Discovery Industrial Revelations Best of British_4of6_Vehicles
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00:00Who is the best in the world at engineering?
00:26Well, from the locomotive to the jet engine, the lightbulb to the television, we Brits
00:34invented so many of the things which make up the modern world.
00:39In this series, a number of leading eggheads have steered me towards their favourite bits
00:45of British engineering.
00:47But which ones best reflect our national flair for nuts and bolts?
00:53Today it's the turn of land transport.
01:02Now look at this sexy beast we've flagged from Land Rover.
01:05It reminds me of an old girlfriend of mine.
01:08A bit hefty and the ride can be bumpy, but she handles well off-road and is very good in mud.
01:18Still, it's boring, predictable, but it's reliable.
01:23We start, though, not with a Land Rover, but with a car which was once, by general consensus,
01:29the best in the world.
01:31It looks like someone's taken the British Museum and stuck a hearse on the back.
01:35It's the most celebrated radiated grille in automotive history.
01:38And the car itself is a rolling definition of excellence.
01:42The carriages of kings, queens and maharajahs.
01:46The Rolls-Royce.
01:53In 1904, Charles Rolls, a millionaire playboy who peddled French cars to his aristochums,
01:59met Henry Royce, a Manchester engineer whose French car kept breaking down.
02:06Two men with but a single thought, showing the frogs how to build a proper car.
02:11Two years later, they unveiled the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost.
02:15Why is this car known as the best car in the world?
02:19Well, in 1907, Claude Johnson, the rather canny managing director of Rolls-Royce,
02:24devised a publicity stunt to show her off.
02:27Johnson offered to run the car for 15,000 miles with a gentleman of the press on board.
02:33The Silver Ghost swept majestically back and forth between London and Glasgow,
02:37finishing in second place.
02:39After the journey, the car was taken to bits and inspected.
02:45It was found to be almost completely free of wear and tear.
02:51The press proclaimed the car the best in the world,
02:54which is a good job because it cost an absolute fortune.
02:57It was also the most expensive car in the world,
03:00and the most expensive car in the world.
03:03The press proclaimed the car the best in the world,
03:06which is a good job because it cost an absolute fortune.
03:09A Silver Ghost set you back £3,500,
03:13which in today's money is a staggering...
03:16...squillion quid.
03:18So what did you get for your money?
03:21Strange as it may seem, all Rolls-Royce provided was a big engine sitting on a chassis.
03:26You had to build the bodywork at your own expense.
03:28To do this, you went to a coachbuilder,
03:30who would design something wonderful specially for you and build it by hand,
03:34which is why none of the early Rollers look quite the same.
03:46The work of the coachbuilders was as breathtaking as the engineering,
03:50and you could even have the bird on the front with a nightie on, or naked.
03:54Personally, I think she looks absolutely smashing in the altogether,
03:57though it is tricky keeping your eyes on the road.
04:01It's a testimony to the excellence of the car, and to the love it inspires,
04:05that a century after it was produced,
04:07nearly half the 8,416 Silver Ghosts ever made are still going strong.
04:13They're kept on the road by enthusiasts like Andy Courtney,
04:16who has foolishly agreed to let me drive his £250,000 baby.
04:23Here we are, what a skillful bit of driving.
04:26Oh!
04:30And there we have it.
04:31It's a beautiful thing.
04:33Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost.
04:35It must be nerve-wracking backing it out of that very narrow space.
04:38I've done it a few times now, I'm getting better.
04:40Of course, Rolls-Royce, it's all about the engine, isn't it?
04:43It is.
04:44Are we going to have a look underneath the bonnet?
04:47I haven't cleaned it lately.
04:49You haven't cleaned it lately?
04:50No, I know it's been in the garage and the wind has been here,
04:53but there we have it.
04:55It's a 7.5-litre engine, six cylinders.
05:00Peak revs are about 1,500, so it's not a fast engine,
05:03it's a very slow-moving engine, which gave it its longevity.
05:06That's how it's lasted for all these years,
05:08because the pistons are going up and down gracefully
05:10rather than the modern car where they're knocking themselves to pieces.
05:13Can I sit behind the wheel?
