‘Top Gear’ Recap: ‘Season 27, Episode 2’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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Sometimes, I think we all forget the fact that there is a revolution happening within the auto industry. For the days of gasoline and muscle cars are slowly coming to an end thanks to the world’s newfound desire for clean energy, and that paradigm shift has brought forth a gamut of electric vehicles to the market. But while it is quite cool to see cars that run off of batteries on the road and see the future come to life, there is one slight problem permeating this change in that, some of these cars aren’t quite as affordable as one might like. Which is something that begs an important question, in that, is it possible to find a moderately priced electric vehicle out there?
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Sadly, there is no easy answer to that question at this particular time, but that certainly didn’t stop Top Gear from exploring that conundrum in the most unique way imaginable. Because this week’s episode saw our hosts work to build a budget electric car, allowing for some unique creations to come into play and what the lads managed to put together was downright fascinating. For Chris decided it would be best to pay tribute to the past by updating a Triumph Spitfire, whereas Fred went a more practical route by converting a Subaru Brat into a green machine and Paddy of course, felt the need to add a new sense style to the Nissan Leaf to go with its electric upgrade and the point of all of this work was to see if any of these vehicles could hold a flame to what’s on the market now.

As it turns out, the answer to that question is a resounding no, because these cars struggled from the get go with performance due in part to age and the fact that they weren’t designed to handle the weight differential that comes with having batteries added to their chassis, but that certainly didn’t make the challenges put forth any less entertaining to watch. In fact, seeing these cars struggle and seeing the lads have a little fun with their failures made for one hilarious episode, especially when they used electric shocks to keep one another in line on a particular course, or when they tried to convince others that their uniquely constructed rides were the wave of the future. But while they came to learn that a budget electric car is a bit of a stretch, the episode was quick to educate us on how the major car companies are starting to make these vehicles every bit as good as everything else on the market.

That was accomplished by way of Chris’ review of the Tesla Model 3, a vehicle that Elon Musk vowed to make as magnificent as any other super car out there and wouldn’t you know it? Mister Musk made good on his promise. Because not only did this vehicle hang with some of the big boys in an overall speed test, it also managed to beat an Alfa Romeo by a fraction of a section on a road test and well, that’s simply incredible. And while this vehicle isn’t quite as sexy as some of the other vehicles out there, and doesn’t handle as well when it comes to those tough turns, the fact that it can compete with other super cars is quite the accomplishment when all is said and done and the results here reinforce the fact that it won’t be long until the electric car becomes the standard and if they manage to fix the little quirks present in Chris’ test, then this series might be testing magnificent cars that are powered by battery on a regular basis.

However, outside of that fascinating segment, there was still more fun to be had by way of the celebrity segment, which featured Himesh Patel and Danny Boyle, the lead actor and the director of the new film Yesterday, and it was fascinating to learn about their simple tastes when it comes to cars. But the fun in question came about from a friendly competition from the director and the star and the end result of this back and forth ended up a being a close win for Danny Boyle and in the end, this turned out to be quite the magnificent episode. Because it taught the audience a plenty about electric vehicles and what the future might hold for them and of course, the lads made learning fun by way of all the laughs they brought to the table and Paddy and Fred are wonderful additions to this series and they work well together with Chris and I cannot wait to see what kinds of tests and lessons await us in next week’s episode. Until then.  

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