- "That is the worst looking car in the whole world. I'd rather look at one of your dingleberries."
- ―Richard Hammond
Geoff was an electric car made by the Top Gear Team, and the precursor to the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust. It was powered by an electric motor with the two batteries scavenged from a milk float.
Design[]
Body design resembles to the Jeep but much boxy shape, albeit with lacking of the right gap upon fitting the headlamps, wheel arch, doors, and windscreen including interior due to taking themselves to build in a short time. By the use of the basic tools and had no air ventilation, however. Because of the use of aluminium sheet as body exterior, it causes for them to directly shines by the reflecting sunlight.
For the chassis, it is taken from the TVR Chimera (as the body shell taken off) with some components from the Land Rover Discovery, seating arrangement is akin to the McLaren F1, but the steering wheel shifted to RHD (right-hand-drive) configuration, a plastic lawn chair instead of the car seats, etc. Prior to it's test, once Richard hopped-in. Jeremy realise had an insufficient room between the roof and the centre passenger seat that can break between his spine and the car's roof, so they push back to the garage to compensate for Richard simply by adding a 'roof box' as a little modification.
The design had a little effect of the aerodynamics/downforce, without an air duct like any other modern electric cars.
The Eagle i-Thrust features in Series 14, Episode 2 in the main challenge. May didn't like how the electric cars have "pious names like the Intelligencia". He and Hammond compared the Ford Mustang, and Dodge Viper, and ultimately decide as Vixen, but Clarkson christened as Geoff.
Adventures[]
On it's shakedown test to the Oxford, their electric car has rather slow acceleration at first they'd cause traffic jams and had no little embarrasment to the hosts. In the one point it had been overtaken by the running children. As they drove along the A34 – a major road with a speed limit of 70 miles an hour – at its maximum speed of 10 miles an hour with a long line of car behind it. Later, the batteries goes flat in the countryside and managing to hold up people even there, the trio pushed their car into a field, but went rolled down towards to the hill, and then crashed into a tree. After being it's pronounced 'dead', Geoff was taken back to the Technology Centre and being rebuilt and revamped as: Eagle i-Thrust.
Trivia[]
- The 'roof box' (for Richard), caused for him to shine from sunlight nearly all direction because of it's aluminum sheet exterior.
- It might been resembled that typically found in military tank as turret.
- Every negotiating turn, Richard would swung his body either left or right as the effect of lateral g's, however, their seats has a lack of head support and seat belts.
- If more power applied once in full accelerate it will swing violently until the seats will promptly to tumble, then followed by being thrown off their sits with the defying g-forces caused by inertia.
- Geoff has a lower ground clearance as seen in clip makes only suitable in the pavement road. Bumps and kerbs can damage the exterior. In front-end still has jigged edges.
- The number plate was from the taken from TVR Chimera.
- During the roadtest, the electric motor produced noise, as they went to Oxford where expected issue has occur.