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ADAM: Now, on Top Gear...
How far can you drive on just one tank of gas?
I may have a problem.
We find out, when we try to race
700 miles from Portland to San Francisco,
without refueling.
Come on, come on!
And the winner gets an epic prize
racing an extreme kayaker,
in one of the least fuel efficient vehicles ever made.
RUTLEDGE: Whoa!
RUTLEDGE: Since 1975, vehicles in the U.S.A.
have almost doubled their fuel efficiency.
And 2012 has seen record sales of gas-electric hybrids.
But when you choose a vehicle,
it's not just about MPG,
it's also about looks,
handling and power.
So, is there a car that lets you have it all?
We each chose vehicles to put to the ultimate test,
of how far you can get on just one tank of gas.
Then met up at the crack of dawn in Portland, Oregon.
And because our race to San Francisco
was more than 700 miles,
it meant that electric cars wouldn't be able to make it.
And happily, neither would hybrids
with their tiny gas tanks.
Tanner was the first to arrive.
(TIRES SCREECHING)
(FOGHORN SOUNDING)
This is the BMW 528i.
Doesn't seem like the most obvious choice
for a one tank of fuel 700 mile road trip,
but, I figured this is a game about efficiency.
And I don't know really anything more efficient
than a German engineer.
They gave it an eight speed automatic transmission
to keep the RPMs low and save fuel.
The slip stream aerodynamic shape,
just icing on the old MPG cake.
I own a BMW and I know they're fun to drive.
For me, I think fun is about the only thing
that's gonna keep me from poking both of my eyes out
on a road trip like this.
(CHUCKLES) Oh! Rutledge.
(CAR HONKING)
Okay, before you say anything let me make three guesses.
Okay.
-You got it on craigslist? -Yes!
-You paid under five grand. -Yes, again.
And you wanna keep it.
Totally! All three, that's it.
'97 Volkswagen Passat TDI,
-turbo diesel. -TANNER: Oh, my gosh.
Weight is the entire key to good miles per gallon.
Three thousand pounds.
-What's that weigh? -Thirty-eight hundred pounds.
-Wow. -I have three times the horsepower.
And a little something
called technological innovation.
-And that's all in this car. -How many miles per gallon you get?
Thirty-four.
Thirty-five miles a gallon.
Don't believe that for a second.
Maybe so, but I've seen how you drive.
So, I think you've got no chance.
What I wanna know is what do you think Adam got?
(SIGHS) Something small, I think.
Wow, I was way off.
(LAUGHS)
I was way off!
But I don't think he got the point
of what we're supposed to do here.
At all.
-Eh? -Not even a little bit.
(TANNER LAUGHS)
-Did you understand... -"Eh?" "Eh?"
...at all what this is about?
Yes, I did, my friend. We have to make it
from Portland to San Francisco without refueling.
ADAM: The Ford F-350 Bi fuel, excellent choice.
Thirty-five gallon gas tank
and compressed natural gas tank in the bed,
for an equivalent of 21.2 extra gallons
for a grand total of 56.2 gallons of fuel.
That's pretty good thinking but completely not legal.
-Why not? -That's two tanks.
The One Tank Challenge means one singular tank.
No, we just have to make it there without refueling.
So, more is better.
-They don't make them like they used to. -That's it.
Modern technological innovation.
I'm gonna get something out of my system first. Just stand aside.
Okay, sure.
-Is he gonna pee by the car? -I don't know.
Here's the thing. It only weighs 3,000 pounds.
ADAM: Three thousand pounds...
(TIRES SCREECHING)
There he goes.
It's a five speed,
which these are pretty hard to find
-in this good a condition, but... -How many miles are on it?
Yes!
This is what this car begs to do.
I mean, it's a great deal.
-(TIRES CONTINUE SCREECHING) -(TALKING INDISTINCTLY)
You have to be careful with it, sure.
I think you could do it.
I feel so much better.
You guys are ready to do this or what?
Sure.
RUTLEDGE: Our race would take at least 12 hours,
so we were starting early in the morning.
And the finish line was
at the Decommissioned Alameda Naval Airbase in San Francisco.
