Many of you know Richard Hammond from the very popular and amusing show about all things automotive from Britain called Top Gear. Did you know that he is also a columnist for the UK tabloid The Mirror? Neither did I, but apparently that is indeed the case and has been since 2004. On Fridays he "gives his expert insight into the world of motoring, while on Saturday he gives his own irreverent take on the week's news," according to the Mirror's website.

The reason I bring this up is because he did a piece the other day on the electric Th!nk city car which is coming to England. In the past, Top Gear has not been especially kind to other electric vehicles they've featured, so I was surprised that he seems to be quite upbeat about the Th!nk. Of course, he hasn't driven it yet but says, "I'll no doubt give the THINK a go..." Hopefully if he does, he'll refrain from blowing it up.


[Source: The Mirror]

If you've been paying any attention at all, you'll be aware that we hold the G-Wiz electric quadricycle in the same sort of "high" regard that Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson does. What more can be said about a "car" that implodes in a standard crash test and goes from naught to 40mph in "quite a while"? Apparently, the Top Gear crew felt that in spite of it's "sparkling" performance racing against a table (although it did come out much worse than the table in the crash test) there was still room for improvement. They added some extra batteries, and a radio control setup and ran it against a Mustang Shelby GT on the drag-strip where it performed admirably for once. To evaluate the handling of the upgraded G-Wiz, they handed the controller to The Stig for a competition against Richard Hammond and a more conventional radio controlled truck. Check out the results after the jump.

[Source: Top Gear, YouTube]