it simply
as the Toyota pick-up truck.

This one is from 1992
and it's done 250,000 miles.

Ideal, really,
for farmers, builders,

landscape gardeners...

or anybody looking for a scrap.

The launch of the Hilux in 1968
coincided with

a new form of conflict being waged
across the Third World.

The age of the insurgent was upon
us, and for lawless rebel armies,

the sturdy yet adaptable Hilux
rapidly became indispensable.

Soon, wherever there was trouble,

you were bound to spot
a lurking Toyota.

Did you know, the Toyota pick-up
has been so successful as an ad-hoc

military vehicle, that there's been
a whole war named after it?

True fact.

The Toyota War of 1987 saw 400 Hilux
pick-ups from the Army of Chad

nimbly take on and rout
Colonel Gaddafi's forces,

including 100 Russian battle tanks.

MUSIC: Fight The Power
by Public Enemy

French officers working
with the Chadians called it one of

the most spectacular defeats
suffered by an army this century.

Bad news for the Colonel,

but great for Toyota's
regional sales figures.

Toyota just make pick-up trucks.

They're not trying to decide

who should be in control of
the Middle East.

That's up to the bloke in the back
with the half-timbered machinegun.

That's as maybe, but today, Hilux
and Land Cruisers are hanging out

with none other than
James Bond's worst enemies.

Cue raised eyebrows everywhere.

# Fight the power... #

You'd think that everything
that we've just seen

would do very Toyota's reputation
a great deal of harm,

but not a bit of it.

In some ways, it's the best
advert they've ever had,

because, let's be honest,

you don't mount the heavy weapons
of insurgency on anything that

isn't absolutely dependable, do you?

So if this is good enough
for that lot,

then it's probably
good enough for you.

So, to recap, here we are,
70-plus years on

from the global invasion
by Willys Jeep,

and we have here three of the most
recognisable, most representative

manifestations of our desire to be
able to go anywhere in the car.

We have the redneck American,

the Japanese insurgent,

and the repressed
but still rather dapper Englishman,

and what follows now
is not a race.

It's a televisual celebration
of three great interpretations

of the all-terrain vehicle.

It's an epic off-road run from here,

in the middle of
the Mojave Desert...

and it will finish here,
25 miles away,

on this small side-street
in front of the Sphinx

and the Great Pyramid of Cheops,
in Egypt, Las Vegas.

Having said that, those two blokes
with the Ford are from Ford...

..and the two blokes
with the Toyota are from Toyota...

..and Melpomene,
the Greek Muse of tragic drama,

has allowed me the honour of
representing the British Midlands,

so, in a way, it is a race.
All right?

Are we ready? Let's go.

MUSIC: Love Spreads
by Stone Roses

The teams can take
whichever route they want.

I've cunningly chosen
an old trail that

Ford and Toyota have overlooked.

Go, go, go. Tally-ho, tally-ho.

Whoa, that's good.

Avoid that rock.

Nobody else can be
going this fast, surely.

I'd like you to watch those jagged
rocks. Yeah, I'll call them out.

Rock to the left.

Good job.

One of the casualties of the switch
from the Range Rover from

a mud-plugging vehicle to
a fashion accessory is that

the wheels are big -
they're 21 inches on this -

and the tyres are very low-profile,
so the most likely problem

we'll have, to be honest,
is a puncture.

VULTURES SCREECH

It's 121 degrees Fahrenheit outside,

but not in here,

cos this is luxury off-roading.

Bloody hell, it's quite quick.

Rocks!

More rocks!

But if I'm staying well chilled,

the mysterious desert appears to be
doing strange things to Team Ford.

So, Joe, you know they have
the Loch Ness Monster in...

in Sweden? And...

Is this that crazy jackalope story?

It is that. Yeah, you know what?

They say that it's true, you know,

and if you think about it -

a body of an antelope
and the head of a rabbit.

Perfect environment for this,
you know?

I've got to tell you,
I'm going to be disappointed

if we don't see a jackalope
on this trip.

'Well, there's no chance of that...

'..but while John and Joe might be

'falling down a giant rabbit hole
of superstition,

'I've come up against
an all-too-real obstacle

'that even a Range Rover
can't conquer.'

Ah.

Well, I thought that was
a bit too good to be true.

Will it go through there?

Hmm.

'It's a dead end.

'Good job the others
don't think it's a race.'

MUSIC: Isla De Encanta
by Pixies

Look at that torque!

God, I love that torque!

Nothing but torque -
it puts you back in the seat!

There you go. Beautiful. Good line.
Good line. Good line.