Whoever got closest to the finish line
without running out of gas
would get the keys to the ultimate off road vehicle,
a King of the Hammers truck.
And go head to head with one of the top kayakers
on the planet in an epic race
deep in the Rocky Mountains.
It was time to start the race.
This is it, gentlemen.
Last gas station we're gonna see for 700 miles.
All right, are we ready?
I'm feeling pretty good, actually.
This car's super comfortable, brand new,
it's not 10 years old and doesn't smell bad.
-ADAM: A-ha! -I'll be fine.
ADAM: After we filled up our tanks and sealed them
so there'd be no cheating, nothing could stop us.
I'm gonna get some snacks. You want something?
Except that.
TANNER: No.
The problem that I have is that this car is old.
-Yeah. -Which, by the way, is normally what you would pick.
Excuse me, classics.
Whatever, the fact is that
it doesn't have all of, like, the safety stuff.
Like, I've got like, 220 airbags, that has two.
It weighs 800 pounds less than mine and the...
-Eight hundred? -Eight hundred.
It's like 3,000 or something less than your truck.
ADAM: Having such a lightweight vehicle was gonna give Rut
a big fuel efficiency advantage.
So, we decided to do something about it.
(COUGHS) God!
Yeah, it's terrible, isn't it?
Rut's Volkswagen already reeked like old lady's apartment.
-This is actually helping him. -Oh!
So, a few pounds of cat litter was just what it needed.
And the fact is, we're actually adding to the safety of this thing.
Look at all the weight we're putting in the back.
-ADAM: See that? -How many pounds did you get?
This is about 400 pounds.
-Ready? -Yeah.
Right behind you guys.
(CAR HONKING)
ADAM: We pulled out and officially started
the slowest road race ever.
TANNER: Gentlemen, get comfortable.
700 miles before the next stop.
RUTLEDGE: San Francisco, here we come.
ADAM: We left Portland in our rearview mirrors
and started our journey south.
For the first section, we'd follow the 5 freeway,
cut over to the coast,
and then take the 101 all the way to San Francisco.
RUTLEDGE: This car really is the perfect one for the challenge.
The reason this car really does so well
is because it's light.
It only weighs 3,000 pounds.
Plus, with the manual,
this is a car that you can actually exceed
what the EPA said you could get for mileage.
That's why I picked it.
TANNER: There are a lot of reasons why this car,
at least out of these three,
is the best for this trip.
This machine is multi-talented.
It can be fun, and it can be efficient.
And that can only be done
through innovations that actually work.
For example, instead of just driving with less throttle,
you go to the eco-pro mode,
and the throttle simply becomes less effective.
The whole car does all of this decision making for you
to make sure that you're being as efficient as possible.
I wanna win this challenge in this truck.
'Cause it's a monster.
I'm gonna drive from Portland, Oregon,
one of the greenest cities in the country,
to San Francisco,
another one of the greenest cities in the country,
winning a fuel challenge,
in a Ford F-350.
(LAUGHS TRIUMPHANTLY)
Take that, you wool hat wearing hipster.
RUTLEDGE: But in reality, none of us were in great shape.
To make it to San Francisco, we'd be pushing our cars
to the limits of their fuel efficiency.
I have an 18 and a half gallon fuel tank.
So, if my numbers are correct,
I think, I need to hit about 40 miles per gallon,
average, to make it.
If I average 12.5 miles per gallon,
I should make it 700 miles and be the King of Hammers.
But right now I'm averaging 9.1, which isn't good.
TANNER: My average is up to 29.7.
Uh, hell, yeah!
But you only have an 18 gallon tank.
That means I need to average 38.
We need some downhill.
Where's the downhill?
ADAM: Thirty miles outside Eugene,
a city even hippier than Portland,
if that's humanly possible,
we found some hills,
and it was time for our first challenge.
TANNER: You know, when I was a kid, my mom used to coast
on this one road and see how far she could go,
and I'm pretty sure this beamer
can go way further than her old Honda Accord could go.
ADAM: Well, I'm pretty sure that this F-350
that weighs 6,500 pounds
can go further than your little beamer.
