The Riviera Hatchback Road Trip was a road trip undertaken by Jeremy, Richard, and James. It was featured in Episode 2 of the 17th series of Top Gear. The trip started in Lucca, Italy and ended in Monaco. The aim of the trip was to find the best hot hatchback.
Introduction & Choices[]
The trip started in the "beautiful" old town of Lucca in Italy, and the presenters introduced their cars in the central plaza. Jeremy brought a Citroën DS3 Racing, Richard brought a Fiat 500C Abarth, and James brought a Renault Clio RS 2.0. Richard and James criticised the Citroën as "gaudy" and "juvenile" respectively, whereas Richard called the Renault "boring [and] bland". Jeremy and James believed Richard had brought a convertible supermini instead of a proper hot hatch.
Challenges[]
Challenge 1 - Exiting Lucca[]
Their first challenge was to get out of the city of Lucca. At first, the presenters thought the task was easy, but soon discovered otherwise, as the streets were extremely small and almost impossible to navigate. Richard decided to abandon his car and find the exit on foot. He later found the exit but lost time relocating his car. Jeremy wound up being the first out, winning the challenge as James got lost and ended up driving on top of the city wall he was trying to get through.
Challenges 2 & 3 - Scavenger Hunt/Photo[]
Their next challenge was to collect assorted items while on their way to Canelli, a town in Piedmont. The items were a dog, a cedar tree, a vine, ice cubes, a CD from a petrol station, a bicycle, and a photo of as many people as they could fit into their cars. The winner was the first person to get to Canelli with all the items. Points were deducted for any items missing.
To make the challenge even harder, for the petrol station challenge, they had not been given money. Instead, they were given cheap British products to barter with in order to get a CD. Richard was unsuccessful at finding a dog and as such bought a toy one instead. Jeremy ultimately reached Canelli first, with Hammond coming second, and May last. The photo was later scored independently of the scavenger hunt.
Challenge 4 - Monaco Grand Prix[]
For their final challenge, the presenters were told to drive to Monaco - at the same time that the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix was taking place. This was no coincidence, because the challenge called for them to race three laps around the Grand Prix track in their hatchbacks in a bid to post the fastest lap - a challenge that Jeremy, a long-established Formula 1 fan, called the fulfillment of a dream he had had since he was little.
Once they arrived in Monaco, Jeremy sought out advice from former Scottish F1 driver and the-then BBC F1 analyst David Coulthard, whereas Richard and James got wrapped up in the pre-race parties on the docks. Richard claimed to have met German F1 driver Timo Glock, but referred to him as "Tim O'Glock", to Jeremy's chagrin. The next day, the presenters were mentored by various experts (F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone mentored Jeremy, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner mentored Richard, and former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore mentored James) before racing around the track in a bid to post the fastest lap. Even though he started last, Jeremy was able to catch and pass both Richard and James. Some footage from their laps with Ecclestone, Horner and Briatore was included in the BBC's coverage of the Grand Prix that weekend.
Results[]
In the end, for the 'getting out of Lucca' challenge. Jeremy scored 10 points, James 2, and Hammond 0 after he was deducted the 5 points he won for getting out of his car. For the scavenger hunt, Jeremy scored 5 points, James scored 1 (he was deducted 1 point for his icecubes melting), and Richard 0 after the 10 points he earned were deducted for not having a real dog (2 points deducted), not having the right kind of tree (2 points), not having a CD (6 points). For the 'people in the car' challenge, points were awarded for the number of people that fit into each car. Jeremy scored 13, James 12, and Richard 0 after his 14 points were deducted because his people were 'sort of on his car' as he had the roof open. Finally, for the Monaco lap times Jeremy received 10 points for winning with a time of 2min 15sec, James received 2 points for coming last with a time of 2min 21sec, and Richard scored 5 points for coming second with a time of 2min 20sec, however, all his points were deducted because his car wasn't deemed a hatchback. Jeremy won the challenge and as such proved the Citroën DS3 Racing was indeed the best hot hatchback - but the audience took more interest in the purposeful deduction of Richard's points in order to cancel out his scores.
Car | Lucca | Scavenger Hunt | Photo | Monaco Lap Time | Total | |
Jeremy | Citroën DS3 Racing | 10 | 5 | 13 | 10 (2:15) | 38 |
Richard | Fiat 500C Abarth | 5 (2:20) | ||||
James | Renault Clio RS 2.0 | 2 | 12 | 2 (2:21) | 17 |