TG Live: Day One

One uncomfortable flight and two days of hectic rehearsals later, Top Gear Live South Africa is finally coming together. The best news is we organised some Challenge Stradale 360s in Jo’burg to take the place of the ‘ordinary’ Ferraris in the Donut London sequence.

Easy swap we thought, until we got the CSs out of the transporter and realised they weren’t what you could describe as ‘factory spec’.

Neither were they showroom fresh, with over 40 full on races under their rosso red plastic bodies. These were working race cars, and a quick blast in the arena confirmed our worst fears; they were more than a handful, as they shrieked around understeering into concrete walls and stalling when the newly fitted handbrake was used. They overheated after only a short amount of practice and their suspension setup stubbornly refused to be drifted. It didn’t look good.

The Mole stood nail biting for four hours as mechanics nonchalantly threw huge pieces of expensive looking carbon fibre out of the cabin, and confidently drilled a terrifying amount of holes in Maranello’s finest.

Each time the boot was slammed shut, the arena would echo the Ferrari wail, but the stunt drivers would return shaking their heads. Eventually the cars came good, and Donut London was able to rehearse in its entirety, with the Ferraris putting on a sterling performance. The noise of their straight through exhausts at 9,000rpm is worth the ticket price alone.

Beyond the arena, backstage is a hive of activity; girls in lycra stretch their limbs to impossible degrees, men sit in the sparking blue glow of welding torches, ramps are hammered straight and 600bhp supercharged Monaro VXRs sit idling in the corner, almost drowning out the incessant radio chatter. Slowly the show is built, performers remember their positions, drivers finally get the hang of that tricky reverse flick and the lights start blinking on. All in all, this is going to be a very cool show.

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