The fact that it actually lifted off and only failed to detach the car is beyond amazing for this show.

"Can we own firearms?" Britain: "no" "Can we build a cruise missile?" Britain:

When you realise that Top Gear's Space Program is more advanced then North Korea's Missile Program...

"So your show is about cars? And only cars?" "Yup" "So what's that behind you?" "Oh, that? It's a cruise missile we made, that we've taped a car to"

The Reliant Robin is actually the fastest car ever on Top Gear, thanks to the rocket.

Topgear has now had: -Their own police force -Their own tank division -Their own military convoy -Their own Hookah -Their own Train -Their own caravan gypsy style village +-Their own space program

_”Have you got a spare Billion dollars?”_ “No. That’s why we’ve come to you.” *B O I*

Soviets: Send humanity to space Americans: Send humanity to the moon The British:

I bet that old toyota pickup would have driven away from this

when the BBC accidentally adds another 0 to the budget

That was the fastest quarter mile ever for the Reliant Robin.

This was the most powerful non governmental rocket launch in Europe at the time. Which is pretty nuts.

And now, 10 years later, they finally managed to send The Stig to space in his Tesla Roadster.

James: "The launch site was a military base whose whereabouts are a top-secret" Top Gear: *"Clauburne Military Training Ground, 53 miles N.W of Newcastle just off the A68"* oh man, I miss the old Top Gear

To be fair to the rocket folk, this was incredibly impressive. To keep it going straight up is incredibly hard. The SRB ejection too is darn complicated. As James said though I wish it had actually worked, would have been such a brilliant thing to see. Must have been a cracking project to work on

People complaining about taxpayers money wasted. Relax, they later sold this tech to North Korea.

No wonder United Kingdom left the EU, they didn't fund the reliant robin space shuttle project

Everyone's all proud of SpaceX shooting a car into space... Top Gear has already done that ten years ago. Sort of.

As an engineer, you can feel their pain when May presented the idea to them.

This is a huge leap forward in British space travel. There previous attempt to reach the moon ended when they ran out of scaffolding.

The fact that it flew is worthy of a chapter in space and aviation history!

Had they used a Toyota, they could have used it again.

I always become very emotional when I see how happy engineers are when Robin sucessfully takes off.

Perfect opportunity lost for Jeremys favorite catchphrase. "And on that bombshell..."

This is un-ironically the largest rocket Britain has ever made...

meanwhile, jeremy is watching at home with the fuel tank eject button in his hand...

That shot at 8:13 is almost biblical. What an achievement this was

can we just take a minute to appreciate that a couple of guys in a shed in manchester were able to get a damn reliant robin off the ground like that lol you can tell elon musk watched this and thought, ooo tesla in space :D lol

9:12 : *TACTICAL RELIANT INCOMING*

*Revert to Vehicle Assembly Building*

Engineer: “It’s the largest rocket launched in Europe” Richard: * gulps. *

The fact that it actually took off and the rocket boosters actually separated is nothing short of incredible.

That ascent until SRB separation was pretty damn well done from the engineering perspective. It's not trivial to keep it going straight up.

"The launch site is a military base, whose whereabouts are top secret" Clanburne Military Training Ground 53 miles N.W. of Newcastle Just off the A68

8:57 A German V1 Flying Bomb makes its final flight corrections for its approach on London. (1944, Colorized)

6:00 James May:"The launch site was a military base whose whereabouts are a top secret." *proceeds to disclose the location. 🤣 Lmao

Men don't grow up, the toys are just getting more expensive 😂

The first 10 hrs on Kerbal space program.

For this me this series, and particularly this episode was the peak of old Top Gear. I was absolutely blown away by this when I watched it first broadcast. I would definitely consider it a 'successful failure' so to speak.

Honestly one of the most amazing moments in TV history, the fact that some car show in the UK managed to do this is simply staggering

I'm convinced theres a alternative universe where the reliant robin lifted and landed successfully and was adopted by ESA

5:20 His description of the Reliant’s performance on glideslope was actually on par with the real Space Shuttle. The Shuttle’s aerodynamics weren’t great, thanks to the orbiter’s rounded nose and relatively narrow wingspan. This called for a brutal technique from the commander (the commander was the person flying the Shuttle and the co-pilot was actually called a pilot). Glideslope was flown very forcefully with a 10,000 feet per minute descent rate and an airspeed of 345 mph. But it wasn’t over once they got to the airstrip at Kennedy Space Centre, which was 15,000 feet long, just to put it out there. The pre-flare manoeuvre would commence at 2,000 feet and the landing gear was lowered in the last 300 feet of descent. The orbiter would finally touch down at an airspeed of 255 mph, slightly faster than a Bugatti Veyron, necessitating the use of a drag chute. To simulate such crazy conditions, Shuttle commanders were trained by flying a business jet with the landing gear down and the engines in reverse.

The launch itself , was was the most spectacular sight I've ever seen ! Such a shame the release bolts failed at the end .

When you ask Top Gear to make you a space shuttle, you’re getting a ballistic missile.

When I was young, I couldn’t believe the fact that this thing actually got off the ground, I still don’t.

