Behind these doors, we had created a masterpiece.
As you can see, Hammond's done a thorough job of anchoring the roof at the front.
We've replaced the glass that was broken and that obviously does tuck under there.
This... That's not a safety feature.
There's James's folding arrangement that gets it all down,
but it's the back where we're really pleased,
because what we've done is cut the tailgate in half.
You come back with shopping, you undo all these,
which takes no more than five or ten minutes,
and then we've hinged it here, so you can pull the whole thing open
and load up the boot.
Yes, there are one or two rough edges, here, for example.
But, on the whole, we are very proud of it.
To see how good our roof would be in real world conditions,
the production team came up with a number of tests.
-Now, our first challenge... -Yes, indeed. Let's have it, Professor.
Right. No idea what this is.
"Challenge One, you must drive the car with the roof up at the speed of 100 mph
without anything breaking or falling off." Well, it won't.
Good. Let's do it.
Obviously, we couldn't do this on the road,
so we went to the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire,
where there's a two-mile banked circuit.
It's been nice, chaps working with you.
Normally, I wouldn't wear a helmet for this.
-No, but on this occasion... -But today I am.
-Ready, boys? -Yeah! Braced and ready.
-Here we go! -Do it!
35, 36 miles an hour.
There's a bit of a draft here from these windows.
We may have to look at that.
Things were going well until we blasted past the 50 mile an hour barrier.
Guys!
-What? -Car issues happening back here.
-What's with... -Oh, no!
Your stitching is rubbish!
-It's fine. Keep going. -It's your stitching...
That's because your stitching came apart.
-What was that? -It's all collapsed in the back!
-It's still on! -My head's holding it up!
-That's fine. -Just stay where you are.
65, 66!
-Here we go! 69! -Yes!
She's breaking up! She's breaking up!
Come on, you useless piece of junk!
I am now part of it! I'm structurally integral to the roof!
It's really not good back here!
96!
It's not good! It's not good, at all!
97!
Yeah!
It's 100 miles an hour!
I'm easing her down now. I'm easing her down.
So, we'd survived that... just.
And Richard and I decided to get the roof down.
James said this would take but a moment.
Surely if we...
Where does that go?
Its neatness, we can work on.
See, from a distance, it actually looks... quite good!
Look at that!
This isn't its best side though, 'cause it's got the hinges on it.
It looks better from the other side!
Righto! Next challenge!
"You must now go to Woburn Abbey Safari Park
and drive your convertible through the wild animal enclosures."
Righto.
Fine.
-Well, there are lions. -You don't want to worry about the lions.
It's the monkeys you've got to worry about.
What?
Are you saying a lion... Massive, pointy teeth...
Monkeys... they don't scare me.
They're Barbary ape monkeys and they're really, really vicious.
They've got really, really vicious teeth.
All right, put it this way. If you were to be locked in a phone box
for half an hour with, A, a monkey or, B, a lion...
-Exactly. -There you go. What would you go for?
-The lion. -What?
Because monkeys, in confined spaces, those Barbary monkeys,
they panic and they get really incredibly violent.
I just love the way that James thinks that monkeys are
the greatest peril we're facing in the next hour of our lives.
Normally, Woburn doesn't allow convertibles
into its dangerous animal enclosures.
But they were so impressed with the structural integrity of ours,
they made an exception.
Ah! I'm scared. Look, it's like Jurassic Park!
Should I film? It is Jurassic Park.
Please keep your doors and windows closed
And never go in in a homemade convertible Renault Espace.
-These animals... may bite! -May bite!
The African lion, six tonnes of muscle and teeth.
To anyone from Woburn. Have these lions been fed?
No, they're on a starve day today.
Excuse me, it's Jeremy again. Did you say they were on a starve day?
Yes. We feed them twice a week,
which is more similar to the feeding regime they'd have in the wild.
So, when did they last eat?
Two days ago.
Yeah, but...
If you mention monkeys, I'll throw you out!
Whoa, stop, stop! Holy mother! That'd be the spine of...
That's the last person who came through in a convertible.
To him, we look like a sandwich box with a lid half off.
Fortunately, the lions had other things on their minds.
-Oh, look, what's going on? -Oh, no, he's...
That's lion porn!
-What are you doing, man? -What if he tries to do that to us?
With my point made, we left the lions and headed for the peril of the monkeys.
Oh! Monkeys!
Ah! Some of them are like a foot tall!
He's eating a carrot! Look what he's doing to it!
But then, a really big one rocked up.
-Attack monkey! -Get off!
That's a Barbary ape. That's who he is.
No, you've got to stay there after you mocked me!
Oh, another one on the front.
He's coming down.
We had to leave with our roof mascot still in place
because it was time for our final challenge.
"Modern convertibles are capable
of driving through automated carwash machines.
You must now do the same with your car."
The carwash selected for the test was brand new.
It had cost the owner a million pounds and featured the latest technology
to deliver the cleaning power of a category five hurricane.
Has anyone else suddenly become slightly nervous?
Yes, I'm terrified. I'm scared.
-It's quite cold tonight too, isn't it? -Yeah.
It's bloody freezing. Let's have the heater on a bit.
Yeah.
Oh, here we go!
-I'm not nervous. -No, I'm not nervous.
It's fine. It'll be good. It'll just, you know, flap around a bit.
My confidence is waning...
-I'm dry! -Yeah.
There's a light mist coming in to the car.
No, that's just condensation.
It's a bit of mist through the gap, but that's fine.
I'm dry still!
I'm wet now!
I've suddenly got a bad, bad, bad feeling about this.
There's a great big roller coming up!
The window's come in and the roof isn't...
-Oh, my God! -Get out! Get out!
-It's trying to hit us! -The door locks aren't...
-Get out! -I can't get out!
-Get out on this side! -I'm out!
I can't watch!
Come on! You have to go through there!
-Are you through? -Just get out. Get out. Just get out.
-Keep running. -Run!
Over there!
-That's bad. -That was bad.
-It's on fire. -It's what?
-Absolutely murdered... -It can't be on fire!
-It's on fire. -It's on fire.
Just run.