Top Gear: Season 6, Episode 2 - ProjectFreeTV

6 - 2: Cheap 2-Door Coupés

To put it short: A search is on for inexpensive two-door coupes, and past and present Maserati's are reviewed. Full Summary: On cheap-and-cheerful, Top Gear our presenters picked up some ageing coupes for very little money and Jeremy had a look at Maseratis past and present. We gave each of our presenters £1,500 and told them to go out and buy a coupe that wasn't a Porsche. Richard picked a BMW 635 CSI, Jeremy a Mitsubishi Starion 2.6 turbo, and James a Jaguar XJS, in gold. Jeremy only managed 119mph around the track, which was faster than Richard, but not as fast as James. The only problem with James' Jag was that all the oil fell out, which sort of broke the engine. All of this had a serious impact on the next test: reliability. Each car had to drive to the middle of Oxford, a tricky proposition in a town filled with buses, bicycles and students. Still, Jeremy used his manly sense of direction to get there first, followed by Richard, who used his satellite navigation, while James and his Jag broke down five times en route. Then it was the final stage: a four-hour dirt track endurance race. Jeremy fooled around with his Starion and beefed up the boost pressure of his turbo. The performance increase was spectacular, but then so was the explosion when his engine finally let go. Richard won this event, as he did more laps than James. But only the Jag was still running when the chequered flag went down. The overall winner? Well, James' Jag, officially. But Jeremy still claimed that his Starion would've won had he not messed about with it. There's a lesson in there somewhere... Our star in a reasonably priced car was comedian Jack Dee. His lap didn't exactly set the world on fire, but he was very funny.