Welcome to Norway: A Day with the WRC Ford Puma Hybrid

The day has been good, it's outrageous! Welcome to Norway and the WRC Ford Puma Hybrid. Chris Harris is coming down, and he's going to get grips with this. He's the first person in the world to drive it outside of Ford, which is pretty amazing. We're going to see how he gets on. Should be quite a good day filming a rally car - one of the greatest things we can do on Top Gear. It just looks unbelievable - all that spray, all that snow. But it's actually quite technically challenging because it kicks up so much stuff, and it destroys the lenses, so you can't see it.

The goal for me for the drone team is to effectively replace the tracking car that follows the rally car and get in on the action as much as possible. It's all about them getting us that intensity that the tracking car normally would, but without getting decimated. The drone thing really has gone berserk. I can remember 10 years ago, actually almost exactly, we bought a Parrot drone, and I strapped a GoPro 2 to the bottom of it, and it wouldn't quite carry the weight, so it hit the side of my house and destroyed both. But I thought this might go somewhere. I was ahead of my time, now.

The game's moved on so much since then. Until recently, you'd have a DJI what-have-you, and it would follow you at about 60-70 miles an hour when they were chipped up and going fast. I had no problems with them because they were a long way away. The drone was always quite high up or even panned past you a bit like a tracking car. Now you've got these POV drones, and they sound angry - that's the thing if you can hear them, you can't hear them from the rally car. But in a normal car, you do hear them. I have no concerns because the people who fly them are very, very talented.

However, I have nearly hit a couple because they love this shot when you're coming towards them and they just raise it up just the last minute so-so. So-so. So you just looks like you're just popping underneath it. Um, I let them do it. Really do. One day I will hit one, now I will.

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Meet Manga FPV

I'm Manga FPV, and I'm a professional FPV drone pilot. FPV stands for First Person View, so it's a drone that you fly with these goggles looking at what the drone is basically. So, you feel like you are flying. You can get up to speed such as 200 kilometers an hour, depending on the gear. But it's not just about the speed - it's about the thrill of flying.

Behind the car, you get a massive spray of snow everywhere, and the snow is just water, while the drone is just pure electronic in the air. So, you don't want that water to get inside your camera or your drone, and just like try to run in mid-air and just crash. So, that's something you have to play with the snow because it looks good, but you know you have to find the limit and not get a massive spray on the drone, and you would just crash. Oh my lord is far when you learn FPV.

There's a lot of crashing in this game, but even now, I mean like I have no problem saying that I'm crashing a lot because it's worth it. The good thing with these drones is that you can take the risk to crash to get a really good shot. So, the good thing is that the crashes are not that expensive on a machine like this. Maybe you change the motor for $25, or a piece of carbon for $10, so it won't cost you the whole drone most of the time.

What could happen is that you lose your drone flying too far away losing the signal or something. This happened to me, but I mean that's that's the game if you want to get the shot - that's it.

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A Day with Chris Harris and the WRC Ford Puma Hybrid

It's been fantastic. The weather's been great, and I'm not too cold. Yeah, thank you. What an amazing day! It's been outrageous driving this thing around Norway. The WRC Ford Puma Hybrid is just incredible.

Chris had a lot of fun out there on the track, and I can tell you, it was a blast to watch him drive. I mean, it's not every day you get to see a car go that fast, especially one as capable as this. And the sound of the engine, oh my goodness! It's music to my ears.

How does it do on ice? Well, that's what we're going to find out. We'll push the pedal down and see how it performs in these icy conditions. The WRC Ford Puma Hybrid is designed to handle the toughest conditions, so I'm excited to see it in action.