05:15Of course you can, do you have clean hands?
05:20You always get in this side, it's not normal to get in the other side
05:22because there's gear sticks and gear knobs and hand brakes
05:25and everything else in the way.
05:26Now, pump up on the hand pump
05:29until you're registering one pound on the fuel pressure gauge.
05:34Tremendous wrist action there, it's doing very well.
05:36Is this doing something, or is this just a joke?
05:38No, it's starting to move.
05:39Once the engine's running, it's got its own mechanical pump
05:42that keeps up the pressure.
05:44I'm just wondering what this looks like from behind.
05:46I know, I know, but don't worry about it.
05:47Handbrake on, and you should be in neutral.
05:49Now, if you turn the knob on the centre, that knob,
05:52twist it round.
05:54The first switch is B, which is battery, which is the coil.
05:57The next switch is magneto and battery, which is both ignition systems.
06:01And switch the top lever, which is the fuel strength,
06:06to the right, which is strong.
06:08There is a starter on the bulkhead.
06:10Now, that's the clutch.
06:12No, to the left and up a bit.
06:14Left and up a bit.
06:15Switch the right-hand lever, the ignition lever, this one,
06:18on the steering wheel.
06:19Put that right up to the top.
06:22Set the fuel mixture with weak and strong.
06:25This is very complicated.
06:26It is, it is. It gets worse.
06:28Wait, you have to try and change gear.
06:30I'm not going to change gear. I'm going to sit here all day.
06:32Put that to there.
06:34And you're in business.
06:36You're in business.
06:37You know what happens now, don't you?
06:38Well, I go in, have my dinner, and you go for a drive.
06:40I see. Chauffeur.
06:41Chauffeur.
06:44Andy wisely decides to get us onto the open road
06:46before letting the Sunday driver behind the wheel.
06:49But just as I'm feeling I'll never be able to do as well
06:52as a petrolhead demigod like Andy,
06:54I discover that he is only a man with feet of clay.
07:00We're having a gear moment.
07:01We're having a gear moment.
07:02Changing gears.
07:03Talk amongst yourselves.
07:08Well, I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing.
07:13Cars have come a long way since this thing was built.
07:15For a few grand these days, you could pick up a motor
07:18which would have amazed Henry Royce.
07:20And yet, in a vintage roller, you feel so much more aware of,
07:23so much closer to the actual engineering.
07:26It reminds you what an amazing, liberating invention the car was
07:30and how thrilling it must have been to ride
07:32on top of the most advanced bit of engineering in the world.
07:39At last, it's my turn.
07:43Handbrake off.
07:44You're the famous motor racing driver, aren't you?
07:47You're not just some comedian.
07:49It's moving.
07:54Your knuckles are going quite wide.
07:56Nice positive movement.
07:57Right, clutch.
08:00Oh, wonderful.
08:01Not bad.
08:02Wonderful. That's it. That's the gear changing over.
08:05We can do it.
08:06I used to fly these cranes in the war.
08:08Some more vehicles coming towards us, Mr Courtney.
08:10What do I do?
08:11Just confront them. Look them in the eye.
08:14Look them in the eye and carry on straight.
08:20After about £6,000 worth of bumping and grinding,
08:23I quickly get the feel of the Silver Ghost,
08:26and Andy and I tootle off like a couple of hoorays
08:28on their way to a pheasant shoot.
08:32But we're not tootling to shoot pheasants.
08:34We're tootling for a spooky convention of Silver Ghosts.
08:39At key points in the year, they come from far and wide,
08:43like randy elephant seals to honk their horns
08:46and generally show off to one another.
08:59Come on, lads.
09:00This is wonderful.
09:01Yeah, that's right.
09:02Is this what being a Rolls-Royce owner is about?
09:04I mean, Rolls-Royce is about class,
09:06about being a bit special.
09:08Is this what it's about, champagne and strawberries?
09:10They are the icon of British engineering.
09:13Rolls-Royce was the top of the line.
09:16Rolls-Royce means everything.
09:17It's gone into the language as a superlative.
09:19Everything is compared with a Rolls-Royce.
