**Rally Cross Experience with Genet and Arath**
Look nice, it just turns really really great trying to drive flat out with Scandinavia's most successful driver ever sitting next to you is certainly nerve-wracking after a few laps. Genet gave me his initial impressions of my rally skills, I think it went very well, you have a good feeling with the car and so and the feeling for rally cross is really to find the grip yeah to to get uh the speed out of the corners as quick as possible and I think you you have the feeling there on the normal conditions if you get in the loose takes a lot of time a second is just going of course it feels you not serious teric to go on big slides but it's not the fastest way no it takes a long time. After the tips from Kenneth, I set off to try and impress here we go again now it's a little bit slippery because it started to rain so it's a little bit more difficult to drive at the moment but I'm coping it, I got a good very good slide in here just need to keep on the inside Lane can is very showing me so it's the same as in the truck don't go too fast into Corners because you need to come really fast out of the corners. Kenneth was saying to me that next year they're going to have a team with two drivers and I need to find find out whether he would want me to drive the other car, surprisingly an offer didn't come my way but my brief taste of rally cross has taught me to appreciate the incredible skills of these drivers and this man in particular.
**Fat's Baby: The Arath 500**
Carefully leaving the 21st century behind, molding their hair into an Elvis quiff and squeezing into their drain pipe trousers, fear went back back to the '50s when they remade their 500. We made the F 500 fifth Gear's best small car of the year 2007 but the best has just got better because Fat's baby has been mating with scorpions oh yeah it's the 500 arath arath are the famous old Italian tuners who make Fiats fast, they've given the 500 a broad shouldered body kit with twin exhausts tailgate spoiler and rear diffuser but the biggest change is under the Bonnet the meat little prepubescent engine has suddenly had a shot of testosterone and a Turbocharger to give it 137 PS but mercifully without the acne or wet dreams so do we have a juvenile delinquent or a well-mannered youth.
**The Arath 500 Under the Hood**
You've ever wanted to know what an Italian temper tantrum sounds like, sounds a bit like an arath exhaust wow this really shreds gearbox is good shame it's a 5-speed but it's very tight hard down on the Brembo brakes like that down through the gears this hits 24 km an hour top end and it weighs less than a ton 930 k kilos this car not to 100 km, 7.9 not shabby for a 1.4 suspension's been stiffened significantly very stiff ride but boy does it corner and Dodge Italian pothole as well our bath to Fe is what the M division is to BMW or AMG to Mercedes the difference being is our bath just seems a bit more mad and Larry I reckon the AMG boys go to work wearing sharp suits I reckon the arath boys go to work with nothing on and a big fat cigar on the go.
**The Wretched GSI**
But not everything about the arath is good news, like The Wretched GSI which sounds sporty but it actually stands for gearshift indicator and it has a big light saying shift up whenever it thinks you should shift up for maximum economy it's kind of weird having an economy gauge on a car with an arath performance badge after a while this started to get on my nerves telling me to shift up again shift up shift up no no no I'm not going to shift up again I'm going to stay in third I'm going to go beyond 4,000 because I like the sound no I'm not going to change up no no I'm not.