Not a chance.
I think the Passat can go further than both of them.
So, how about this?
Next big hill we find, let's just mark it off,
we'll see who can coast the farthest.
ADAM: Okay, I'll go first.
Okay, I'll go after you.
No, I wanna go second, dude.
All right, to keep it fair, let's just roshambo.
Paper, rocks, scissors?
Yep. Okay, ready, and...
...one, two, three, what did you get?
You tell me first.
You first.
I got rock.
I had paper, I win.
How do I know that's fair?
See it in the rearview mirror?
RUTLEDGE: You might think that Adam had the advantage in this challenge,
because his truck weighed the most.
Okay, Adam, you are first up.
Copy.
But this was also a test of aerodynamics
and our tires' road resistance.
And since Adam was driving a knobby tired brick,
this was anybody's game.
Okay, put it in neutral, and see ya.
Okay, coasting into neutral behind ya.
That's it, big girl.
Okay, here I come.
Come on,
come on, I'm gaining on Tanner.
TANNER: Hey, Rutledge, did you accelerate into it?
Because I started in neutral
and you're catching up to me right now.
No, I didn't at all, let's go!
Sixty-five hundred pounds, 65 miles an hour.
Oh, crap! Oh, that's scary!
RUTLEDGE: Coming up, life in the slow lane
gets intense as we race to San Francisco.
No, come on, come on!
And later, it's the ultimate off road truck,
versus the most badass kayaker in the world.
RUTLEDGE: Top Gear had sent us to the Pacific Northwest
to see how far we could get on just one tank of gas.
I'd chosen a '97 VW Passat.
Tanner, a 2012 BMW 5 series.
And Adam, a Ford F-350.
The winner would get to drive
one of the craziest off road trucks ever made.
After 95 miles, we decided to put our cars
to a highly scientific test
of aerodynamics, friction and momentum,
otherwise known as coasting.
We'd see how far we could go
from the top of a hill without touching the gas.
Sixty-five hundred pounds, 65 miles an hour.
Oh, crap! Oh, that's scary!
ADAM: Okay, this was no Daytona 500
but trying to see through the rain, without braking,
definitely got the adrenaline pumping.
Dude, I am pulling on you still, get out of my way!
I can see the draft from my car
going over the roof of your car.
RUTLEDGE: Tanner, let me by, let me by.
As soon as you pull out of the draft,
you're gonna just slow right down and block me.
That's such (BLEEP)
you know it. Let me around.
Look, Mr. NASCAR,
soon as you sling shot past me in the draft,
you're gonna lose all your gumption.
ADAM: Oh, he's gonna pass you on the inside.
RUTLEDGE: Wow, we are catching you up big time.
You better pull over to the right.
Pull over to the right, Adam.
No, Adam, move over to the left, move over to the left.
Left, left, left!
Oh, yeah! He flies by!
Come on, come on!
Oh! Damn it!
Look how far back Adam is. He's in another zip code.
All right, your car is the best coaster.
I won, I'm the man!
Yeah, Passat!
This sucks.
RUTLEDGE: I had won the glorious title of best coaster.
And to celebrate, I decided we needed a break.
Nice parking job. Nailed it!
Nothing says road trip like beef jerky
and gallons of high fructose corn syrup.
You're gonna drink that? We've got over 600 miles.
Somewhere around 607 miles left.
-Yeah. -You're gonna drink that?
-Yeah. -With all that caffeine,
and this car and your personality?
Says it has vitamin B in it.
All right, I'll tell you what. I'll drink mine, you drink yours,
first one that stops to pee, loses.
-BOTH: I'm in. -Salud.
Cheers! Elbows up!
ADAM: That's it!
-Perfect! -I feel energized.
-Ready? -Yeah, I'm ready.
Mount up, gentlemen.
My heart is gonna pop.
Here's my plan. There's a reason I kept this.
For the bladder challenge.
Just in case.
Rut, have you peed in a car before?
RUTLEDGE: One time, we were in Washington D.C.
in a huge traffic jam,
and my wife had to hold the map
over my crotch so I could pee in a bottle
'cause there were other people in the car.