It genuinely made me sad to see it fail, hearing those engineers cheer truely puts a smile on my face.

Good to see SpaceX is finally starting to catch up with the Top Gear space program

This is genuinely the most impressive thing TG has ever done, all these years later I still can't believe they got away with this

I swear top gear has the funding of a small nation.

They really need to do this one again. Maybe with even more power and/or NASA/ESA working on it for a more aerodynamic design. It would be ridiculously expensive, but history isn't made for free.

This level of greatness in TV has never been repeated.

Their genuine excitement and shock is great. You can't help but share the feeling with them.

Never seen May so happy. Put a smile on my face. Same with all the engineers when it took off initially

"I'm affraid for the robin it's the other way around " What a classic line

"How ya gonna use it again". Probably the most profound statement ever!

Finally, the aerodynamic properties of James May. Exactly what I needed.

Doesn't matter that it crashed that was a massive success

KSP in a nutshell.

Honestly just the launch itself is worth all the hard work they put into it. It really looks glorious when lifting off.

It is incredible that it was even able to take off and be very stable throughout the flight, everything went really smoothly. Aside from the crash it's really impressive that they managed to do this.

Lmao this ended up in my recommended again after watching a bunch of space x videos

This is the difference between the old Top Gear and the shocking version of today.

Can you imagine if, from that burning ball of smoke and fire, a majestic Reliant Robin shot out from the ashes in a remarkable recovery maneuver

This is literally the best episode of any Tv program I've ever seen, hope there's still this kind of show these days.

“The one that has to take off, and be used again!” Elon Musk: Write that down, write that down!

One of Richard's best quotes to date. "How are you gonna use it again?!?!" Brilliant, I was gone when he said that.

They did extremely well making those boosters.. I'm absolutely amazed...

This is still the coolest thing they’ve ever done on the show

Kerbal space program in real life

Oh I still remember this whole thing. And I really, really, wanted the car to separate and watch it glide. SOOOO close … but the entire thing (building, the launch, initial booster separation, even the turn to get to release) was so beautiful up to that point. But you can't go wrong with a major explosion at the end lol

09:00 the way they scream "BREAK" makes this bit so much better

This episode was from 2007 and if you type in that red reliant robin number plate into check vehicle tax on the gov.uk website then you’ll see that the last logbook was 2010 which means that they didn’t strap that red Robin which Hammond was driving to the space shuttle. They must’ve used a different one.

Me: Mom can I watch the space shuttle? Mom: we have space shuttle at home Space shuttle at home:

No biggie, just revert to launch and try it again.

At the time, thinking about this like another of the guys' shenanigans, I thought this was a sad failure for them. Now, knowing how difficult is to do these sort-of-garage-projects with rockets, everything about this is absolutely staggering. And not garage projects only, looking at the spaceX endevours and struggles. The fact that they had detachable boosters, a large tank, and a detachable flying RC real car (!) strapped onto that... and that they went half way to that process succesfully (!!!) is simply incredible.

The newer Top Gear will never ever come even close to having moments like this.

Every time I watch this, I get goosebumps when it launches. Easily one of the greatest moments in the history of television.

I cant see Evans and LeBlanc doing anything like this.

While I've heard about Top Gear over the years, I've never watched the show before. That being said, I can't deny that this is arguably one of the coolest things I've ever seen come through my UKposts feed.

Top Gear: We launched a car Elon Musk: Hold my beer

Still better than North Korea.

9:13 clever TV magic. The rocket didn't actually explode, they cut to a different explosion (you can see a hill in the foreground). It wouldn't have exploded anyways because there was no liquid fuel on board, and the solid rocket motors that are mounted were already depleted.

Honestly probably the most impressive thing accomplished on top gear

"mum, can we have kimi raikkonen?" "no son, we have kimi raikkonen at home" kimi raikkonen at home: 1:45

I love the 'top secret' running joke on Top Gear

I would really want Top Gear/The Grand Tour or any other similar TV shows to reattempt this challenge today because with nowaday's reliable robotic parts and open source support I reckon it will be much easier to do. In this case, I'm not entirely sure if they have tested the reliability of the FM radio controller when encountering possibly huge interference from the rockets, and whether the range is sufficient. Nevertheless the fact that it did go vertically upwards is impressive enough.

6:15 no doubt that the Battle of Britain March is James May’s doing lol

I badly wanted this to work, I miss these grand moments on TV and it would be awesome to see them have another go.

Bill Kerman is pleased with initial testing.

Easily the coolest thing they've ever done.

watching this yet again all these years later still brings a smile. i do wish they'd tried again... i really think they would have been able to pull it off. eventually.

I'm astonished it even got off the ground. To get ignition, lift off and booster separation is incredible.

I tell you what they don't make TV like that anymore....

a hilux would have been fine

Kudos to the guys who managed to get this in the air!!! They know their stuff!!!

I remember when I saw this on top gear I nearly fell off my chair when it launched. I was astounded and thought it was completely hilarious one of the best moments in TV ever!

Probably the most hilarious moment in the history of Top Gear. Seriously!

top gear just bombed an army base in this video

The rocket guys did a hell of a job honestly

Compared to legit space agencies, that was an absolute success of a first flight