Top Gear Season 12
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Top Gear
1978 / TV-PG
Motoring programme featuring reviews of and reports about cars of all types.
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Top Gear Season 12 Full Episode Guide
For the last programme in the present series William Woollard and the Top Gear team look back at highlights from the past year and forward to motoring in 1985. Chris Goffey tries out the Audi 200 Quattro Turbo to see if it matches up to claims that it's destined to become one of the world's great cars. And in a year when figures showed that one in three drivers is now a woman, Sue Baker reports on their move into another important area of motoring; while Frank Page recalls MG's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
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1985 is to be heralded as the centenary of the birth of the car. Karl Benz is usually held to be the father of the motor car. The French, on the other hand, have discovered a gentleman by the name of de Boutteville who had a car running on French roads a year earlier in 1884. Earlier this year in Paris, the French mounted an elegant exhibition to celebrate this event. William Woollard and Sue Baker visited this dazzling display of invention, exquisite taste and downright quirkiness. Four-wheel drive vehicles made an appearance in 1916 and since then they have acquired a macho upmarket image that has caused quite an explosion in the 4x4 market. Now almost every car firm has a rugged, mud-plugging, go-anywhere vehicle. Chris Goffey assesses some of the market leaders.
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Have you ever thought how nice your car might look with different-coloured tyres? Perhaps a tasteful shade of green, yellow or blue? It's not as outrageous as it seems, as William Woollard found out when he visited one of the world's major tyre manufacturers at its research and development centre in Luxemburg. Closer to home, Top Gear drops in at a spectacular get-together of Rolls-Royce owners and takes to the racetrack testing 'hot hatchbacks' to the limit.
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Sixty years ago Fiat's new factory at Lingotto in Turm was hailed as a masterpiece of industrial building. Now it has been turned into giant exhibition halls. Today for the first time they house the Turin Motor Show. William Woollard and Chris Goffey report. Frank Page climbs to the famous roof-top test track and there's a look at the new Lancia Thema. David Willey reports on the harsher realities of Italian life - bullet-proof cars.
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Giant racing monsters take to the track in a special Top Gear from the first British Truck Grand Prix. William Woollard meets the stars and the working truckers who unhitch their trailers to push five tons of highly-powered steel to the limit round the Donington Park circuit, while reporter Chris Goffey climbs into the cab in an attempt to fight his own way to the final. And between races there's a chance to see spectacular two-wheel stunts, a jet truck and Britain's fastest delivery service -the 170 mph Supervan.
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If you've ever wondered how police drivers chase bank robbers, then watch Top Gear tonight. William Woollard visits the Metropolitan Police Driver Training School at Hendon, which celebrates its golden jubilee this year. Every day on Britain's roads there are eight accidents between vehicles and horses. Chris Goffey climbs into the saddle to report on new guidelines. And an exclusive look at this year's British Grand Prix - or at least a scaled-down version.
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William Woollard and the Top Gear team return with a review of highlights from the British International Motor Show. There's a detailed look at the new Scimitar sports car and at Reliant, the company that makes it. Sue Baker travels the roads of Southern Ireland in Vauxhall's latest Astra, while, just a stone's throw away from the Motor Show, William Woollard gets to see some of the hundreds of bikes on display in Britain's first National Motorcycle Museum, which opened at the weekend. And if you think regular checks on your tyres with your own tyre pressure gauge or pump keep you safe, beware. Chris Goffey reports on an investigation that reveals serious inaccuracies in many gauges on sale in Britain.
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