I mean, that's true love.
For my wife to hold the map, so everyone in the car
wouldn't see my cash and prizes,
that's love.
What's the longest you've ever peed?
I don't think I've ever timed myself.
A minute, 47.
You timed it?
Yes, I've been slowly building the size of my bladder,
expanding it by keeping track
of how long each pit stop takes.
Do you put that into your computer?
I do have it graphed out over the last six years.
-I knew it, I knew it! -I am on an average
of a minute, five seconds, with the record being 1:47.
Anything over 1:30 is generally
either in the morning or very painful.
How is it that you're single,
and you keep track of your urination schedule?
This is the conversation you have with the women?
"You know I've been training my bladder for years."
I mean, wow. What a catch!
In any case, the point is
the last six years of bladder training
have all culminated into this road trip
where I refuse to pee before you two.
My bladder capacity was fine,
but it was my fuel capacity that I was worried about.
Getting 33 miles per gallon,
that is five less than I need to make it to San Francisco,
it is not looking good.
All right, trip computer says we have gone 138.1 miles
using 9.7 gallons of fuel,
averaging 14.2 miles per gallon,
so I'm doing good so far.
The needle on my fuel tank has yet to move.
However, I am starting to get the sensation
that I do need to pee.
Which is not good.
Yeah, this isn't gonna be good.
Oh, I'm getting a little bit uncomfortable here.
ADAM: Ten miles later, we hit the majestic Oregon coast.
Seeing the vast expanse of the mighty Pacific Ocean
had a real effect on me.
And my bladder.
My only hope to win this challenge,
was to get Rut to pee first.
Did you see the movie, A River Runs Through It?
How about Kevin Costner in Waterworld?
No one saw that.
Rut, have you ever been to Niagara Falls?
You know, where the water is just like
dumping and pouring in there and the steam comes up.
If you can imagine you're standing on the edge there,
let's say, like, I mean, basically naked,
maybe just in your briefs,
not that I'm imagining you naked.
He's creepy, he's really creepy.
You got goose bumps, there's bits of dew on every little hair follicle,
just insane, the amount of fluid
pouring down.
What are you talking about, man?
Tanner, did something happen to you at Niagara Falls?
RUTLEDGE: You know what? You guys suck, that's it!
I've got to go to the bathroom.
I've got to find a place to pull over.
Whoa!
First one to use the... Rut!
(SIGHS)
-Wow. -Fastest he's moved all day.
-I know, it's amazing. -(CHUCKLES)
-How're you doing? -I'm great.
-I don't... Do you need to... -Nah, you go first.
No, after you. I'm fine.
-I insist, go ahead. -I'm just gonna hang out here and check out the ocean.
Look at those freezing cold waves,
splashing on those rocks, that's...
-ADAM: Ebbing and flowing. -Yeah.
That's a lot of water.
Look at that, look at the way it's running off that... Okay.
All right.
Oh, my God! That feels better.
Why does the car sit like that?
There's like 20 bags of kitty litter in here. Hello!
Bunch of jackasses.
It's got to be a couple of hundred pounds.
Look at that. There's a total difference.
-Huh? 1:50. -I thought you were kidding me.
-It's your personal best? -That is a record, right there.
RUTLEDGE: We'd completed 249 miles of the 704 mile challenge.
Ahead of us was the state of California,
and the city streets of San Francisco.
It was time for a fuel level update.
Hey, what's your gas gauge say right now?
Uh, it is over half tank.
I am just now getting to almost three quarters of a tank.
I am just under a half in my main tank.
Oh! He is blowing through that.
Gentlemen, welcome to California.
RUTLEDGE: We'd reached one of the most infamous places in the Golden State,
Humboldt county, part of the so called Emerald Triangle,
a region that annually produces over a billion dollars' worth
of all natural glaucoma medicine.
Co-incidentally, I suddenly got the munchies.
I am getting hungry.
I don't have time to stop. But I've got a plan.
I can't believe Tanner's keeping this together.
He's got to be going insane driving at this speed.
I mean, if you think about it,
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
where did they come up with that idea?