**The Sport Button**
Problem solved which allowed me to explore more appealing features of the car like this the sport button I'm going to put it in sport mode now and immediately you can feel the throttle response changes there's more torque and it adds weight to the steering wheel the faster I go so it feels like everything's been tightened up and turned into a bit of a race machine if you've ever had a bad day at work and you've thought I'm going to go home and just drink beer don't go the Long Way Home in the arbar 500 and then do it again and then do it again and then do it again and then again find the curviest piece of road you can and just put the foot on the mat it's one of the most enjoyable cars I've driven.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome to fifth gear Europe the series that brings you the very best motoring stories from across the continent in this show I test Volvo's new midsize safety packed SUV the XC60 Frank Jacobs looks around the Glamorous Paris Motor Show Anette ladva picula joins rally cross Ace Kenneth Hansen for the drive of her life and Johnny Smith tries out the latest fastest version of the Fiat 500 the upath Volvo Sweden's finest makes you think of words like sensible practical and airbag nice big safe words words that are going to look after your kids and this car takes that philosophy to a whole new level it's a complete showcase for all of Volvo's latest Cutting Edge safety technology and it's called the XC60 think of it as a midsize SUV so it's a Land Rover Freelander or Audi Q5 rival but without all the kind of I don't know wannabe attitude when you stand next to it it's actually more like a big estate car than a globally hated SUV it's also very low impact on the eyes sometimes you have to double check and double take to make sure that this is the new car dare I say it even though it's got some absolutely gorgeous detailing if you squint tilt your head and have it in this horrible slime green color it's actually a little bit boring luckily things get better on the inside in here it's not boring at all Volvo have taken design influences from everywhere Japanese bar stools Italian table lamps and even industrial pots and pans and it hangs together beautifully you've got this big bold sweep of silvery floating center console there's this little seated silvery man icon for the aircon that glows green at night you've got this chunky but angular line to the seats it's all crisp clean and anything but boring the most popular engine in the range will probably be this D5 5-cylinder Diesel with 185 PS and 400 newm of torque it plays it safe rather than Speedy n 100 kph comes up in 9.9 seconds and it only manages a top speed of 200 kph the other things that EV Volvo have done to make this car feel slightly sportier than an xc9 90 have kind of got rid of some of Volvo's better handling traits you kind of want it to be all soft and wafty and it's actually quite thumpy and crashy if I just turn into this corner here you hit all the electronics so the car immediately goes and then you get around the corner it starts to pick up grip and go straighter and it picks back up again quite severely but what I really want to test is the raft of Safety Systems fitted to this car of which there are just a few as a Rough Guide we've got a Pac TPMS dstc ldw RSC CW City Safety actually City Safety now that sounds interesting it works when you're crawling through traffic at speeds of up to 30 kph you know when you're checking your hair the car in front suddenly stops and then out of nowhere ah no basically City Safety uses a laser to measure the road ahead 50 times a second to see if the car in front of you has slowed down when you haven't if you make no input into the car like you don't touch the brake so you don't affect the steering it will actually break the car for you and try and avoid an accident and there's more ebl cwab sips whips ebaa ba bliss bliss I wonder what that is bliss uses a little camera and some clever software to continuously monitor if anything is hovering in your blind spot it then illuminates a warning light if it thinks you're going to pull out in front of it ah there you go definitely works now the problem with bliss is that necessarily like this when you're on a Motorway it keeps flashing cuz things are constantly overtaking you it is quite annoying and when it gets annoying you switch it off and then it's pointless another issue is that if you're coming up to a car in front of you and you happen to get a little bit too close you get the collision avoidance light this red light in the front of the dash reflects on the wind screen it's very distracting so at the moment you've got lights flashing either side a light flashing in the front of the dash and then if you start to wander around you get the lane departure warning system playing you a little tune it's too much information now Volvo realized that you don't necessarily need to be moving to face dangers so one safety system is all about protecting you before you even get into the car PCC or personal car Communicator now I just think this is a key and it is just a key but Volvo reckon that this can detect whether there's an intruder inside your car by get this detecting their heartbeat in inside so the XC60 is actually very good it strengthens