now if you want a comfortable
well-equipped four-seater for around
25,000 pounds there are currently 30
different models on the market but these
two being bold and odd decided none of
them were good enough and instead they
wanted to buy cars from the pages of
history now I should stress that what
we've got coming up now isn't the usual
top gear cheap car challenge because
these really are their cars they're
stupid this is what I've bought it's a
1972 a rolls-royce Corniche fix head
with coach work by HJ Mulliner Park ward
and is everything I look for in a
classic luxury car it's quiet it's
supremely comfortable and it's
quintessentially British frankly if you
have twenty five thousand pounds to
spend on classic luxury and you don't
buy one of these you're an imbecile see
what I mean rice Marshall Goering has
arrived Morgan this James as I'm sure
you know is Mercedes 600 grosser which
was in 1963 the most expensive car in
the world overpriced then like most
Mercedes no does your car have a
hydraulically operated sunshine roof no
hydraulic windows hydraulic seats
hydraulic doors hydraulic boot lid no
boy are you just got a Ford Zephyr with
a chrome nose this is a coach built
hand-built car hand-built is just
another way of saying the door will fall
off what's this called rolls-royce
Mulliner Park ward HJ Mulliner Park ward
it just sounds like a plumber's
convention can I just say something from
a Holley mm see these little windows
here do you know what they're for so
that when you're in the back and the
window is down this stops the draught
messing your hair up and you've seen
this as well has your car got these
curtains curtains no they go in caravans
are you ready for this yes okay ready
that's brilliant actually
I have to concede that because what I've
always found really difficult is this
plainly this had to be settled in the
only way Top Gear knows so we headed for
the test track
what the grocer did was cement
Mercedes's reputation for engineering
integrity I think the only reason they
didn't make it out of Donovan's is
because they're too weak and brickle and
then there's the ride
just completely irons out bugs James
will be saying the same thing in that
Ford Zephyr of his I know he will
absolutely nothing is allowed to
compromise the quality of the ride in
fact I like to believe that if you
worked at Rolls Royce in the 1970s and
you ever used a word like handling or
sporty you'd have been fired this was a
car for heads of state dictators if I'm
honest people who have a 600 almost
always have access to an air force
that's why nobody cars it up partly cuz
he's got the loudest horn in the world
and also because I can call in an air
strike at the track our producers had
laid on a series of tests the first
inevitably involved lost it okay
surprise me as you can see the Stig is
currently driving a 1.1 litre Hyundai
IEO Danis great tank you will attempt to
beat his time in your much more
elaborate and sophisticated cars here he
comes
it's a proud and Noble car that is with
the Stig's marker laid down the rolls
went first
if this car had a monocle it would fall
out
I can't all the cattle it's not a
dignified spectacle this was ridiculous
maybe sick
okay so that ironed I did it in twenty
four point four six seconds and James
that's not good mate I had good reason
to imagine the greengrocer would do
better this is my secret weapon mm-hmm
pull it down and it increases the
pressure in the shock absorbers to 3000
pounds per square inch cool it is core
it'll be like an f1 racer going down
there it wasn't but unlike the rolls
it's turning circle was less than the
width of the runway oh that's quite good
actually I'm gonna bear in mind if
you've got a dictator in the back and
terrorists come you got to get away
quickly
faster than captain slow so with
first blood to the Mercedes it was time
for our next challenge they will now be
a quarter-mile drag race between the two
of you but it says the only thing is you
aren't allowed to use your engines well
it says old cars break down a lot and
you should get used to pushing them out
of harm's way what a quarter-mile
pushing race I've put my back out just
thinking about doing this you're trying
to get out of it just say go are we
ready
[Music]
that I'm moving I'm not and I was
already ahead I got an impression on
these shoes
how much does yours actually weigh two
point two tons minus 2.8 hang on you're
getting ahead god this is paying
Oh Oh a heart attack
I've won that yes oh you have all you've
won for I was still going mercifully the
next test did involve our engines which
car could achieve the highest top speed
reached five buffeting I've got 80 the
radar trap was set
ninety good god the trims coming off but
with a six and three-quarter litre v8
the final result should be impressive it
wasn't children come out of the womb
faster than that
before James had stopped I fired up the
6.3 litre big top speed of this car in
1969 was a hundred and twenty-eight
thirty
hundred and sixty there it is our only
miles an hour
1:17
[Applause]
my brakes are on fire we can see the
smoke it didn't stop and now it's on
fire still stop better than me I have to
say yeah your stopping distance is
rubbish