It doesn't make any sense. Who named them?
Like they weren't just born *** and grumpy.
Were they? I mean...
Problem I'm facing now,
I have to switch tanks 'cause I am almost out of fuel.
So I'm gonna switch over to CNG.
Okay, here we go.
I am now running on compressed natural gas.
Uh-oh.
ADAM: My trip meter didn't work after I switched.
So, from now on, I'd be driving blind.
This is pitiable, we've got a scooter passing us.
There he is. Look at me.
I am a genius.
Mobile Pizza delivery.
Did he order a pizza?
ADAM: Coming up...
Please don't run out of gas, here.
We push the cars to their limit.
Give me a spot, now.
And the winner gets to drive a truck
that eats nature alive.
ADAM: Top Gear had given us a challenge
to race from Portland to San Francisco,
without refueling.
Whoo!
Rut had won the coasting challenge.
Tanner's bladder training came in handy,
but on paper, none of us had the range
to make it to the finish line.
Each of us wanted to win and get the chance
to drive an epic off-road truck.
There he is, look at me.
I am a genius.
Did he order a pizza?
ADAM: While our cars were sipping fuel,
Rut's primary tank was running empty.
Got it!
Here you go, pal.
Keep the change.
And he only got one. Ah!
'Cause he's selfish.
Where have you been all day?
Ooh!
(LAUGHS)
ADAM: After 352 miles,
we had crossed the halfway point of our journey.
And my gas gauge wasn't looking good.
It was time for plan B.
Uh, fellows, I'm gonna make a pit stop.
I'll catch up with you.
Hi, do you have any more of these?
-How many do you need? -Forty.
RUTLEDGE: I don't know why Adam stopped.
He must have known he was gonna run out of gas.
Probably getting, you know, food and water.
Maybe a couple of magazines,
something to read while he's waiting for a tow.
TANNER: It was late in the day and the herd was thinning.
But if I wanted to win this race
I needed to change my strategy.
And I needed to do it now.
It seems like every time we break 60 miles an hour,
I actually start to get better fuel economy.
I think it just finally gets into eighth gear,
which is a huge gear.
And, of course, the aerodynamics of the car.
Everything about this car is designed
to be driven at speed.
Getting a nice draft here.
That is perfect.
TANNER: See you!
Leveling off at 65 miles an hour,
instead of getting 34 miles to the gallon,
I'm getting 43 miles to the gallon right now.
Getting up in a cruising speed made a big difference.
Now, I've got a chance.
But I knew that the 101 gets clogged going into San Francisco.
So, in order to maintain my higher speed
I needed a detour.
Where are you going?
I think, I'm going to take a little bit of a different route.
And besides, if I did run out of gas,
I'd break down in the BMW's natural habitat.
Napa Valley, wine country.
RUTLEDGE: So with 100 miles to go,
Adam had stopped and Tanner had disappeared.
Victory was within my reach.
-But then... -(ENGINE CLATTERING)
Whoa!
Well, that front strut is a clacking now.
I think the road trip might have worn
the Passat out a little bit.
It's been 600 miles
and this thing hasn't had a single problem, yet,
until now.
I mean, I could just blow a radiator hose
and "poof" be out of this thing.
Or this gauge could be wrong
and I've been relying on this, the entire time.
Even if there were problems with my car,
I was still out front. Alone in the lead.
There he is. Hello, Rut!
(SIGHS)
RUTLEDGE: I had spoken too soon.
ADAM: Hey, where did Tanner go?
He said he was going to take a shortcut.
A shortcut?
What is that flapping on the back of your truck?
ADAM: That's plastic wrap.
Now, the wind coming over the cab
doesn't collect in the bed and drag the truck back.
Brilliant.
We weren't allowed to do anything to the cars.
Yes, we can.
So you are now doubly cheating.
You've got two tanks.
You're trying to find some aero advantage
with the plastic wrap.
What a joke.
Well, you know, they've done studies.
Talking about trucks with the tailgate up
or tailgate down
and whether it's got a little shell on the back.
They say, the most efficient way
is with the tailgate up and no shell on it.
ADAM: I don't listen to them.
