The following morning we were warned there was a mob on the streets of Kiev and the walls
Thank you for coming, thank you so much
So to get a bit of peace and quiet we were told to report to the country's only racetrack
For what chillingly was called the final challenge
Your cars will each be given exactly 23 litres of fuel
Which because they're so economical should easily be enough for them to cover the hundred or so miles to your
destination a town near the border with Belarus, I only
23 litres to a hundred miles when you're challenged it's easy
Your challenge is to run out before you get there
This is something you'll want to do as the town in question is called
Chernobyl
Can we actually we can't go there can we
Chernobyl was the scene of the world's worst nuclear accident
When reactor number four exploded in 1986 it released a radioactive cloud
So devastating that the entire area will remain
uninhabitable for
20,000 years
And unless we could make our cars do less than 20 miles to the gallon
This is where we'd end up
Fall claim minders 65 mpg all the way here. This is done 60 miles to the gallon. Yes give all to here
How do you make these cars doom?
Twenty miles to the gallon imagine getting it under 30
After the producers had put precisely 23 liters of fuel in each tank we did some preparations of our own
right
Clever this what I'm gonna, do is let about 30% of the pressure the tires
Point is it increases rolling resistance, which means I use more fuel
But is one heavy up
What are you doing?
I'm seeing all the gaps so that radioactive dust copies what you've done there Hammond is made it more aerodynamic I
Have good, bye
To get through this much petrol in less than a hundred miles we would have to drive like
maniacs straight to
Come on those other rats
Second gear right to the limiter
So that's wasteful
James and ami decided to go for a low gear policy of maximum revs Hammond on the other hand
If I keep doing this
All the way there, I'll go further I'm gonna be twice the distance
this is the answer mocked and
Guess where that's where I'm gonna have to be careful when there's traffic coming the other way
Or what I just realized?
I'm driving without the lights on I'm driving with the Eco engine sister huge groovin. Don't want that on heated seats yes
That's better
People think this is a bit odd, but if they knew why I was doing it. They would understand I
Can't believe that making these losers because it's not like the radioactivity has gone
It hasn't has a half-life the material is left of
245,000 years and James Murray obviously been explained. What a half-life is in fact. He probably is doing
Half-life is actually constant
Piece of uranium will have a half-life and when that half-life is passed the remaining bit
Still has the same half-life. I think the word was coined by Marie Curie the early 20th century was the time when
radioactivity was identified discovered
After 25 miles of redline motoring the news from the app still wasn't good
Of mr. Hammer. It's 23 miles to the gallon
I've got to get that down
How do I get that down?
Right the drag is now problematically worsened in wild
I am feeling a bit sick now if I'm honest
Well is that a police car Oh
There's the horrible evidence at 1/4 distance
25.5 miles, I should have lost one of those four bars that I started with but it's not happening
Come on petrol sod off
Okay, we've been pulled by the police
They were wondering why I was zigzagging
They're talking to the camera car in front meanwhile. I'm sitting here at max rpm
To try and use some fuel while I'm stationed
Whilst Hammond was deafening the police I pulled over to disable my engine management system
Engine warning life yes
That's what we want
So what the engine has to do now is assume a sort of worst-case
Scenario because it doesn't know anything about itself, so it'll assume is very cold the fuel quality is bad
So it must be less efficient
30 miles from Chernobyl all our cars were still running, and we were trying every trick in the book to make them conk out
Because that butt drag now
Right and accelerate
Center eight
Still don't three pause come on
There it is 17.8 MPG all my fuel lights come on. Oh yeah
I'm doing 21 miles to the gallon. I'm not doing well in there
Everything's on mu t needle on empty
run out run
It's one degree of that
Nipples is sticking out badly now. I believe this Richard Hammond
This thing should not be moving
I'm going I'm going I am going go to have run out oh
Yes, yes, oh
This it's gone I
Don't believe you I
Don't believe you sit Rep Richard Hammond is a gone go and meet your fate