09:21If you know nothing about cars at all and one of those comes up,
09:24you think, I'm now looking at something special.
09:26How many cars have you driven and had photographs taken of you?
09:29Every time I go through a speed camera.
09:33So well made, absolutely incredible.
09:36Where Henry Royce wanted two bolts, he put three or four or five.
09:41Where he wanted an eighth thick metal, he put three eighths thick.
09:45Everything was over-engineered.
09:46The bearings were larger and stronger than they wanted.
09:49He simply took every component and made them as good as was possible.
09:53How appropriate that we're sitting here listening to some Rolls-Royce engines
09:57going over on a 747.
09:59It's a shame Henry Royce isn't around to realise what standards he set.
10:02I know exactly how Henry Royce behaves and what the hell is that noise?
10:06The British Rolls-Royce was slow and grand.
10:09But what about a car that's fast and sexy?
10:12The Yanks had the Mustang and Steve McQueen in a pair of Ray-Bans.
10:16We had the Triumph Herald and Leslie Phillips in a cravat.
10:20But one car was to change all that.
10:23The first internationally celebrated British roadster.
10:26Sex on four wheels.
10:28The car James Bond should have driven.
10:31The E-Type Jaguar.
10:37The Italians, of course, have their fancy Ferraris and Lamborghinis.
10:41But it was the sexy British E-Type that became the most lusted-after sports car in the world
10:46when it was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 1961.
10:50I'm about to meet the car that was the star of the Geneva Motor Show.
10:54The most photographed, the most glamorous, the most talked-about E-Type Jaguar ever built.
10:58The 9600 HP.
11:00Here it is.
11:02If that's not easy on the eye, I don't know what is.
11:05It's now owned by Philip Porter, the founder of the E-Type Jaguar Club.
11:08Hi, Philip.
11:09Hello.
11:10What a beautiful car.
11:11Thank you.
11:12It's just perfect, isn't it?
11:14It says E-Type Jaguar to me.
11:15They are a stunning shape.
11:17How long have you had this one?
11:19About 25 years.
11:20Now, what makes this car so special in your opinion?
11:23It's a combination of things, of course.
11:24It's an absolutely stunning shape.
11:26I mean, it's pure sculpture.
11:27Tremendous performance as well.
11:29Incredible acceleration.
11:30Tremendous flexibility.
11:32So it's a wonderful combination of serious performance, even today, and good looks.
11:37At the time it came out, it must have been special.
11:39I mean, the general public had not seen anything like this, I presume.
11:42Absolutely sensational.
11:44It stopped people in the street.
11:45It was mobbed.
11:46Now, if you have even a passing acquaintance with the Roman alphabet,
11:50you will have guessed that the E-Type evolved from another Jaguar car called the D-Type.
11:55The D-Type was a fully-fledged racing car,
11:58a beautiful machine that bombed around racetracks in the 1950s looking like a jet plane on wheels.
12:03It looked like that because it was built by an aircraft designer, Malcolm Sayer,
12:07and a race car engineer, William Haynes.
12:12The D-Type was such a wow on the racetrack,
12:14Jaguar wondered whether they couldn't cash in and build a version for general consumption.
12:19The result is one of the most aerodynamic roadsters in the world.
12:23But the E-Type was designed before the age of fancy-pants wind tunnels,
12:27so how did they do it?
12:29They tested those days rather crudely.
12:31They actually put tufts of wool all over the car, little strands of wool stuck here, there, etc.
12:37Then somebody would follow in another car, watching the behaviour of the tufts.
12:41And if they were behaving in a regular pattern, there was a problem there,
12:45needed some alteration, so that was the way it was done.
12:50The E-Type was a state-of-the-art road sports car.
12:53It had independent rear suspension, whatever that is,
12:57four-wheel disc brakes, which was handy if you wanted to stop,
13:03and a 3.8-litre twin-overhead cam engine,
13:06which I'm told is just what you need to travel at more than twice the legal speed limit.
13:11It's very clean.
13:13Not clean by some people's standards, I have to say, because I believe in using cars.
13:17That's the cleanest engine I've ever seen, ever, in any car.
13:20I think you're exaggerating.
13:22So what makes this different from the ordinary engines of the time?
