it's all very simple really I am in
charge of the batteries and the electric
motor Clarkson is in charge god help us
of the bodywork and interior and Richard
Hammond is in charge of the chassis and
the brakes if you are gonna build your
own car there's no point just throwing
the chassis together yourself because
you'll get caught up in 20 years of red
tape trying to get it registered to use
on the road so what you need to do is
use the chassis from another car but
there is a problem because most modern
cars don't have a chassis ascent it's
all kind of built into the body so you
need to choose from an older car
specifically you've got a choice of
either a Land Rover a Lincoln Towncar or
this the TVR Chimaera I bought this one
for five thousand pounds and I was going
to remove its body and engine and then
use its chassis as the backbone of our
new car James meanwhile we're preparing
to cannibalise something a bit less
sporty
I shall be using the electric motor from
this which just leaves me with the
problem of the batteries now the tesla
that american electric sports car uses
6,831 batteries but that seems a bit
excessive to me so to save weight and
money I'm going to use two batteries
like all great car designers I'd created
a mood room hung with images from which
I could draw inspiration big cats jet
fighters the actor Peter Bowles
and pretty soon I was ready to start
work it's a lovely material to work with
alanine because it bends carmakers can
learn a lot from this simple system I've
adopted and there is the precious
chassis that is the basis of everything
we're doing
[Music]
the terms of construction
I've taken my lead from shelving you
simply get the uprights which I've got
here there it is bolt those through
there
dammit how simple is this one piece
another piece bolts holding them
together with the milk float dismembered
my power system was taking shape that's
a hundred quids worth of batteries a 20
quid milk float motive and what's this
is that turning around there don't be
finger on it I'm going to as long as you
two keep the weight of your body in your
chassis there and that will go like a
stabbed rat sure but it'll be a damn
sight faster than a g-wiz while mayor
you wired up his batteries in Hammond
prepared his chassis I retired to the
mudram to seek further design
inspiration having finished their jobs
and under Mayor left me alone to
complete the bodywork beautiful our
masterpiece was ready well credit where
it's due
it's a minister in law I can't see any
of the nail heads somebody isn't it's
all white you pleased they're amazed
I'll have to say this isn't actually it
that there you go
that is the worst-looking car in the
whole world I'd rather look at one of
your dingleberries what is the matter
exactly everything is straight
everything is doable on your kitchen
table is that a section from a garage
door yes
okay what's more I'd fitted a tape
player and rather brilliantly three
abreast seating he was gonna say you
haven't given him any Headroom Oh
Hammond consider them is our God careful
of my roof you're bending my one it's
bending my spine you really need to
change the roof that's no good
all right all right all right back to
the drawing board while Jeremy modified
the roof out I get loud Hammond and I
started to think about a name for our
creation I hate it when eco cars are
given a really pious name like
intelligentsia so we want to give it a
more aggressive like Mustang Tiger yeah
Panther or vixen vixen sadly though
Jeremy had beaten us to it Jeff
and after some more styling tweaks Jeff
was ready for the road
[Music]
I'll tell by the fire with his head in a
box it works
[Music]
what is that noise Jamaica
I'm filming it I've deserted
using racket don't knock it's working
oh yeah go on give it a beat
yeah how fast is that
early 10:00 you built a car that will
only do 10 miles an hour
yeah actually that wasn't such a bad
thing
on account of the design floor with
Jeremy's shiny bonnet
we make existing 6000 pounds
can you put three people in the g-wiz No
in fact we were so proud of Jeff we took
him for a drive into Oxford now you do
realize Oxford loads the motorcar not
this one but this one will be welcome
they will think that it's the second
coming if he hit me see the happy hippie
did you see the cyclist smiling at us
however as we neared the city center
James's power system started to develop
some issues I'm not gonna indicate it
seems to slow it down you're not telling
me that the indicators affect the charge
there's something not quite right with
the way of why that I felt a definite
drop in power then as I went a bit more
than two batteries because I wanted to
save weight
stop picking holes in it