WEBVTT

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[ SOUND ] 

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[ MUSIC ] 

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Change is happening every day. New breakthroughs 

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are occurring every single second. It's a fantastic time. 

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To be around. Cars are changing as well, EZs are 

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getting greater range, autonomy is on it's way. But 

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while there's lots of hub bub about getting the general 

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public from A to B as cleanly and as safely as possible, 

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you could be forgiven for thinking that the sports car 

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might just go the way of the Dodo. But thankfully, I've 

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got two cars that beg to differ. [ MUSIC ] 

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Meet the BMW I8 and the Honda MSX. Both have 

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mid- mounted internal combustion engines, electric 

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motors driving the front wheels, and a small electric 

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power plant to plug torton gaps. Both use petrol and 

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electricity, and both cost north of 100, 000 pounds. 

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The Honda, further North than the Bimmer. [ NOISE ] 

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The tech used in these two 

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is remarkably similar to that you'll find in the Porsche 

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918, the Ferrari La Ferrari, and the McLaren P1. 

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Basically, electric stuff hooked up to a mid- mounted 

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internal combustion engine. To make pretty things go 

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fast. Yet the BMW and the Honda go about the same 

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job very differently. The i8 was arguably the first super 

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car with this tech. Yeah, the Hyper cars may have got 

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there first, but the i8 it took one step closer 

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to affordable. With 367 brake horsepower on tap on a 

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1. 5 Means a turbo charged three cylinder engine and 

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electric power plans as well, the I8 will be north of 62 

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in 4. 4 seconds. Now, that's about [ INAUDIBLE ] with 

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a box fresh Porsche 911 Carrera with a manual gear 

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box. Not exactly slow. It will do that all the while 

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managing acclaimed 134 4. 5 MPG now I am on 

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a race track so I'm not gonna manage the lifter but I 

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might just get the full one. It's top speed 

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is limited to 155 miles an hour and it weighs just 

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under 1500 kilos thanks to a liberal use of Carbon 

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fibre reinforced plastic and other light weight 

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materials. It's rear tires are narrow and it's body is as 

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aerodynamic as possible for Slice through the air 

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cleanly. The IA claims to offer sports car thrill, with 

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eco cred, that does it well. We have racetrack 

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[ UNKNOWN ] Let's see how fun it is. First and 

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foremost, in here it does not sound good. [ SOUND ] 

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[ INAUDIBLE ] I mean, no, not as gruff as other sports 

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cars, but [ INAUDIBLE ]. It resonates 

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really 

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well through the [ INAUDIBLE ]. Now, interestingly, BMW 

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wants to keep this super, 

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super light so, the glass 

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separating me and the engine [ INAUDIBLE ]. In the 

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middle is gorilla glass like what you get on your iPhone, 

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because it's [ UNKNOWN ] when it drops. The 

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passenger cell is made out of carbon fiber reinforced 

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plastic, but is all designed to be super, super light to 

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get as many mpgs as possible, but also to The 

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lighter the car is, the more you can do with less power. 

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But mine is quite quick. Surprisingly quick, 

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actually, considering the company it's keeping today 

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the Intersect is way more powerful but this feel fast 

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and more impressively it feels very light on its feet. 

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Such a nimble car. The steering is not to heavy and the 

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throttle response is inspontaniess, as you would expect 

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from a car with hybrid assistance. We are doing 100, 

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110, 115, then we brake. The brakes are 

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phenomenally good. Easy to longinate they got 

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great feel to them up to a point. So then you start 

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thinking, where is this going? Where is this 

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going? Where is this going? Good we're stopping. And 

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then you just give it a little prod of the pedal, 

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and you get a little [ SOUND ], a little [ UNKNOWN ] 

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from the eco- car. Now down here in front of me 

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there's lots of gauges telling me RPM, and speed, and 

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all that. And my battery, I'm depleting that like a hero 

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going around here, but it does regenerate In there 

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from the brakes, a little like the NSX. You do get some 

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brake regen on that. As a sportscar, it's great. 

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[ INAUDIBLE ] little bit under steer. You can 

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get it to go, but it's 

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not as sharp as you'd want a proper sportscar to 

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be. But on the day to day. [ UNKNOWN ]. Actually, it's 

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fine. It's fast, the off is thrill. We feel it sharp enough. 