Volvo reputation for safety even more it's a strong well-balanced brilliantly equipped Niche busting little big car but I never quite get the need it want it have to have it urge it's a great car but one you'll be buying with your head more than with your heart this is the Paris motor show it's a wonderful display with beautiful French girls stunning cars from all over the world and I'm going to show you the cars that you dream of and perhaps the car that you will drive soon enough yourself every manufacturer in Europe is here with their most exciting new products I'll start with the concept cars most won't ever be made but I'm interested in the ones that might see reality there are these Concepts that will make it into production like for instance this mini SUV crossover officially BMW are still calling it a concept but it's no secret that within the next 2 years years we will see this beautiful baby out on the streets a lot of companies give their Concepts darve names like this otherwise sensible looking Mercedes Fascination and this cool looking sa 9x Air Convertible and if you're rich enough to have not even noticed the credit crunch here's a more exotic concept car that might just become a reality this is the Lamborghini esto and believe it or not it's a four-door Saloon I mean you know that lambor is owned by Audi so I can't imagine Audi selling much more A8 anymore after this comes up to the market because it's beautiful as usual Honda has gone their own way and come up with a hybrid this is the brand new inside Honda think they can sell this car for less than the current Civic Hybrid as well as making a decent profit details about the power plant are to be confirmed but I think it'll be similar to Toyota's Prius so expect an electric motor doing lots of work at the back and the small Patrol engine doing as little as possible at the front now something we'll see very soon the new Rena mean it's had the controversial start the French motoring magazine was shut down and the journalist arrested when it published leaked pictures of the new design the current Rena mean is a very successful car but reliability has never been its strongest part Renault says the new one will solve that all it looks quite boring to me but then again boarding cars usually are reliable the engine choice is a bit more interesting than the styling including four diesels which all emit less than 120 g per kilm of CO2 exact details on price aren't available yet but if you could afford the last mean you'll be able to afford this one when it goes on sale at the end of 2018 there are also some examples of City cars like this elect Lumin miror it's cool but where's the other heal it will do 130 km per hour though I'm not sure how many people will be prepared to pay €30,000 for it everybody keeps on going on about how good Korean cars have become the last few years but this is the latest one the Kia Soul it's a tiny SUV costing a very reasonable €9,000 when it goes on sale early in 2009 P say that buyers will be able to customize each so to their requirements with changeable interior fittings and colors look at the inside it's cool it's fresh even sexy I mean the only problem with Kia is that their brand image still has a long way to go before they can attract younger people it's rather older people I think who would choose for this car because the price is reasonable we will feature this car later on in the series but it's so important that I don't want you to miss it here with on the show this is the brand new Fort car the old car was a huge success for Ford for 12 long years the secret of that success was its cute and cuddly design and women particularly took it to heart this one is more Macho time will tell if it will be loved as much so that's an impression of the far and near future at the Paris Motor Show here I've seen enough to be reassured that the manufacturers won't wield under pressure of the crisis at the moment it will just force them to make more efficient cars for you and me to buy and drive in part two Johnny drives the new Fiat 500R bath and Anette tries a hand at one of the world's most extreme Motorsports oh this is fantastic scand Scandinavia has sprad some of the world's best drivers its brutal ancient landscape is the perfect practice ground for men and women to develop truly great handling skills just look at some of our rally drivers better suberg Marcus kol Tommy mackan Steve blonquist just to name a few and they are all from Finland Sweden and Norway and today I'm going to meet the Scandinavian Motorsport Legend who is more successful than all of those drivers put together this is what he drives it's a citran C4 rally cross car with a note 100 time less than 2 and 1/2 seconds faster than a Bugatti Veron it has 525 PS which is much more than Sebastian C4 rally car and all this from a 2 L engine and the driver is 14 times European rally cross Champion Kenneth Hansson and he's giving me the passenger ride of my life I feel like I can't breathe when he's breaking it's amazing there same scars in this car and I think can using the three and the four all the time I have never enjoyed a ride like this before so is Rally cross just a powerful version of rally driving rally cross is a mixture a little from racing and rallying we do about uh 50% Tac and 