Category: Fifth Gear

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Chevrolet Fifth Gear Motorsports

Plato philosophical about great save

Fifth Gear’s Jason Plato is currently getting about in the BTCC in a reasonably priced car—a Chevrolet Lacetti. Something not so reasonable, though, was the tap up the backside given to him by BMW driver Jonathan Adam at Brands Hatch last weekend.

Watch the clip above to see the amazing car control shpwn by Plato as he keeps the car going in its intended direction, even if it was pointing in an entirely different one.

There’s also a brief post-race interview with Plato who found out that his bag of talent actually had a bit more in there than he first thought.

[Source: autoblog]

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Fifth Gear Ford

Fifth Gear drives 2009 Ford Focus RS

Jason Plato from Fifth Gear has been handed a set of keys to the new Focus RS. It’s a pretty wild looking thing, and with 300bhp (225kW) powering the front wheels it sounds like a recipe for disaster. However, thanks to its tricky RevoKnuckle suspension system, which maximises grip, Ford seems to think everything will be okay.

So, it loses marks for lime green paint. It loses marks for hamfisted naming of its technology. But does the Focus RS lose any marks for the driving experience? Not on Jason Plato’s shift, it doesn’t.

Find out more about the Focus RS by downloading this PDF (724kb) or by checking our the Ford.co.uk website.

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BMW Fifth Gear

Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road – the best in the world?

Is the tight, twisty and ultra smooth Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road in Abu Dhabi the best in the world? In Series 15, Episode 7, Fifth Gear sent Tiff Needell to the middle east and gave him the keys to a BMW M3 to find out.

You can see the 11km stretch of tarmac on Google Maps, or read more about Jebel Hafeet on Wikipedia.

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Fifth Gear Renault

Fifth Gear dogfight: Renault Megane R26.R v Caterham CDX

Renault makes some might fine hot hatchery, and the Megane R26.R has to be up there as one of their best. But surely Renault’s latest balls out track special is no match for a raw, lithe and uncompromising Caterham?

Join Fifth Gear’s Tiff Needell to find out. Be prepared from some froggy cornering goodness.

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Fifth Gear MINI Volkswagen

Fifth Gear dogfight: Volkswagen Scirocco v MINI Cooper S

The fifteenth series of Fifth Gear is currently airing in Britain and in this week’s show they pitted Volkswagen’s stunning Scirocco against the cheeky MINI Cooper S. The cars were tested at the Castle Combe racetrack and Tiff Needell and Jason Plato were at the wheel. You can be sure nothing was left in the pits.

The result was very close, but if you want the winning car you’ll have to pester Volkswagen Australia very hard to get one.

(Thanks to Lee for the tip.)

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Fifth Gear Lamborghini Video

Ice ice baby

If you had the keys to a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 and access to an ice track, what would you do? Thought so.

Here’s a clip from series 15 of Fifth Gear with Tiff Needell at the wheel showing us how it is done. Apart from all the fun and shenanigans that Tiff gets up to, the clip also gives a great example of how modern day traction control and ESP systems work. Amazing stuff!

Almost as much fun as taking a 911 around a snow-covered Nürburgring.

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Fifth Gear Volkswagen

Fifth Gear reviews Golf VI

Fifth Gear returned to UK screens last week with the premiere episode of Series 15. This makes them the first major UK car show to get their hands on the Mk6 Golf. Here’s Jonny Smith’s review.

For more on the new Golf, check out this previous AUSmotive post, including the Trackback links at the bottom of the article that will take you to a wide range of Golf VI related articles.

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Fifth Gear

Fifth Gear – Series 14, Episode 8

Apologies for the lateness of this recap—Episode 8 was the last in Series 14 and the show starts with Vicki showing us the updated Honda Jazz. You can fit a push bike in the back, apparently. Vicki reckons the Jazz is not so bad. Shame it’s not available with an ESP system (in Australia at least). Tim Shaw finally changed his pants—thank the lord for that—shame he’s still a goat. He serviced his own car and saved a few hundred squids, good for him. Oops, spoke too soon, the clown and his pants make a return in the studio.

