Fifth Gear - Season 26 (2015)

In this episode of Fifth Gear Tiff Needell and Vicki Butler-Henderson take part in a unique car v plane challenge. Nigel Lamb is the current Red Bull Air Race champion, which makes him the airborne equivalent of Lewis Hamilton. His MX2 aircraft is Formula 1 quick as well. But Tiff and Vicki also have a very special machine, a £300,000 Lamborghini Aventador. Once Vicki has experienced a ride in Nigel’s plane, and Nigel has had a spin in the Lamborghini, it’s time for them to go head to head. The aircraft is faster, but the car can turn tighter. The result is very close.

In this episode of Fifth Gear Tiff Needell and Vicki Butler-Henderson visit sunny South Africa to drive everything from rally cars, to supercars to military vehicles. Tiff and Vicki visit Paramount Group, makers of the fastest, toughest, military vehicles around. Using Paramount’s off road facility they stage a tortoise versus hare race. Tiff has the faster machine but must complete the longer, smoother route. Vicki’s vehicle is slower but she can take the rougher short cut. Does winning matter? Yes, because the loser will have to occupy the passenger seat as the presenters take on the most extreme off-road course, in Paramount’s most extreme machine. Expect hyper ventilation.

In this episode of Fifth Gear Tiff Needell and Karun Chandhok take two high performance saloons to the track to discover which is the fastest, and most entertaining, to drive. BMW have a long history of producing very quick family sized cars, and on paper their new M4 looks every bit as good. By comparison Lexus has never made a car of this type – however their new RC-F seems to match the BMW blow for blow. Three tests will determine which car best deserves its £60,000 price tag. The Bentley Mulsanne Speed is, according to the manufacturers, the fastest limousine in the world. But, being a Bentley, it’s extremely luxurious to. Jonny Smith takes a tour of this £300,000 car, which has a top speed of 190 mph but also comes equipped with Champagne flutes.

In this episode of Fifth Gear Tiff Needell visits northern Sweden for a very chilly rally challenge. He has just a few hours to learn the skills of racing on sheet ice before he takes on a rally champion over a treacherous rally stage. The potential for disaster waits around every corner. Jonny Smith journeys to Iceland to drive Land Rover’s new Discovery Sport. On paper it seems to be the perfect all-round car, combining brilliant off-road ability, with comfort, sportiness and space for seven. Jonny has a day to put the car through its paces, which includes driving through blizzards and a very wide, freezing, river.

In this episode Fifth Gear re-unites two of the greatest names in Formula 1 history – Prost and Senna. This time it’s Ayrton’s nephew Bruno and Alain’s son Nico who will do battle on the track. With Tiff Needell and Karun Chandhok in attendance they set out to discover which of a current crop of hot hatches is best. It’s a knockout competition that will eventually result in just two cars racing head to head around the Snetterton circuit. And that means one thing – it’s Prost v Senna all over again. After nearly 60 years the greatest 4x4 in the world, the Land Rover Defender, is about to go out of production. Vicki Butler-Henderson celebrates the end of an era by taking part in a high speed off-road challenge against current Defender Challenge Trophy champion, Edd Cobley.

In this episode of Fifth Gear Vicki Butler-Henderson and Tiff Needell travel to Romania to sample some of the car culture there. This includes driving some massive off-roaders, meeting a local classic car restorer, and racing a motorsport mad Mayor up the streets of his town. Tiff and Vicki travel to the wilds of the Romanian countryside to drive some extreme off-road vehicles made by a company called Ghe-O. They start off by having a race in Ghe-O’s fast Fighter buggy. The winner then gets to drive the company’s biggest machine, the Rescue. It can go literally anywhere so Tiff decides to take Vicki for a spin…up a river.