50% gravel on short circuits that are between 1,000 to 1200 M long we do them with other cars so it means that we do with five or or six car in each heat or final and uh it's a little like let's say like Speedway very intensive and um close racing if you compare your C4 to for example Sebastian Le's WRC C4 what are the biggest differences between those two cars the rally car has more technology in the car and more electronics and so it's easier to drive but overall I mean the rally cross car uh is FAS if you have a good good circuit and a good grip it was time for me to have a go ket's car is worth about 250,000 so he wasn't really that Keen to hand over the car case however he found me a pretty good substitute this 212 PS rally cross saako I've been test driving road cars for 6 years but I've never driven anything like this before rather worryingly G seemed happy to just let me have a go I'll have a go oh this is fantastic I am feeling this youit day acceleration is fantastic I like it then it breaks really really well yeah that look nice it just turns really really great trying to drive flat out with scandinavia's most successful driver ever sit next to you is certainly nerve-wracking after a few laps Genet gave me his initial impressions of my rally skills I think it went very well you have a good feeling with the car and so and the feeling for rally cross is really to find the grip yeah to to get uh the speed out of the corners as quick as possible and I think you you have the feeling there on the normal conditions if you get in the loose takes a lot of time a second is just going of course it feels you not serious teric to go on big slides but it's not the fastest way no it takes a long time after the tips from Kenneth I set off to try and impress here we go again now it's a little bit slippery because it started to rain so it's a little bit more difficult to drive at the moment but I'm coping it I got a good very good slide in here just need to keep on the inside Lane can is very showing me so it's the same as in the truck don't go too fast into Corners because you need to come really fast out of the corners Kenneth was saying to me that next year they're going to have a team with two drivers and I need to find find out whether he would want me to drive the other car surprisingly an offer didn't come my way but my brief Taste of rally cross has taught me to appreciate the incredible skills of these drivers and this man in particular carefully leaving the 21st century behind molding their hair into an Elvis quiff and squeezing into their drain pipe trousers fear went back back to the ' 50s when they remade their 500 we made the F 500 fifth Gear's best small Car of the Year 2007 but the best has just got better because Fat's baby has been mating with scorpions oh yeah it's the 500 arath arath are the famous old Italian tuners who make Fiats fast they've given the 500 a broad shouldered body kit with twin exhausts tailgate spoiler and rear diffuser but the biggest change is under the Bonnet the meat little prepubescent engine has suddenly had a shot of testosterone and a Turbocharger to give it 137 PS but mercifully without the acne or wet dreams so do we have a juvenile delinquent or a well-mannered youth you've ever wanted to know what an Italian temper tantrum sounds like sounds a bit like an arath exhaust wow this really shreds gearbox is good shame it's a 5-speed but it's very tight hard down on the Brembo brakes like that down through the gears this hits 24 km an hour top end and it weighs less than a ton 930 k kilos this car not to 100 km 7.9 not shabby for a 1.4 suspension's been stiffened significantly very stiff ride but boy does it corner and Dodge Italian pothole as well our bath to Fe is what the M division is to BMW or AMG to Mercedes the difference being is our bath just seems a bit more mad and Larry I reckon the AMG boys go to work wearing sharp suits I reckon the arath boys go to work with nothing on and a big fat cigar on the go but not everything about the arath is good news like The Wretched GSI which sounds sporty but it actually stands for gearshift indicator and it has a big light saying shift up whenever it thinks you should shift up for maximum economy it's kind of weird having an economy gauge on a car with an arath performance badge after a while this started to get on my nerves telling me to shift up again shift up shift up no no no I'm not going to shift up again I'm going to stay in third I'm going to go beyond 4,000 because I like the sound no I'm not going to change up no no I'm not problem solved which allowed me to explore more appealing features of the car like this the sport button I'm going to put it in sport mode now and immediately you can feel the throttle response changes there's more torque and it adds weight to the steering wheel the faster I go so it feels like everything's been tightened up and turned into a bit of a race machine if you've ever had a bad day at work and you've thought I'm going to go home and just drink beer don't go the Long Way Home in the arbar 500 and then do it again and then do it again and then do it again and then again find the curviest piece of road you can and just put the foot on the mat it's one of the most enjoyable cars I've driven in the last couple of years y\n"
