The wheel's coming off. My wheel's come off!
-Hello. -I'll be Lufthansa.
-I'm sorry, the gate is closed. -Could you just open it?
Nein.
I haven't got a passport, I've just got a selection of weapons and concealed drugs
Eventually, though, we found what we came for.
-That is a runway over there, I believe. -Yes.
But since there was no-one around to ask for permission to use it,
we had to improvise.
Would it be possible for us to drive on the runway here?
-Is there any flight traffic today? -No, it's very quiet today.
-Is it? -I should imagine it'll be fine.
With permission granted, we headed out to the runway.
It's all right, I've got it. I've got it. It's Okay.
I can't do manual labour. You know that.
Look at that!
It's ours!
The runway was a whopping 2.5 miles long.
More than enough to max our cars.
Hammond elected to go first.
I'm always nervous when he drives in a straight line.
Richard Hammond, can you drive in a straight line down a runway?
Yes, what can possibly go wrong with that?
Hit the launch control button, with it in race and manual.
Give it max revs, my right foot.
Left foot off. Right, we're away!
It does the first gear change for me. Now it's up to me
and already we're doing 85, 90... 100 miles an hour, that quickly.
Damn, this thing is fast!
Oh, look at the dust cloud.
Hundred and thirty-eight. Hundred and forty-one!
I can hear the grit hitting the underside of the car.
There's a lot of it. Seventh gear has just been hit, 175 miles an hour.
Still accelerating hard.
I can see the line, 186... 87, 88.
Come on, Ferrari, accelerate!
Now that is a Ferrari at full chat.
Ninety! Ninety-one!
Ninety-two.
Ninety-two... Ninety-three!
One hundred and ninety-three miles an hour.
Top speed achieved.
Next up, it was James,
who decided to use absolutely all of the available space.
Right, here we go. Sport, sport suspension, air con is off.
Manual one. Here we go at the max.
Right, here he comes now.
Captain Slow is his name, or the Italians call him Mr Slowly.
That's 80.
I know at some point in that car, when he's doing his run,
he is saying "buffeting".
Buffeting.
He's moving along in the right direction.
It's weird to think James May's in that, doing that speed.
A spaniel in control of that.
Indicated 175, 177. Come on!
That said 186.
Knowing that modern-day speedos are frighteningly accurate,
I knew what speed I had to beat, Hammond's 193.
Okay, launch control.
First gear. Press launch. Launch active.
Three, two, one. Go!
Oh, wow, that's quick!
Eighty miles an hour already.
Here he comes. He's moving at tremendous speed.
Hundred and forty.
I'm taking manual control now to lock in in six.
I don't want to go into seventh... because that will slow it down.
Come on, 191, 193, 194,
195, 196, 197...
197 again.
Well, I'm through and I've indicated 198.
Victory, therefore, is mine.
Annoyingly, though, we weren't finished, because James had come up with an idea.
It's a drag race, but because of the weather,
especially what it's doing today, you have to start with your roof down
and you have to finish with your roof up.
And that's not quite as simple as it sounds.
Well, no, it isn't, because I can operate this roof while I'm driving.
So can I. He can't.
-You can't. No, Ferrari, you have to... -You have to stop.
-Which means... Hang on! -No, actually this is quite interesting.
I can do 19 miles an hour and put the roof up.
How fast can you go?
-Thirty-one. -You're joking?
Officially, your roof, I think, goes up in 14 seconds and mine's about 19.
This is very complicated.
So, the flag drops.
-Yes. -Yup.
I set off, but I can only go 19 miles an hour, while the roof's coming up.
-Then I can go. -Yup.
-You can go to 31 miles an hour... -But I have to stay there for longer.
Because your roof takes longer to go up.
You can't set off at all until your roof's up.
-But then-- -Go like hell.
Yeah, you launch control and go like hell.
Having settled on a half-mile distance,
we lined up and our Spanish starter began the countdown.
Tres, dos, uno...
-We begin, we begin... -I daren't put it in launch.
They're moving away, I'm not going anywhere!
Less than 19.
Eighteen miles an hour... 19, 18.
Come on, hurry up!
Oh, I've exceeded the roof speed.
Bang!
Oh, God. Struggling for grip. Windows are going up now.
Roof latched! I am away!
I've passed James. It's jammed!
[bleep]
I did that wrong.
We lined up for a second attempt.
Right, glasses on, so I can read when the roof is latched.
Right, keep finger on the button, concentrate on the speed.
Here we go. Keep it below 19 miles an hour, Jeremy... 18, 19.
I wait until the roof is up and just before the back hatch goes down,
I'm going to hit the launch control button. There.
Oh, come on! This feels astonishingly slow.
Nine... oh, 20. Roof operation in progress.
That's down. I can go now.
Roof closed!
I'm changing gear with my left hand. How multi-tasking was that?
I am passing James May.
They're getting closer to the line. I think Jeremy is going to cross now.
But I'm getting closer to the Audi by the second.
Hammond's coming!
I'm going to get him! I'm going to get him!
Second.
Victory has been mine.