Oh! And I also had to pick out 400 pounds of kitty litter.
As did I because some (BLEEP) put them in my trunk.
Listen, if you're going to call Tanner a (BLEEP),
at least do it to his face.
All right. Well, how far do we have?
I think, we've got maybe
70 miles left.
Oh, good!
And I have an eighth of a tank left.
Maybe, I've made a poor choice.
I already got 30 miles more out of this tank
than most people could get.
This... It's not going to happen.
There's the bridge. We're getting close.
RUTLEDGE: The race to the finish line was on.
But we had to get over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge first.
Breaking down here would be suicide.
Please don't. Please don't run out of fuel here.
Oh! This is a long bridge.
RUTLEDGE: There's hardly any room to pull off here, either.
I hope you can swim.
I'm telling you, if you run out,
you're going to have to jump.
You don't think the Tanner shortcut worked, do you?
ADAM: You shouldn't worry about Tanner, my friend.
You should worry about me.
TANNER: My palms are sweaty, my heart is racing.
I'm spending more time looking at this little orange range number
than I am at the road.
RUTLEDGE: Fifteen miles left and I'm on E.
And Adam is still there.
How is Adam still in this?
Your fuel light on?
My fuel light is on
but I don't need that much to win.
TANNER: I'm driving along with range zero now for, like, 25 miles.
Why even put a range thing on there
if it doesn't mean anything?
RUTLEDGE: My needle has finally dropped.
We are miles away
and I am sitting on empty.
TANNER: Oh, look at all that delicious fuel.
Yum!
Two tanks full of gasoline.
Do I need it? No!
(LAUGHS) I'm just driving on a will and a prayer.
ADAM: Come on. I want to win this.
You want to beat two German cars, don't you?
RUTLEDGE: I was at 700 miles.
I just had to find the Alameda Naval Base.
It was so close, I could taste it.
This is the point where I feel like if I've made it this far,
I've just got to throttle down and go for it.
If there's any fuel left, I've got to use it now.
I'm going to drive this thing like it has never been driven before.
Don't stop either.
Don't stop.
-(ENGINE REVVING) -Feel it! Four thousand RPM.
I'm leaving him in a cloud of dust back there.
Come on, come on, come on. No braking. No braking.
Oh, now third gear is getting twitchy with me, huh?
Come on, baby, just stay together.
We're almost there.
We are in the lead!
ADAM: Come on, get out of my way.
You brake checked me on purpose.
This is the first time I've driven hard enough to hear the turbo.
Let's go. How is there so much traffic right now?
ADAM: All I had to do was get around Rut,
and victory was mine.
Okay.
You ready, baby? We're going to make our move now.
(ADAM LAUGHS)
RUTLEDGE: Oh, you want me to let you in?
Not going to happen.
Turbo power.
Look at him, just getting dusted.
Just getting dusted by the turbo diesel.
Come on, come on, come on.
ADAM: We arrived at Alameda Naval Base.
The finish line was now just a few hundred yards away.
We were both still in the game.
But where was Tanner?
ADAM: Come on, come on.
Give me a spot now.
(ENGINES REVVING)
There it is. I got it. I got it.
No, come on. Come on!
(LAUGHS TRIUMPHANTLY)
ADAM: Top Gear had given us the task
to race 700 miles from Portland to San Francisco
without refueling.
Along the way, Rut had won the coasting contest.
And Tanner's bladder lasted the longest in the pee challenge.
We hadn't seen race boy in 40 miles
after he peeled off looking for a faster route.
And now, Rut and I were neck and neck
with the finish line in sight.
ADAM: Come on, come on.
Give me a spot now.
There it is. I got it, I got it.
No! Come on! Come on!
(LAUGHS TRIUMPHANTLY)
Yes! Yes!
Yes!
No!
No!
(LAUGHS EXCITEDLY) He's out of gas.
Yes!
(GRUNTS IN DISAPPOINTMENT)
Passat!
(WHOOPS)
(TIRES SCREECH)
This is gonna suck.
-(KEYS JINGLE) -You know what that sound is?
The sound of victory.
-I'm here. -Okay.