13:25Well, it's a twin-overhead cam engine.
13:27It's a twin-overhead cam engine, make a note of that.
13:30But the amazing thing about Jaguar engines, and this engine in particular,
13:34is that they had flexibility, not just R.I. performance.
13:37It had a lot of torque, in other words, it couldn't pull well
13:40without having to use the gears all the time.
13:42I don't know whether it's Philip's Jackie Stewart sideburns
13:45or the red puffer jacket tank top,
13:47but I'm finding it hard to absorb all the tech-spec stuff.
13:51So to make it more digestible,
13:53I'm turning to our delightful series engineer, Claire,
13:56who for some reason is furtively lurking in a disused railway siding.
14:00Now correct me if I'm wrong, Claire, but this is not an E-Type Jaguar.
14:03I know, I know, it just hasn't got the body work, has it?
14:06But we're going to use this to explain about the overhead twin-cam engine,
14:10which is what the E-Type...
14:12You petrolhead. You petrolhead bird.
14:15I know, I know. But back to internal combustion.
14:18There's the four processes, isn't there, where you...
14:21Suck. Suck.
14:22Bring all the air and the fuel into the actual engine,
14:26squeeze... Compress it. Compress it.
14:28And then ignite it, make it go bang.
14:30Push the piston down, and that does all sorts of geary things.
14:33Geary things. Yeah.
14:34That provides the power, and then you've got to get rid of all the exhaust
14:37and set the cycle to go again.
14:39The E-Type Jag is the first one to have two valves.
14:42Two valves?
14:43It just speeds the whole process out.
14:45It gets all the burnt fuel out quicker and makes the whole cycle start again.
14:48I see.
14:49So I'm going to jump off this thing in a minute,
14:51and I'm going to time you pushing it.
14:53So what you're saying is, I am a valve.
14:55You are a valve. I am a valve.
14:57At the end of the track, this does finish in Paddington, you realise.
15:00All right, OK, maybe just the white disc at the end, then. OK.
15:05Three, two, one, go.
15:10Oh!
15:1835 seconds.
15:22That was 35 seconds, Roy, the two of us, two valves, twice as fast, yeah?
15:26Yeah, so that's 17½ seconds.
15:28Ready?
15:29Ready?
15:30Three, two, one, go.
15:34Oh!
15:39Oh!
15:48OK, Zoe, tell us it was less than 35.
15:5221.
15:53Yes!
15:54That's not bad.
15:55Right, it should be 17½, shouldn't it?
15:57So that's not too bad.
15:58I don't think you were putting as much effort in as you should have done.
16:00Excuse me, Miss Reverse.
16:02It's harder than it looks, isn't it?
16:04Yes, it is.
16:05But that's a significant increase in power to our engine.
16:08Well-valved.
16:09Do you want another go?
16:10No.
16:15To find out just how well this E-Type twin overhead cam thingy performs,
16:19I've been invited to Goodwood, not for a flutter on the GGs,
16:22but to visit the racetrack, where a bevy of Philips lunatic E-Type-owning chums
16:26have gathered to race their Jags.
16:28And very stupidly, I've asked if I can go for a spin.
16:33Very exciting.
16:34We've only seen three crashes so far.
16:36Rain's coming in, conditions are getting worse.
16:42I've signed the form with my next of kin on it,
16:44and it's all getting rather worrying here.
16:48Philips says I can be his driver's mate,
16:50reading the map and passing him boiled sweets.
17:03I'm going to do it.
17:13Philip wears a flame-red tank top, I never discover,
17:16because he is the devil.
17:18His foot seems permanently glued to the floor.
17:20He drives like a man who has nothing left to live for.
17:25As he takes a corner, the shuddering steering wheel
17:27looks as if it's about to come off in his hands.
17:29And then he decides to let me in on a little secret
17:31about his beloved E-Type.
17:33Have to be careful, because one of the few weak points of an E-Type,
17:37particularly in the early days when they first came out,
17:40were the brakes. Brakes and gearbox.
17:42Now you tell me.
17:44The weak point is the brakes.
17:49After I sign over the souls of my children,
17:51Philip finally agrees to drop me off in the pits.
