Top Gear – Top Drives

BBC Books 2008

Michael Harveyimage003.jpg

Australia: Random House

 

If you are a fan of the TV series, be warned that this book is NOT about the TV show. You don’t get Jeremy Clarkson thundering around a carefully-maintained track in the latest Masturbati, screaming “POWER ! POWER! “ and “I have soiled myself”. The book is about real drivers (well, most of them) driving real cars on real roads. It’s about the sheer pleasure of going for a long drive somewhere difficult or challenging.

 

Jeremy does make an appearance, though. James May writes about him in the first chapter, and we learn that Mr.Clarkson swears in his sleep, cannot put up a tent even with the help of his favourite tool (a hammer) and how he shot James’ can of Spam. The trip to the North Pole was not one of James’ favourite journeys.

 

Some of the drives are rather poorly matched against the cars. Why would you take a Ferrari over the Andes? Or a tiny city car to the Arctic Circle? Well,  just for the sake of doing it, really. Jeeps, Ford utes, early Volkswagen Beetles, Mondeos – these are cars we can relate to, and it’s fascinating to see what they are like outside their usual environment. If you own one of the cars featured in this book, you will feel a little bit of pride after seeing what it can do under adverse conditions.

 

The writers are good at their job, and convey a vivid picture of the cars and the countries and the people. The book could be in danger of turning into a travelogue, but the cars are the stars. The humour of the TV show is there in the writing, often expressed by the locals rather than the journalists. “ We don’t usually travel at more than 130 kilometres an hour, but who the hell are you to tell us that we can’t?” or “I have a friend in Moscow. He’ll meet you at the Belarus border in a Discovery full of men with guns”.

 

Top Drives is luxuriously illustrated. The photography matches the quality of the writing, with some absolutely spectacular scenery (with cars in it, of course). Many of the chapters are not about a long drive so much as a life-threatening adventure. The photos show just how adventurous.

 

With the price of petrol going sky-high as it runs out, this could well be one of the last books on the sheer pleasure of “going for a drive”. Buy it and enjoy it.