
Top Gear's unofficial motto, "ambitious but rubbish," has placed our favorite motoring show trio in a number of unfortunate – albeit highly entertaining – challenges, and This January Parajet will take to the skies on a 4,000-mile trip from London to Timbuktu in a flying car.
The TG crew will be piloting A
Parajet Skycar will take off from London, fly over France, Spain, Morocco and the Sahara, then – God-willing – arrive in the Malian capital. The Skycar makes use of a biofuel-powered Yamaha bike engine to power either the rear wheels, when stuck on the ground, or a propeller, when taking flight. Cruising speed is an achingly slow 68 mph at 3,000 feet, but the Skycar can supposedly reach altitudes of 15,000 feet. And yes, parachutes are part of package.
UPDATE: Our bad. The trip won't be manned by Clarkson, Hammond and May. It's being put on by Parajet in an effort to prove that flying cars are both useful and safe. Sorry for the confusion, but we'd still like to see Top Gear take up the challenge.
[Source:
Top Gear US]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TJ 3:36PM (11/13/2008)
Am I the only one that doesn't see this ending well?
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Torrent 3:55PM (11/13/2008)
Me. And they say this may be the future of transportation.... Imagine trying to get into a parking spot: Clean-up on Lot C.
geo.stewart 5:38PM (11/13/2008)
THIS will end well.
Los Angeles (or any city) in Parajets will not end well. idiots cannot safely traverse a 2-dimensional grid of streets with signs and traffic lights. Complicating the matter by adding a dimension (height) and reducing average sign count will screw up the whole transportation system.
NO WAY the Jetsons world could ever exist
Franz 3:40PM (11/13/2008)
I can hardly wait... though you do get the feeling Jeremy is gonna wreck it & possibly hurt himself. Then again, I thought that they'd have fallen through the ice on the Polar Special, and that they'd have drowned crossing the Channel in the 'Nissank" so they might actually pull it off. ;)
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Franz 4:26PM (11/13/2008)
DAMMITT!!! It's not Top Gear after all. Way to get our hopes up Autoblog...
Moosetang 3:40PM (11/13/2008)
Well it's a 2-seater, so do you think it will be May and Hampster in the air versus Jezza on the ground? Or will they have a whole airborne squadron?
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SeattleJeremy 4:15PM (11/13/2008)
I have the feeling Jezza will be flying it, and Hamster/captain slow will be in something a bit more conventional (Aston Martin).
collegekid13 3:43PM (11/13/2008)
my god this show just keeps getting better and better
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duo 3:52PM (11/13/2008)
Best news I've read all day!
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vijay 4:02PM (11/13/2008)
i think that there is a mistake here , they were referring to the parajet team not topgear , so it may not be the topgear presenters.
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rs505 4:34PM (11/13/2008)
If Top Gear were to attempt this then they would no doubt try to fashion their own flying cars to make the journey in.
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geo.stewart 5:40PM (11/13/2008)
I want Simon Sterns Garage to build one for Top Gear to fly.
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ltu1542hvy 6:55PM (11/13/2008)
If this Skycar makes it to the Malian capital, which these days is Bamako, then it still has a bit to go before it gets to Timbuktu. I'm sorry, but these kinds of factual errors just kill the credibility of a story for me.
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edwards 5:44PM (11/14/2008)
It was announced today that the Pentagon is going to fund development of the flying-car (flying-car.com) because DOD thinks it might have utility in warfighting. I can't see how, as the thing is going to be too light, slow and vulnerable to safeguard its occupants in a war zone, but at least DOD $$$ will speed development of the concept for commercial applications.
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