In keeping with let’s cram as much as we can in each show theme of this series, Tom was given about 11 seconds to speak about the four wheel steering system in the new Renault Laguna GT. There was a bit of banter about a new British sportscar, the Jetstream SC250, all fine and dandy, but c’mon producers give the show some air, why bother showing this car if all you’re going to give is what amounts to a 15 second advertisement.

The next segment saw Tiff and Plato take to the track … in go-karts (see above). Tiff annoying and whiney as ever was shown the way by Plato. Result!

Continue reading “Fifth Gear – Series 14, Episode 8”
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Fifth Gear Volkswagen

Fifth Gear – Series 14, Episode 7

This episode started with a proper old skool hot hatch, the iconic Volkswagen Mk2 Golf GTI. I’ve been fortunate to see a great example of these up close and they really are bloody good cars. Take a well loved Mk2 GTI to a tight mountain pass and it will keep any current hot hatch very honest indeed. Jonny was out to see what sort of improvements he could make at his local tuning shop. After Tiff set a benchmark time, Jonny started the mods. They started with the easy stuff like new suspension and exhaust, but also undertook a complete engine rebuild that was hoped to give a very tidy 50hp increase. The first part of the clip is shown above, check the second part to see how well the mods work at the end of this article.

Read on to see what else was in store for this episode…

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Fifth Gear Volkswagen

Fifth Gear – Series 14, Episode 6

Volkswagen Australia, are you watching! Even Tom Ford, all the way over in England, knows the deal—bring the Scirocco to Australia in place of the three door Golf GTI. While GTI production is in limbo prior to the launch of the MkVI model the case for the Scirocco is even stronger. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

So we know how Episode 6 started, read on to see what else the Fifth Gear had in store.

Continue reading “Fifth Gear – Series 14, Episode 6”
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Fifth Gear

Fifth Gear – Season 14, Episode 5

The shootout saw Jason Plato in a Lexus IS-F with Tiff Needell in a BMW M3 saloon. The Bimmer was quicker round the track. Just. But no surprise that the Toyota felt softer and more distant. Tom pitted the new Subaru Forester against a Land Rover Freelander II. He reckoned the Forester was tinny and under powered. He wasn’t much of a fan of the auto transmission either. A weclome addition to the cast this week was the Nissan GT-R and the Porsche 911 Turbo. Oh yeah, and Bruno Senna. Fittingly, he was fanging the cars around a wet track in conditions that his uncle would have loved (see clip above). I say, flick Tiff and replace him with Bruno.

Vicki filed a report from a tribute to Colin McRae which saw 1086 Impreza WRXs spell out his name. She also got a fang in McRae’s 1996 WRC winning car. Very tidy indeed! Tom had a go in the Dodge Challenger SRT8. I have to say it looks pretty damn good—for an American coupé. Vicki got the keys to a Vauxhall Astra VXR Nürburgring and a Ford Focus ST (XR5 to us Aussies). Geez, they cram a lot into these episodes. Plato finished the show with John Prescott in a racing Jaguar XK-R. The first three episodes of this series were a bit testing at times, but the last couplf have been much better.

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Fifth Gear

Fifth Gear – Series 14, Episode 4

Apologies for the late update to this week’s show. Jason Plato—AUSmotive’s preferred Fifth Gear presenter—started the show comparing the JDM Honda Civic Mugen RR v the UK spec 2000 GT. The Japanese Civic was the quickest around their test track, and by some margin, plus it sounds bloody good, too.

I didn’t want to mention Tim Shaw this week, but given he covered the revised CO2 taxes UK residents will be paying shortly, I thought it would be worth raising, given our federal government’s recent issues with its proposed Luxury Car Tax increases. I’m guessing it won’t be long until we’re paying taxes based on emissions here in Australia too. They highlighted a Volkswagen Golf 1.6 and a Citroen C4 XS, the French car expels 13 grams less in CO2 emissions, but when the new tax laws are introduced, the Citroen will cost almost AU$200 less to register. I daren’t mention the funky and frugal MINI John Cooper Works again (6.9l/100km, 165 g/km), but, well I just did.

Continue reading “Fifth Gear – Series 14, Episode 4”