HAMSTER'S BEST BITS
As Top Gear favourite Richard Hammond continues to make good progress from his life-threatening dragster crash, we re-live our Top Gear Top 5 'Hamster' moments.
5. HAMSTER STRUCK BY LIGHTNING
“Did you know that in this country, more people are struck by lightning than are crushed by reptiles or injured from a prolonged stay in a weightless environment?â€? asks Richard Hammond in series 4, episode 5. “So what happens if you’re struck by lightning in a car?â€?
As car makers don’t test for this kind of thing, Top Gear arranged for a car to be struck by lightning . . . with Hammond in it!
There are few places in the world with the technology to blast a car with lightning. Two of those places are Holland and Germany but, as Hammond tells us, “only one of those places is laid back, liberal and fun loving enough to let me sit in the car whilst they hit it with 800,000 volts. Those zany Germans!â€?
The venue for one of Top Gear’s crazier stunts is the Siemens high voltage lab in Berlin which normally builds and tests high voltage equipment for power stations and the national grid. The transformers can generate almost 2 million volts of electricity.
“If it hits me directly, they’ll clear me away with a shovel!â€? says an alarmed Hammond.
And those who thought rubber wheels could protect a person from a strike by insulating the car from earth, are set straight on the matter.
“If the electricity can make it from the sky to the car, it can make it from the car to the ground. What’s going to protect me is the bodyshell itself. The Golf’s body forms a ‘Farraday Cage’ which is something that attracts electricity and sends it shooting round the outside so that whatever’s inside shouldn’t be harmed!â€?
But, as Richard points out, unlike with brakes or airbags, car firms don’t test for lightning strikes. “My life is now in the hands of A-level physics!â€?
Lightning then proceeds from the transformers and along wires before shooting down to the car.
“I’m being hit by lightning! My hands are buzzing,â€? screams Hammond, as error lights begin flashing on the dashboard like Richard Dreyfuss’ truck trapped in a UFO tractor beam in the movie ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. Cue the familiar Hammond manic laughter.
“So it works! Assuming I’m not now talking to you with wings and a harp, I’m alive.â€? And so is the car, as Hammond proves by driving off.
NEXT: » The Pagani Zonda Roadster