-I won. -You know what?
-I have to shake your hand. -Thank you.
You are the king of the morons.
No, it's King of the Hammers.
Call it whatever you want. I know a moron when I see one.
As do I, and there's one right there.
-ADAM: You're kidding me. -Look at that.
How was that shortcut?
-ADAM: Did you enjoy yourself? -How do you think it was?
I just rode on a tow-truck.
(ADAM SNIGGERS)
No offence, Victor.
Only two of us made it.
-What? No, I made it. -ADAM: You didn't make it.
I made it. I did not stop for fuel.
I won.
I drove here. I didn't run out of gas.
Tanner, may I present,
king of the morons.
It's King of the Hammers.
It's King of Hammers.
I got it. I got it this time. You know what?
Because I like you two,
I'm gonna offer you a ride.
Let's go. Hop in. I got tons.
-ADAM: Shotgun. -RUTLEDGE: Whoa! Backseat, backseat only.
RUTLEDGE: I was proud of my Passat's victory.
But now it was time to leave the city
and head deep into the Rocky Mountains
to drive one of the most badass trucks in the world.
This is nature.
It covers most of the earth.
It's been around a long time.
A lot longer than us.
And a lot longer than our cars.
I'm surrounded by all this nature for one reason.
Because I won the One Tank of Fuel Challenge.
My prize, to drive this.
(ENGINE ROARING)
(RUTLEDGE LAUGHS MISCHIEVOUSLY)
This is a truck.
But it's not just any truck.
This is possibly the meanest,
gnarliest, most versatile off-road truck
that's ever been built.
And it eats nature for breakfast.
Like literally, eats it,
at the rate of four miles per gallon.
So why is this truck such a beast?
Well, first off, it's got 19 inches of ground clearance.
It's got 16 inches of suspension travel.
And it's got enormous tires
that can pull it up a nearly vertical rock wall.
It can be rolled over, flipped back on its wheels
and keep going.
It can't be killed.
It's like the automotive equivalent of a cockroach.
Now, this truck started life as a 2008 Ford Ranger.
It was made into a rock crawler at first
and then modified to do fast desert racing at the same time.
And there's a race for that.
It's called the King of the Hammers.
This Ranger is now so heavily modified
that the only original part left is the gas pedal.
But what a gas pedal it is.
Operating a 450 horsepower V8.
It is so evil,
so wicked, so totally destructive to fossil fuels
that even our conscience at Top Gear need a way to
offset its carbon footprint.
So, I'm here to race an extreme kayak powered by man.
We're going to race down a raging river powered by,
well, nature.
But first, I had to drive the truck to the starting line,
3,000 feet up the mountain.
Let's see how we get in this thing.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Oh!
Oh, it is snug in here.
Quick release.
Seems easy enough.
Okay.
Ignition.
And...
(ENGINE STARTS)
All right. There we go.
Tiny helmet,
check!
Let's give this a whirl.
Holy (BLEEP)
Wow! That has got some power there.
(LAUGHS EXCITEDLY)
(BLEEP) That hurts.
Really.
It was clearly not, ow, made for someone 6'3".
Holy crap!
Sheer drop off!
Oh, God, that's scary!
I mean, it's just straight down.
Like, if the rock field
and the tumble doesn't kill me,
the fact that I'll be stuck upside down underwater.
That will surely kill me.
Oh, mama!
The raging torrent below was no place for the truck.
But my opponent would be right at home there.
Meet Erik Boomer.
One of the best extreme kayakers on earth.
He's known as the Honey Badger for his tenacity.
And his specialty is death defying drops
down waterfalls, the height of five-story buildings.
If I'm correct,
one time you rappelled over a waterfall
and then cut the rope,
just so you could get to the remote part of it.
-Yeah, it's true. -So,
what's wrong with you?
I don't know. I guess, it's just my idea of a good time.
So what happens, if something goes wrong?
Well, on this particular river,
it is so dangerous that we've set safety
in the places where, you know, death and serious injury are potential and where,
you know, if you've got your seatbelt clipped,
you're probably good to go.
I need a team of people watching out for me.