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And it certainly quick enough. If you've looked of it for 

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one, the drama of the [ UNKNOWN ] car wasn't boring 

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to look at. The doors, my favorite bit of the car 

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obviously Ledgers Wicked. It's a very visually arresting 

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car. Drive one of these down the street, and people 

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are gonna pay attention because it looks like a concept 

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car. Because it basically is. It's not exactly 

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a track monster, but it's fun and makes an already 

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noise. You pay no vehicle excise duty, and there's even 

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a small set of rear seats for people who don't like their 

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children. It's BMW's Halo ECO car. And then the first 

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step is one of the 

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wonderful [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] Honda 

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has put similar tech onboard the NSX, except it's got 

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two more liters to play with, and three more cylinders. 

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In all, there's a three and a half liter twin turbocharged 

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V6, two Electric motors up front. And then another 

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electric motor to act as a torque gap filler and a bit of 

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a starter motor. Now, that 3. 5 liter V6 kicks out 

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500 horsepower all on it's own. But in all, there's 574 

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brake horse power to play with. But unlike 

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the I8 all the electric stuff is here for more speed. It's 

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taken Honda a long, long time to get the NSX to 

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market. But it's a Honda after all, it had to be perfect 

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straight out of the box. Like the original NSX it had to 

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take on the world's best and at least Be on par. So 

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those two motors up front are there for a little bit of 

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top vectoring and to add a little bit of extra go, as in, 

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when you need it. Naught to 62 takes around three 

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seconds and its top speed is 191 miles 

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an hour. To put it politely The Intersect ain't slow. I 

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like this approach to tech. Yes, you can use it to make 

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Mother Nature happy or you can take it and use it to 

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make cold things go really, really fast. The Intersect is 

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one car that took a million years to develop So long, by 

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the time they actually launched this, I was quite bored 

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of it. To be honest that seem shape a million times 

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in different configurations and all complex this, 

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complex that whatever. Now, it's here My does it look 

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good [ LAUGH ]. It's so pretty much like the i8. This 

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is an eco car is not really an eco 

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car but looks the absolutely bold. In my wing mirror 

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I've got angular sort of hot [ UNKNOWN ] the air it 

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takes to the engine. The front looks just phenomenal. 

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It's a stunning car to look at and it turns heads Every 

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man. I had two guys 

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randomly pat me on the street and then find me on 

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Twitter because they searched for this thing because 

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its that distinctive. And when cars do that to be polite. 

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Now as far as the power band goes the V6 sounds 

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pretty jumping good. A little bit droning not the most 

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exciting [ SOUND ] [ INAUDIBLE ] In the world. But it 

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makes the right noises when you want it to. It's 

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communicative. It handles so well. And my God, 

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[ INAUDIBLE ] electric assistance is so fast. [ LAUGH ] It 

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makes 

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it mega quick. All of that hybrid stuff is just for speed. 

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Now, as you'd expect, because it's all hybrid- y, the 

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throttle response is absolutely instant from this. 

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[ INAUDIBLE ] You just slide. There's that torque 

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[ UNKNOWN ] motor. There's the electric motors in the 

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front and then [ SOUND ] that thing. Now we've got the 

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car in TREK mode, which turns the 

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electric 

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toys off. Lets you get 

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a little bit quick and the back end a little bit slippery. 

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And the tires do like to squeal. [ NOISE ] The 

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thing that I love most about the handling setup 

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is the way it goes around corners. It's just phenomenal 

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because those two electric motors at the front pull you 

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around the bend. You can go around a little bit quicker 

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than you thought you could. Power it down, pull the 

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brake off [ INAUDIBLE ] Can just be notorious. You can 

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get away 

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with some serious speed in there. This 

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car is special, it's a very very special 

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vehicle. [ INAUDIBLE ] Incredible By 

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the look of it, there's 

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someone else. I like what BMW has done with the IA. I 

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love what Honda has done, with VNSX. Absolutely, 

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adore it .>> Two takes on change, the 

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iPhone generation of cars if you will. They won't do the 

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driving for you, they won't molly cuddle you. They're 

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here to excite the senses where using as much 

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[ UNKNOWN ] technology as possible to deliver an 

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experience fit For the modern driver. Both the NSX and 

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the i8 are marvels of engineering. They both use 

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similar technologies to achieve very different results. So 

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to those of you that are worried that maybe the 

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sportscar is going, look behind me. Because these two. 

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That just the start. [ MUSIC ]