# Hermanita, ven conmigo... #

It really is amazing how
these vehicles have progressed

from being very rugged and
very primitive

to very rugged and very
sophisticated. That's right.

An hour into the race,

with the sun glaring down
like a vengeful Aztec god...

I've gone across country
to try and hit a trail

that actually leads somewhere.

I know this doesn't look
very dramatic on your screens,

but, trust me, it is.
It's nerve-racking.

There is a bit of a bush in the way

but I think the bush is going
to have to buy the farm.

I think I've done that
slightly wrong.

I'm going to try that way instead.

'It's a lot steeper than I'd hoped,

'but I owe it to the ghosts
of those early Land Rover pioneers

'to at least give it a try.'

Right, now, for the terrifying,
dizzying, vertiginous descent.

There's nothing else I can do,

except say it's been a pleasure
to make television for you,

and I hope my replacement
is as good. Here we go.

BLEEP - a word I can't say
on the television.

Whoof!

Thank you, car.

I need to try and steer it
left a bit,

otherwise I'm going to
fall off the edge.

God, it's steep.

I'm almost there.

Oof!

Traction control.

Clear.

And I'm off.

MUSIC: Ace Of Spades (Motorhead)
by Hayseed Dixie

Thank you, Birmingham!

The Rangey has earned its spurs,

but now I'm miles behind the others.

# You win some
Lose some

# It's all the same to me... #

Up ahead, however,

the curse of the were-rabbit
is about to strike.

# The pleasure is to play

# Don't make no difference
what you say... #

Slight left, left, left, left, left.

Big rock, right.
There you go. Whoa. Yeah.

# The ace of spades
All right... #

Oh, I've got TPMS. The tyre -
flat tyre in the back. Uh-oh, do we?

You know, Joe, I called out,
"Rock on the right."

It must have been that jackalope

you've been telling me
to look at on the left.

Well, no time to look for
jackalopes. OK, let's get the tools.

Let's get the spare
and get the heck out of here.

The wheel change has
evened things up a bit,

but, way ahead...

..Team Toyota have escaped
the mountains to reach

the empty vastness of
El Dorado Lake.

Once again,
Japan can leave everyone for dust.

Here's where whatever skill
you have comes in.

Feel free to start
screaming at any moment.

Whoa-ho!

Meanwhile, I tear through the
foothills like a man

late for the Fortnum & Masons sale.

Give it the berries.

Find the grip. Find the grip.

It's done that by itself.
Isn't that nice?

It's like having a brilliant butler.

Permission to say "Yee-ha"!

Keep going left. Keep going left.

You got it. Beautiful, beautiful.

Right, right, right, right, right.
Wonderful.

And here's the trail. Hey-hey,
this is what I'm talking about.

Outstanding. You're the man!

This trail on the far side of the
lakebed leads directly to Vegas...

and the finish line.

One team, one dream.

I wonder where the other guys are.

I don't know. I think they're stuck
back on the dry lakebed.

Stuck?

This is the fastest stuck
you'll ever see.

MUSIC: Can't Go Back
by Primal Scream

Engage supercharger.

I can see their dust.

Actually, I can taste their dust.

I'm hauling in your asses,
truck boys!

Here I come.

510 horsepower versus 370-something.
I've got them.

Yee-ha!

He may have 500 horses,
but we've got massaging seats.

I might have lassoed the rednecks,

but there's no sign of
the Land Cruiser.

MUSIC: Low Rider
by War

So, I think, just up over this hill.

Oh. There it is!

Do you see what I see? Civilisation.

Yeah, baby. Outstanding, brother.
That's what I'm talking about.

And I see Vegas on the horizon.

# All my friends
know the low rider... #

Aw...

Oh, honestly, that's like coming
in from outside, in bare feet,

and walking on the carpet again.

Hey, hey, there it is -
the Las Vegas sign.

There it is.

We went through some of
the toughest parts of the desert

and we're cruising in Las Vegas in a
vehicle that feels like a limousine.

I tell you what,

I'm pretty impressed
with this beast, right here.

And I'm proud of the Midlands.

They've rescued me from the desert
without a sweat...

..but have they beaten
Japan and America?

I'm curious to see where I've
come in this, cos I'm pretty sure

I'm ahead of the Ford, unless
they've done something very sneaky,

but I don't know what
happened to the Toyota.

I haven't seen it all day.

MUSIC: Theme from True Romance
by Hans Zimmer

I'm not seeing anyone.
I don't see anybody here.

Outstanding.

Victory, baby! First place, baby!

That's enough baby talk.

It's not as if they've won a race.

Bah...

Thank you for taking part.
I'm sick of off-roading.