17:54He's made his point.
17:55The E-Type does indeed go 150 miles an hour.
18:00So that's the E-Type Jaguar.
18:02A stunning machine, beautiful to look at,
18:04and a great performer.
18:06Tell you what, though. No CD player.
18:11But now I'm trading down from four wheels to two.
18:15We all know what modern motorbikes look like.
18:17Sexy death-trap speed machines ridden by crazy fools
18:20who crave freedom and don't give a damn.
18:23But they didn't look so sexy when they started.
18:26They look like bicycles with lawnmowers strapped to the side,
18:29invented by Caractacus Potts.
18:31But how did the motorbike make the evolutionary leap
18:34from slow and silly to fast and cool?
18:37Our next engineering icon is the missing link.
18:40Midlands engineer and speed demon George Brough
18:43was not content with tootling around like Noddy on a bicycle
18:46come lawnmower.
18:47George wanted to invent a two-wheeled mean machine
18:50that would fly about like the Clappers
18:52and bugger the speed limits.
18:54The result was what many aficionados regard
18:56as the silver ghost of motorbikes,
18:58the Brough Superior.
19:03Now, if you see one of these things in the road,
19:05you might just feel sad for the poor Wally on top
19:07who can't afford to upgrade to a Kawasaki 250.
19:10But think again.
19:12The Brough Superior is probably the most highly sought-after
19:15vintage motorcycle in the world.
19:17One of them recently sold for a staggering three million quid.
19:21In the 1920s and 30s,
19:23driving on country roads through idyllic villages like this
19:26should have been a serene and peaceful experience.
19:29There was very little traffic on the roads.
19:31Until 1930, the speed limit was only 20 miles an hour.
19:35Then, in 1925, a certain Derbyshire man
19:38called George Brough perfected a motorbike
19:40that would help change all that.
19:42The SS100 was one of the first motorbikes to do a tonne.
19:46That's 100 miles an hour to you.
19:48And I've arranged to look at one.
19:50Or is it two? Is it three?
19:52It might be four. Think about it.
19:54Very nice.
19:56Yeah, here we have it.
19:58Well, I'm no petrolhead,
19:59but I know that this is actually a very beautiful-looking machine
20:02compared to a lot of motorbikes you see nowadays.
20:04This is quite sleek, it's quite elegant.
20:06They are bespoke machines,
20:08and the owners would visit the works
20:10and discuss with George what they wanted.
20:13They would have the footrest set to what they wanted,
20:16the handlebars...
20:18So, a customised bike.
20:19You're talking designer customised bikes.
20:21Well, that's right.
20:22Some people wanted a Mauve Brough Superior,
20:24and they had a Mauve Brough Superior.
20:26Really?
20:27Other people wanted them everything chromium-plated or nickel-plated.
20:30Howard, would you drive a Mauve Brough Superior?
20:32I've driven a Mauve Brough Superior.
20:34People point to you.
20:36Well, it's a...
20:37Look at that colour-blind man on that nice bike.
20:42Perhaps the most famous owner of a Brough Superior
20:44was the thrill-seeking Lawrence of Arabia.
20:47He actually owned seven Brough bikes
20:49and named each one George, after its maker.
20:52Unfortunately, Lawrence met his own maker famously
20:55after a fatal accident on George VII.
20:59The machines in the 20s, when he started to produce the Brough Superior,
21:03had flat tanks.
21:04He introduced the saddle tank.
21:06The frame itself was very strong.
21:08That contributed to the handling.
21:10These again were an innovation by George Brough,
21:12a crash bar to protect the bike in the event of a spill.
21:15Saddle?
21:16Saddle, very comfortable, very wide.
21:18I think it would suit you, Rory, this one.
21:21What's your name, sir?
21:23Interconnected silencers, which were quite an innovation.
21:27And the fishtails, which became a trademark of Brough Superiors.
21:31Is that just a design feature?
21:33It mutes the sound.
21:35They were gentlemen's motorcycles,
21:37so when you're cruising, you want a nice, quiet sound.
21:47The Superior was innovative, it was stylish,
21:49and it went like the blazes.