You don't have to brag about it.
All right. Well, I guess, the only way to settle this, is to race. Good luck.
-All right, you're on, man. -Hope you don't drown.
Yeah, be safe.
RUTLEDGE: The race would start at 9,000 feet.
The finish line was at the old mill 3,000 feet below.
The river was the most direct route.
Four miles of class five white water rapids
littered with huge waterfalls.
I would race along eight miles of
one of the toughest off-road trails in America.
Bur first, I'd have to climb 2,000 feet over the mountain
before the trail rejoined the river
two miles from the finish below.
It's my job to defend the automobile
against its natural opponent.
Nature.
And I've had to make a really hard decision.
You see, I want to win
but I don't want to die.
So for the sake of the automobile industry,
I've given the keys
to Backwoods Stig.
RUTLEDGE: The Stig is Top Gear's fearless test driver.
His backwoods cousin is an off-road monster
who lives only to tame nature.
He doesn't know defeat
and would rather perish than lose a challenge
which is kind of scary.
How you doing there, Stiggy?
Fire this thing up.
(ENGINE STARTS)
Oh, gosh!
Honey Badger!
-Are you ready? -Ready.
Here we go. In five!
Four!
Three! Two!
One! Go!
Holy (BLEEP)
Top Gear had sent us to the Pacific Northwest to race
700 miles on one tank of gas.
My '97 VW Passat had won.
Yeah!
So I got the chance to race an insane
King of the Hammers truck against one of the best kayakers in the world.
But realizing I was at a true disadvantage in the deep woods...
Oh, God, that's scary!
...I recruited the Backwoods Stig to man the wheel.
Go!
So now, it was truck versus nature
in the ultimate battle for supremacy.
Holy (BLEEP)
For the first three miles,
we had to climb up, over the mountain
through steep rocky woodland.
Backwoods Stig was in no mood to lose.
Man, this is just beating the (BLEEP) out of me.
But neither was the Honey Badger
as he fought his way through some class five rapids.
Whoa! This is so sketchy.
Oh, God!
Oh, my Lord!
That is a straight drop off the side of this.
As the Stig and I continued the three mile trail
over the mountain...
Oh, yeah!
Real bad!
...the Honey Badger was approaching
a set of two deadly waterfalls over 30 feet high.
This was no place for mistakes.
The Honey Badger made it look easy.
And to make it worse,
he'd taken the lead with only two miles of river to the finish.
The Honey Badger might have nature,
but we got 450 horses.
He's just got gravity and water right now.
I got this psycho.
The next two miles were flatter.
A chance for Stig and I to push the truck to its limits.
Oh, boy!
There we go. Yeah! There we go.
Now we're picking up speed.
This is where we make our move, right here.
We'd made it to the top of the mountain.
Now, we could finally start downhill again.
Oh! These switchbacks are insane.
Yeah!
The truck was demolishing the trail.
We descended at break-neck speed.
And with two miles to go, we had regained the lead.
This is awesome!
But up ahead was a game changer.
The gorge of death.
Three waterfalls.
Totaling nearly 200 feet
of raging white water.
In the world of extreme kayaking,
only an elite handful dare attempt these falls.
The line between success and death
is so thin that most top kayakers
refuse to even go near them.
But the Honey Badger knew only one approach to this abyss.
Pure attack.
He had survived the first section
but now he faced the most dangerous.
Sliding down 90 feet of near vertical rock
in only a few inches of water.
The wrong line would leave him
smashed to pieces on the rocks below.
The Honey Badger's crazed leap into the abyss had given him the lead.
We had a mile to go. Backwoods Stig floored it.
It'd be death or victory.
Or both.
This is it.
We're getting close now.
Oh, look. There he is.
We were neck in neck with 200 yards to go
to the old mill.
It was too close to call.
Yeah, come on! Whoo! Yeah!
We had done it.
Despite a superhuman effort from the Honey Badger,
the truck was victorious.
I had triumphed over a man in a plastic tub
and cheated death at the hands of Backwoods Stig.
Victory felt good.
It may have been bad for mother nature
but it was the most fun I'd ever had on one tank of gas.