It's like an affront to tarmac.
It's like going outside

and cooking on a barbecue when
you've got a perfectly good oven

in the house. What's the point?

Anyway, look,
here's a stroke of luck.

It's that Lamborghini I
won earlier on, on the roulette.

Yes! See you.

MUSIC: Stayin' Alive
by Bee Gees

ENGINE PURRS

I mean, I like the Range Rover,
I like the Toyota as well,

and I like the big, brash Ford,

but I really like the Lamborghini.

And I'm sure you've worked
out the connection already -

it's all-wheel drive.

Yeah.

# Somebody help me, yeah... #

'The Lamborghini Aventador is just
an extreme example of the benefits

'that all-wheel drive brings
to strictly on-road cars,

'and I love it.'

It's the jackpot.

ENGINE ROARS

But the all-wheel drive road car
almost didn't happen at all,

were it not for a single
extraordinary breakthrough

and a single extraordinary vehicle.

ENGINE ROARS

This is the car that kick-started

the on-road,
all-wheel drive revolution.

ENGINE ROARS

This is the Audi Quattro -

the "Ur-Quattro"
as it's known amongst aficionados.

A bit of brake.

And you will have guessed that
I'm in the rally version,

and this is Dave Higgins, who
is a pro rallyist...

and lunatic!

ENGINE REVS

'Unfortunately for my coccyx...'

Ow! '..the story of this
on-road revolution

'has a very off-road start.'

At the time, most car engineers
thought that four-wheel drive

would be too heavy, too clunky
and actually too fragile

to use in a performance car -
especially a rally car,

but one man at Audi
thought differently.

What had always held back
the production of

a four-wheel drive road car was the
heavy and clunky transfer gearbox,

which had changed little since
the days of Willys Jeep,

but, when in 1978, rallying
authorities opened up a new class

for four-wheel drive cars,

Audi engineer Jorgen Bensinger went
back to the drawing board.

His design -
a lightweight, hollow prop shaft,

driving a central differential -

did away with the heavy transfer box

and proved that four-wheel drive

was possible for all road cars.
ENGINE REVS

Audi had come up with a fantastic
four-wheel drive system

that definitely wasn't clunky,

definitely wasn't heavy and
certainly wasn't in any way fragile.

It was as reliable
as Angela Merkel's haircut.

And when this agile 420HP beast
entered competitive racing,

the rallying world
didn't know what had hit it.

For six years,
the Quattro ruled supreme.

Rally legends Hanna Mikkola,
Stig Blomqvist,

Oz Clarke, Michele Mouton
and Walter Rohrl

won 23 world heats, bringing back
four world titles between them.

Their dominance only ended

when the Group B rallying
class was abolished altogether,

following a number of accidents.

This is the Quattro that
went on sale as a road car in 1980.

The engine is a 2.1 litre
turbo-charged five-cylinder.

Remember when they were
all the rage?

And it delivers 200HP.

The Audi did work.

It gave you grip,
it gave you security.

That is why, when an emergency
happens in Ashes To Ashes,

DCI Gene Hunt doesn't say,
"To the 911!" or, "To the Golf!"

He says, "To the Quattro!"

# Imagination...#

If you were a debonair
man-about-town

with a girlfriend
from a Hot Gossip tribute act,

you'd buy into the dream too.

# Imagination... #

Hang the hefty price tag, this was
top quality German engineering.

But there was more to it than that.

There was the provenance
that came with driving

the conquering hero
of the rally world.

There was the quality,
there was the reliability.

And there was the kudos of being
able to stand in the pub

and say to your mates,

"My high-performance road car
has four-wheel drive."

Because nobody else's did,

and when it rained, which it would
obviously, as we were in Britain,

it made a difference.

It did!

Despite its well-earned credentials,

the Quattro remained pricey,
exclusive and rare -

only 11,000 were sold.

What we really wanted was
an affordable people's champion.

Something a bit more...
down on da street.

So, how about this?

It is an original first edition
Subaru Impreza WRX STi.

Japanese market edition.

It has a 2.0 turbo-charged engine
and four-wheel drive,

and gold wheels, and by reputation,
it is for yobbos.

So, what I thought I'd do
is drive it from here in Nagoya

to a very famous local road, the
Suzuka Skyline, very, very popular

because of its winding curves,
with local Japanese...

yobbos.

OK?

MUSIC: Omen
by The Prodigy

The chilling squawk of
an Impreza turbo's wastegate

is the sort of sound that sends
women and children running

for the sanctuary of doorways.

If you imagine the camera in our car
is your rear view mirror,

then this is how you're probably
used to seeing Subaru Impreza WRXs.

Come on.

Thank you!