21:52When Brough first unveiled his SS100
21:54at the 1924 Motorcycle Show in London,
21:57it created a storm.
21:58Brough offered a signed guarantee
22:00that every machine could hit 100 miles an hour.
22:04This particular one is the SS100 model.
22:07It will do 100 miles an hour.
22:09So you've done 100 on this very machine?
22:12I have this...
22:13Not that you can in this country, because you have to stop at 70.
22:16But if you could have gone 100 on this bike,
22:18which you didn't, what would you have done?
22:20Well, that's right.
22:21I have done...
22:22To be honest, I haven't done 100 on this one.
22:25I have on others, but off the road, of course.
22:28On the pavement.
22:30And are we going to go and have a spin on it?
22:33Well, we could, but I've got one in the sidecar, if you prefer.
22:37Now, it's one thing sitting behind the wheel
22:39of a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost,
22:41but I'm no motorcyclist.
22:43So today I've opted for the relative comfort and safety of a sidecar.
22:47Not just any old sidecar, of course.
22:49Abrupt superior sidecar.
22:51OK, Howard.
23:05I might ask you, actually, how fast are you going to go today?
23:08We'll only do 40 or 50 miles an hour today.
23:19Let's just enjoy the countryside.
23:21Absolutely.
23:23The gentle summer rain.
23:25Yes.
23:26Well, Adam, I say it feels not only very comfortable,
23:29but very safe and solid.
23:31Is that an illusion?
23:33No, no, they're very safe.
23:35It's a very stout chassis.
23:38Are you a convert, then?
23:40Actually, you're converting me to the sidecar, definitely.
23:43This is great.
23:45I think my feet have gone to sleep, though.
23:47Designed for a mermaid, wasn't it?
23:55Oh, just let me on, Howard.
23:57I know, it's kicking over at a fairly slow speed.
24:01For some 40-odd years,
24:03British motorbikes were generally regarded as the best in the world.
24:07Classic British makes like Brough, Norton, BSA and Triumph
24:10dominated the scene.
24:12But by the 1960s, greasy British garages
24:15were giving way to big Japanese factories.
24:17One by one, cheaper, mass-produced Japanese models
24:20pushed the British marks out of business.
24:23But the old British machines are still revered among bikers.
24:27And the most cherished of all is the Brough Superior,
24:30the world's first modern motorbike.
24:33Right, here we are. We're in the Brough Club, aren't we now?
24:36The Brough Superior Club.
24:38In a nutshell, why is the Brough Superior Superior?
24:41You can use a non-English term.
24:43Uniqueness, I suppose.
24:45It's special quality of build and design.
24:49My bike is over 80 years old.
24:51To find something that is nearly 80 years old,
24:54still a pleasure to ride,
24:56it obviously was a pleasure to ride when it was brand new
24:59all the way through the years.
25:01Pleasure is the art of motorcycling.
25:04And you have a very distinctive helmet, don't you?
25:06I mean...
25:10You have to see me ride with the surprises.
25:16When they invented the railway, I'm told,
25:18they worried that travelling faster than 30 miles an hour
25:21would make your brain melt and your eyes pop out.
25:24But breezing up from London to York on a 125
25:27makes you jolly glad those early pioneers
25:29ignored the health and safety brigade.
25:32Since leaving the metropolis,
25:34I've hardly had time to read the Daily Mail
25:36and scoff a Scotch egg.
25:38Bikes and cars are fine,
25:40but they require a certain responsibility.
25:42You have to drive them.
25:44What I love about trains is not just their size and their grandeur,
25:47but usually somebody else is driving it for you.
25:49And occasionally, like here at York,
25:51we get a wonderful station as well.
25:53200 years ago, we Brits invented the locomotive.
25:56And so, naturally, trains occupy a special place in our hearts.
26:00We grew up wanting to drive the Thomastor tank engine
26:03and to climb aboard with Jenny Agatha in The Railway Children.
26:07And for those of us who love steam trains,
26:09York is a puffing mecca.
26:11It has the largest railway museum in the world.
26:16There are over 100 locomotives in here,
26:18including a copy of the world's first passenger train,
26:21Stephenson's Rocket.
