Fifth Gear host injured while drifting A-Team van
Is it just us, or are more high profile folks having more high speed encounters with large, high density objects? Next up in the queue is Tom Ford, presenter for Fifth Gear, who crashed while drifting a van. And not just any van, but a van painted like the A-Team van, home to Hannibal, Murdock, Face, and Monsieur T.
But it wasn't the van above, which is a GMC G-Series model like the one on the show. No, it was more like the one to the right, which is someone else's Bedford Rascal van painted to look like the A-Team chariot. The Bedford normally comes with a 4-cylinder Suzuki engine, is 10 feet long, and takes ten seconds to get to 30 MPH. That's right, 30 MPH.
During his drifting maneuver, Ford put the van on two wheels and then plowed into a safety barrier. Due to a hefty amount of safety gear in the van and on his body, his only major injuries appear to be three broken toes. Crash footage will air during the next season of the show.
[Source: Motor Authority]













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Eldiablo 6:38PM (9/27/2007)
Sounds like he's ok - shame they're now copying TopGear in their accidents, as well as their 'features'. Still, A great program made better by being centered in Birmingham, England - home of the British Automobile Industry.
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Kyle 6:41PM (9/27/2007)
*Yawn*
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kiwiNick 7:42PM (9/27/2007)
5th Gear was ok, when they stayed car pron only.
It sucks now they tried to copy top gear's broad appeal format.
Tiff is a good driver, and that slut is ok, but the 'extra' stuff is lame.
No surpirse this gimp crashed.
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Mark 6:58PM (9/27/2007)
Who's the tool who made the filename for the A-Team van in your post?
ford_ateam_1.jpg
Whomever it is shouldn't be working at Autoblog.
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Jonathon Ramsey 7:19PM (9/27/2007)
I am that tool. The presenter's name is Tom Ford. Hence "ford."
Mark 7:27PM (9/27/2007)
Fair enough. Apparently I am a tool.
SPG 7:07PM (9/27/2007)
I'm happy to see that not all Brits drift nice old beemers.
Smack up some horrible old vans!
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Random Task 7:14PM (9/27/2007)
Geeze. They're drifting horrendous old vans in England now. With this kind of thing and hot hatch wankers, their car culture is a little lame.
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Paul Y 7:21PM (9/27/2007)
At least when Hammond rolled one on Top Gear, he was in the middle of a track. That would be a terrifying prospect if there were obstacles.
Regardless, I'd love a kei-van/truck, in a way. It would be a lot of fun, if only because of the sheer terror involved. 250mph in a Veyron has nothing on 30mph in a Daihatsu/Suzuki/Bedford.
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Foris 8:33PM (9/27/2007)
This about sums up the try-hard 5th Gear... Hammond suffers life-threatening injuries, Tiff suffers toe-threatening injuries... they can't even get the "me-too" bits right.
Of course, no-one wishes any sort of injury on any of these nice folk, but 5th Gear too often looks to be desperately playing catch-up with Top Gear, with about as much hope of success of a Morris Minor pitted against a Pagani.
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MK 8:46PM (9/27/2007)
ElDiablo; "Birmingham, England - home of the British Automobile Industry." What industry?!?
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MK 8:59PM (9/27/2007)
And who the hell put together that Motor Authority site? I've seen sites from High Schools in Kansas with better legibility & navigation.
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Harrison 12:39AM (9/28/2007)
Whatever... should have gotten Tiff to do it.
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Chad 9:27AM (9/28/2007)
Where is the video? He always claimed to be a rather crappy driver.
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Driftworks James 9:02AM (10/23/2007)
It was a funny couple of days doing the build and seeing the creations sliding around the track :-)
We've got a quick article on the build and the day on our website here:
http://www.driftworks.com/articles/Drifting-Rascals-with-Fifth-Gear,31.html
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