Every year, petrol heads from around the UK set out to beat God in their enthusiast cars, following in Clarkson’s footsteps.
BY SAM MAIN
VIA HOTCARS
PUBLISHED MAY 16, 2023
Perhaps the greatest motoring show ever made, Top Gear, was known for its outlandishly entertaining episodes and challenges. Clarkson, Hammond, and May raced to the North Pole, they turned ordinary civilian cars into ambulances, and they took part in various car versus public transport marathons that often saw the automobile winning with ease.
The list of famous challenges and interesting car reviews is endless. However, there’s one challenge that is often overlooked when people compile their lists of favorite Top Gear episodes, that being season 16, episode 6’s ‘Car Versus God’ challenge.
The race Jeremy Clarkson set himself was quite simple: to take the-then all-new Jaguar XJR and race from westernmost point of the United Kingdom from sunset to the easternmost point before the sun was to rise at the finish line driving overnight. Since the airing of the episode, the car community caught on to the intriguing and exciting challenge and decided to follow Top Gear’s footsteps and try it out for themselves.
What Sports Sedan Did Jeremy Clarkson Use?
As previously mentioned, season 16’s ‘Car Versus God’ challenge saw Clarkson pit a fast four-door sports sedan up against God himself in the form of the then-new Jaguar XJ. At the start of the challenge, Jeremy even had a choice: choose the diesel XJ thus not needing to fill up, or choose the V8 powered XJ and be faster. Being Clarkson, power was the deciding factor.
The car in question was the 2010 Jaguar XJ 5.0 V8 Supersport. Codenamed the X351 model, the Jag had a monstrous engine under the hood; a 5-litre supercharged V8, which produced 503 hp at 6500 rpm. The engine was so powerful in fact, the big Jag had to be limited to 155 mph, but for a car that weighed just over 4330 lbs it could go from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.9 seconds. A truly staggering statistic when you realize the XJ was as luxurious as a 5-star hotel.
While not a sports car or a high-performance super car that Top Gear would usually optimize for such a race, the fast Jag sedan truly came into its own as a stunning long-distance cruiser. Clarkson expressed huge administration for not only the Jag’s sheer V8 power, but also the comfort, technology, and luxury the car provided; beyond helpful when partaking in a cross-country race.
The Car Versus ‘God’ Top Gear Challenge
With the car chosen, Clarkson set out to win the race. But what exactly were the details of this unique challenge? As the sun would set, Jeremy would race from Lands End – the most westerly point of the UK – to Lowestoft, the UK’s most easterly point. Clarkson would then have a set amount of time to ‘beat the sun’ to Lowestoft before it rose again. A tough challenge given it was a 434-mile trip, and even more-so given that Clarkson did the race on the shortest night of the year.
However, even with speed cameras, quickly depleting fuel tanks and slow-moving traffic, Clarkson managed to beat the sun in the Jag and did so with a time of 6 hours and 57 minutes; the big sedan came into its own on both the monotonous highways and the tight twisting country roads, and it won the race with ease. It is one of the greatest and most exciting Top Gear segments, and it remains one of the best challenges Clarkson ever did.
Although Top Gear did have a reputation for being too scripted at times, the result from this race was, in fact, grounded in reality given how people had done it before. Consequently, after the episode aired, car enthusiasts from around the country rallied together and decided to do the race themselves to see if beating the sun was actually doable.
Car Enthusiasts Race The Sun Every Year
Every year, petrol heads gather at Land End and race up to Lowestoft in an effort to ‘beat the sun’, following in Clarkson’s footsteps. For instance, a ‘Race Against God Rally’ is being held in June 2023, and more than 50 interested participants are likely to join in racing against the heavens above. Even though the journey is over 400 miles long and is exhausting in nature (given how drivers have to be fully focused across an all-nighter), many still turn up to partake.
Like Clarkson, many have reported on their race experience, with some bringing McLaren's and Nissan GTR's, and others describing winning either within minutes or with 30 minutes to spare. Others, like YouTuber 'Charlie Drives', are not so lucky. Charlie, for instance, joined the race in his beautiful Lotus Evora GT410 sports car and, just as the flag dropped (the sun dipped beneath the horizon), the Lotus decided not to start. As such, even after getting the car going and driving masterfully throughout the night, Charlie didn’t make it in time: the sun rose before he arrived in Lowestoft. Even so, failure one year may lead into a victory the next, and many car enthusiasts continue to follow Top Gear’s footsteps every year by racing the sun.
One of the defining legacies of Top Gear is how it celebrated the car, the community of car enthusiasts, the joy of driving. And Clarkson’s simple yet genius idea of racing from one end of the British Isles to the other in a big fast four-door sedan is beautiful and exciting to see but is also genuinely doable for every interested enthusiast. Come June 2023, expect to see many racing from Lands End to Lowestoft – once again – to beat God-almighty in their beloved enthusiast cars.
Commentaires