26:23But today, I'm interested in speed.
26:25This is Mallard,
26:27the world's fastest steam locomotive ever.
26:30And that's official. It says so on the side.
26:37Mallard set the record back in 1938
26:40when she reached 126 miles an hour,
26:43which, for the time, was mind-bendingly fast.
26:46It was the high point in the age of steam locomotion.
26:49The record is likely never to be beaten,
26:51and Mallard is still revered today by railway engineers
26:54as one of the greatest trains ever built.
26:56To tell me why, I'm meeting the railway historian Richard Gibbon.
27:02Why don't you sit in the driving seat?
27:04Oh, lovely. How do you drive this thing?
27:06Well, this is the only one that matters.
27:08This is the throttle. This is what makes you go.
27:10So you pull that right out...
27:12Out to go faster.
27:14...in that quadrant to go faster,
27:16and you shut it down to stop.
27:18We've got a brake here. This is the steam brake.
27:20Vacuum brake there.
27:22And we've got the gears here.
27:29It was us Brits again some 300 years ago
27:31who first thought of turning steam into movement.
27:34Easy, really. Light a fire, boil some water,
27:37the steam goes through a valve, pressure builds,
27:39forcing a piston to move up and down.
27:41Connect the piston via a coupling rod to some wheels,
27:44and hey presto, you've got a kettle that moves.
27:48But building a non-stop intercity high-speed kettle like the Mallard
27:52poses its own special problems.
27:54First of all, it needs lots of water,
27:56and you don't want to keep stopping to fill her up.
27:59And the fireman's job is to keep the water level here.
28:02Now, the tender holds 5,000 gallons of water,
28:07but they'd use that in 120 miles.
28:10So on a 400-mile trip, you needed to refill with water...
28:14How can you refill water on a non-stop journey?
28:17Well, there is a magic thing called a scoop under this tender,
28:21and at 100 miles an hour, you lower the scoop...
28:24You're talking about an open trough of water...
28:26An open trough, dead level between the tracks.
28:28What you had to do was to look at how full the tender was
28:31and drop the scoop at the right place in the trough.
28:34If you dropped your scoop at the beginning of the trough,
28:37what happened is that you took 6,000 gallons of water
28:39when there was only room for three.
28:41And it went back over the train
28:43and in through the ventilators and doors and windows.
28:46And they loved that in first class, didn't they?
28:48Absolutely. That's why the first class was never next to the locomotive.
28:52The other problem when you're trying to reach 126 miles an hour
28:55is aerodynamics.
28:57Before Mallard, trains didn't go that fast,
29:00so railway engineers didn't worry much about aerodynamics.
29:03In fact, they'd probably never heard of them.
29:05But Sir Nigel Gresley, the designer of Mallard,
29:08needed to do everything he could to increase speed,
29:11and he found inspiration in art.
29:13This was the age of Art Deco.
29:15It was Fred Astaire in the Empire State Building and ocean liners.
29:19It was sleek lines and sexy, elegant curves.
29:22Mallard was an Art Deco train.
29:26To find out just how much difference this made,
29:29I've roped in my trusty accomplice, engineering expert Clare Barrett.
29:34Having blagged our way into Cambridge University's engineering department,
29:37we've come to the Aeronautical Research Lab
29:39to have a go with their wind machines.
29:42Ah, nice models, eh?
29:44My gothic train set!
29:45Black, I know, yeah.
29:46Yeah, for my dodgy teenage past.
29:48This year's colour for model trains is black.
29:50Oh, yes. Green is so last year.
29:52It's a shame, because the Flying Scotsman, which I believe that is,
29:54would have been green and yellow, wouldn't it, in the LNER livery,
29:57and this is the Mallard, Bugatti blue.
30:00Look, we're going to have a look at the actual science bit, Rory,
30:03rather than get distracted by the train sets.
30:05The Flying Scotsman, to me, looks like a steam train, doesn't it?
30:08It does.
30:09You know, it's got the chimney at the front, it's got the steam dome,
30:11it's got all these bits and pieces and cogs and connecting rods.
30:14It's because the boiler is naked, isn't it?
