The eighth episode of the fifth series of Top Gear aired on the 19th of December, 2004. It was presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and The Stig. Eddie Izzard was the guest star. It was the 47th episode overall.
Synopsis[]
The skiing season has just begun, so now thousands of people will be thinking what is the best way to get to The Alps? A car is cheaper and more practical, but a plane is faster. Or is it? Jeremy reckons he can drive a car from Top Gear's studio in Guildford to Verbier, Switzerland in a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti faster than Richard and James can get there via Airbus.
Tonight...[]
- Which can get down a mountain the fastest: a rally car or a bobsleigh?
- Are modern-day showroom cars faster than racing cars from not that long ago?
- And can a Formula 1 Renault get round our track... in less than a minute?
Airing History[]
Series 5, Episode 8 originally aired on the 19th of December, 2004, on BBC 2. It was then cut into a series of compilations known as "The Best of Top Gear", before being regularly reshown on channels such as BBC Prime and UKTV People throughout the mid '00s, along with the rest of Series 5, before indefinitely ending up as a permanent fixture on Dave from the channel's 2007 debut onwards, albeit in a cut 45-minute version. It would later appear on streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Episode Names[]
Though never given a name upon its original airing, much like every other episode of Top Gear, two slightly different names were retrospectively applied to the episode by the BBC years later:
- Top Gear's section on BBC's website calls it "Ferrari 612 Scaglietti vs Jet Plane".
- Top Gear's own website calls it "The one with the race to Verbier".
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