» Top Gear S16E05 Review

The newest instalment of the Top Gear episode franchise hit the UK airwaves just hours ago, and Richard’s F1 has its review of the latest offering.

The episode starts with an interesting fact: London’s Heathrow Airport was forced to cancel some 3,000 flights due to the deluge of snow that hit the UK over Christmas. Yet the airport (and indeed, much of the country) doesn’t have a single snowplough – a much more common sight in the United States – to deal with it.

On the flipside, the country is full of combine harvesters that sit idly during the winter months. So what if you could harness the technology of a combine harvester – big tyres, plenty of power, front-wheel-drive – and apply it to a snow-clearing scenario.

Enter the ‘Dominator’, which the Top Gear team have adapted to snowploughing duties by dint of a nifty ‘V-shaped’ plough at the front. Finding no snow in the UK (typical!), the three hosts head to a frozen lake in Norway where they set about ploughing the snow atop a frozen lake to create a runway ready for a ski-plane to land on it.

The trio also set about trying to clear a snow-filled road usually closed in the bitter winter conditions, and make further modifications to the ‘Dominator’, including an ice-melter – effectively a flame-thrower!

Jeremy also tests BMW’s latest offering in the M3 range, and pits it against Audi’s new RS5.

This episode’s Star in a Reasonably Priced Car is actress Amber Heard, out to promote Drive Angry 3D, a film perfect for Top Gear with it being all about “loud guns, fast cars and short shorts”, to use her description!

It’s a good episode well worth checking out!