In Britain, at least, it is
the calling card of the hooligan.

But is that fair?

The Impreza gained
its bad boy reputation

burning up multiplex car parks
in Essex and the like.

Crowds would gather
in their hundreds

in the hope of catching an STi.

STi stands for
Subaru Technica International.

WRX, by the way, originally
stood for World Rally Experimental.

And, like the Quattro, rallying
turned the Impreza into a legend.

In 1995, British motorsport
company Prodrive tweaked it

for the World Rally Championship and
it won, three years on the trot!

And that activity spawned this,

the version you could
buy in the showrooms, the WRX,

and suddenly everyone
wanted to be Colin McRae.

And so do I!

This thing goes
like an absolute BLEEP!

Yes, a dark blue Subaru Impreza
with gold wheels

strikes fear and horror into the
hearts of right-thinking people,

but hang on a minute,
because I like gold wheels.

In fact, I have them on my car.
And there's something else.

This car combines an intelligent and
effective four-wheel drive system

with superb engineering provenance

and a first-class
competition pedigree.

That sounds like a right load of
old twaddle, and it possibly is,

but if I said those words and then
attached them to a name like Porsche

you'd think, "Hmm, yeah!"

So, let's not have any
of this "yob's car" nonsense.

This is a thing of excellence.

Right, let's start giving
this car the credit it deserves.

At the heart of the Scooby-Doo

is a flat-four, two-litre
turbo-charged engine, giving 280HP.

And this neat engine layout

leaves room for a perfectly
balanced four-wheel drive system.

And the advantage of symmetrical
four-wheel drive,

Subaru owners will tell you, is that
it will pretty much anticipate

what the grip is for each wheel,

rather than having to wait
for a wheel to start slipping,

and then sorting it out.

It's a largely mechanical system

and, by modern standards, I suppose
it'd be considered quite dated,

but it does work.

It works an absolute treat.

It's a very, very lively car.

It changes direction
like a local councillor.

# You better make way cos
I'm coming through

# In my late '92 Betty blue

# Subaru... #

I'm not going to claim that
the WRX STi was ever a cheap car,

but when this one was out in 1996,

it cost £17,500,

and that was £5,000
less than an Escort Cosworth.

And I think this is cooler.

This doesn't feel like an old car.

I mean, it's 20 years old,
this thing.

It's absolutely as tight
as a drum and it still feels good.

Grip, grip, grip, grip,
power out of the bend.

No problem whatsoever.

Why haven't I got one of these?
They're fantastic!

It's got gold wheels!

This, I think,
is a deeply significant car.

In the '60s and '70s,
style and exclusivity

were democratised by the
Ford Mustang and the Capri.

In the '80s, sports-car performance
was democratised by the hot-hatch.

In the '90s,
genuine competition-bred,

all-wheel drive systems

were democratised by the likes
of the Subaru Impreza.

It really is genuinely a great car,

spoiled only by slightly dubious
head furniture.

Actually, I'd quite like
to finish there,

but I think we can get even more
of-the-people than this.

Almost an hour ago,
I said that all this stuff,

Willys Jeep, Range Rovers,

deserts, mountains,

the jackalope, rally cars,

and hooning about in a Subaru,

was relevant to
the cars of the people.

And it all is.

Awesome!

Without these safe
and sure-footed cars,

we, the people, would not
have conquered adversity,

developed new technology,

brought help to the needy
and affordable joy to the masses.

Yee-ha!

But, if it's the truly
affordable and dependable

people's champion
you're looking for,

I could have saved you all that
trouble and just taken you here.

It all comes together in this.
It's a perfectly normal car.

It's also a bit of an off-roader,

the ghosts of the Jeep
and the rally cars,

and the all-wheel drive supercars,

there's a little bit of
them in this.

It is...

Ta-da!

..the original Fiat Panda 4x4.

I hope you're not disappointed,
because you shouldn't be.

It definitely qualifies
as a people's car.

It will take a family, just, it's
cheap to run and easy to maintain.

It's as much car as it
needs to be, and no more.

But never mind all that
worthy old rubbish.

My own research, gained
from travelling around Europe

over the years, suggests

that least half the vineyards
of France and Italy

wouldn't be able to function
without the services of

a rather battered old Panda 4x4.

Which is ironic really, isn't it?

Because the two things we know don't
mix are alcohol and cars.

So I've come up with an idea.

I don't know what sort of car you've
got, but it almost certainly

owes a debt somewhere to one of
the great cars of the people.

Which is a marvellous thing,
isn't it?

So, here's the deal.

You drive, I'll have a drink.

Mmm.

Fruit.

Goodbye!