The day has been good, it's outrageous - indeed! But I wouldn't have it any other way. This is what my life's made for if you don't like doing this, go home. It's been fantastic, and I couldn't be happier with how the day has gone.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhas the day been good it's outrageous welcome to norway and the wrc ford puma hybrid chris harris is coming down he's going to get the grips with this he's the first person in the world to drive it outside of ford which is pretty amazing so we're going to see how he gets on should be quite a good day filming a rally car is one of the greatest things we can do on top gear it just looks unbelievable all that spray all that snow but it's actually quite technically challenging because it kicks up so much stuff it destroys the lenses so you can't see it so the goal for me for the drone team is to effectively replace the tracking car that follows the rally car and get in on the action as much as possible it's all about them getting us that intensity that the tracking car normally would but without getting decimated yeah the drone thing really has gone berserk i can remember 10 years ago actually almost exactly we bought a parrot drone and i strapped a gopro 2 to the bottom of it and it wouldn't quite carry the weight so it hit the side of my house and destroyed both but i thought this might go somewhere i was ahead of my time now the game's moved on so until recently you'd have a dji what have you and it would follow you at about 60 70 miles an hour when they were chipped up and going fast i had no problems with them because they were a long way away the drone was always quite high up or even pan past you a bit like a tracking car now you've got these pov drones and they sound angry that's the thing if you can hear them you can't hear them from the rally car but in a normal car you do hear them i have no concerns because the people that fly them are very very talented however i have nearly hit a couple because they love this shot when you're coming towards them and they just they just raise it up just the last minute so so you just looks like you're just popping underneath it um i let them do it i really do one day i will hit one and now i will he's out there doing his doing his review now he's full send mode it's totally amazing as low and as close as you can be hey so i'm manga fpv and i'm a professional hpv drone pilot so fpv is stands for first person view so it's a drone that you fly with these goggles looking at what the drone is basically so you feel like you are flying can get up to speed such as like 200 kilometers an hour depends the gear you're actually using now the bigger ones will go maybe a bit slower but you can easily reach like 140 150 kilometers so this is like a classic fpv drone i would say like a very common very used size of fpv drone that's a five inch drone so we talk in propeller size so this is about like seven to eight hundred grams um so it has a crazy weight to ratio power like 10 times even more so this can reach speeds up to like 180 kilometers so you can get very like dynamic and low shots uh with the gopro that's super easy to maneuver really quick easy to break easy to accelerate so this is like our like go-to fpv drone for gopro use you know what i mean and then we have the bigger kind that we use to get the quality uh with a cinema camera like this one so the big difference with this one as you can see is we have like bigger propellers we have we have eight motors but we have a lot of weight this is about four kilos so basically the physics around this is the same as the small one so you can take the same kind of shots but you are heavier so of course the handling is a bit different but otherwise you can get kind of the same super dynamic shot such a small one but with a cinema camera on it it's it's it takes a lot of skills actually to to work with these tools because you have to you know be able to build them tune them um and then you put a cinema camera on it so you have to be able to use a cinema camera so if you're sort of a technician but also like a gop that has to you know make sure that the the shot is well exposed and everything is right with the camera so it's like there's a lot going on uh behind these things you try not to break it this one and we also brought with us um regular inspires uh to get more cinematic classic drone shots because these are not the same tools like people ask me sometime like oh do you think like fpv is going to overtake cinematic drones i'm like no they're just like a new tool we don't do the same shots so these two drones i mean ltd and entire are really good combination to get like cinematic you know beautiful and then get into the action be really close to the subject with a theory the performance is outrageous behind the car you get like a massive spray of snow everywhere and snow is just water and drone is just pure electronic in the air so you don't want that water to get inside your camera or your drone and just like try to run in the mid air and just crash so that's something that is you know you have to play with the snow because it looks good but you know you have to find the limit uh and just not get like a massive spray on the drone and you would just crash oh my lord is far when you learn fpv uh there's a lot of crashing but even now i mean like i have no problem to say that i'm crushing a lot because it's worth it the good thing with these drones is that you can take the risk to crash to get like a really good shot and so the good thing is that the crashes are not that expensive on a machine like this maybe you change the motor for 25 bucks uh or a piece of carbon for you know 10 so it won't cost you the whole drone most of the time what could happen is that you lose your drone uh flying too far away losing the signal or something this happened but i mean that's that's the game if you want to get the shot you know you have to risk it that's it that's a wrap uh what an amazing day it's been the wrc car looked amazing chris had a lot of fun i can't wait to get back to the edit and see what we've got push the pedal down how does it do that on ice how's the day been good i've just been the first person outside the factory to drive the new wrc ford it it's outrageous this is what this is what my life's made for if you don't like doing this go home it's been fantastic and the weather's been great and i'm not too cold so yeah thank you you\n"