30:17In this one, the boiler is covered with this sort of piece of metal casing,
30:21which is nice and streamlined.
30:22And how fast did that aeronaut go?
30:24I think, I don't know exactly, 125.8 miles an hour.
30:28Roughly?
30:29Roughly.
30:30Fastest steam train ever, a record unbroken to this day.
30:33Right, just to get in the tunnel and see what the smoke does to it.
30:41Not much difference at the front.
30:44But at the back and sides, it's much more turbulent.
30:47At the back, you can really see it, can't you?
30:49And it's the turbulence that's showing that it's got more wind resistance.
30:53And the Mallard is pretty straight, really.
30:56My money's on the Mallard in a racing situation.
30:58It speaks for itself, doesn't it? It speaks for itself.
31:00It does what it says on the tin.
31:02Well, I think we can leave this and come back in a few hours and see who's won.
31:05OK.
31:09Mallard's record-breaking run was a matter of intense national pride.
31:13It was 1938, remember, the year before we declared war on Germany.
31:17Relations with the Bosch were a bit tetchy,
31:20not least because the Hun had established a new world record with a train called,
31:24rather amusingly, the Flying Hamburger.
31:27This high-speed hamburger had managed to hit 124 miles an hour,
31:32and Sir Nigel Gresley was absolutely determined to beat it.
31:36Now, on the day, that great day when it broke the record, who was driving?
31:40Driver Joe Duddington.
31:42Joe Duddington.
31:43And his fireman, Tommy Bray.
31:45Were they a team?
31:46They were a team. They were some team.
31:48Do we know anything about Joe Duddington, what sort of character he was?
31:51He was the type of man who would have willingly died going fast on a steam locomotive.
31:56That's not recorded, that's my opinion.
31:58He turned his cap back to front.
32:00For aerodynamics.
32:01Well, because he was a hell-raiser, and he'd just go for it,
32:05and he wasn't frightened of what was ahead of him.
32:07He certainly set a trend for wearing caps the wrong way around, didn't he?
32:11They weren't supposed to be doing it.
32:13They pretended they were going to do a brake test.
32:15So all the guys who were on the train thought they were up for a brake test.
32:19In fact, they were up for a speed record.
32:21Only the driver, fireman, and the boss.
32:26They've got no speedometer in here, so when they were doing the trial,
32:28how did they know how fast they were going?
32:30Well, the driver and fireman knew from the sound of the rail joints,
32:35the diddly-dum, diddly-dum, diddly-dum, they knew what speed they were doing.
32:39Not diddly-dee?
32:40Not diddly-dee. Diddly-dum.
32:42Diddly-dum. Oh, I see. Diddly-dee must have been later.
32:46At 11.46 on the morning of July 3, 1938, Mallard left London.
32:52When it made its way north to Buxton,
32:54then it turned around and sped back like a bat out of hell,
32:57faster than any train had ever gone before.
33:00Over a quarter of a mile, Mallard topped 126 miles an hour.
33:04It was a new world record.
33:06And it looks like it'll never be beaten.
33:10Mallard shot into the history books going downhill,
33:13with a strong wind behind her and a madman at the wheel.
33:16But surely the genius of this locomotive is its aerodynamic shape.
33:22From something big, curvaceous and blue, to big, curvaceous and red.
33:29Now, you don't have to be an obsessive collector or maid of money
33:32to travel on a British design classic.
33:34Our next masterpiece of engineering would have taken you all over London
33:37in supreme comfort for a tanner.
33:40If it ever turns up, that is.
33:45That's the thing about design classics.
33:47You wait for one for ages and then three turn up.
33:50The Routemaster is the ultimate double-decker bus.
33:53A double-decker bus fit for the double-deckers.
33:56Forget the new square things with folding doors, they're horrible.
34:00Think Reg Varney leering at dolly birds out of the front.
34:04Think Cliff Richard avoiding dolly birds out of the back.
34:07Think double-decker, think Routemaster.
34:14There had, of course, been double-deckers before the Routemaster,
34:17but they'd been rather rickety affairs.
34:19Not very fast, not very reliable, not very comfortable.
34:23Coming out of the Second World War,
34:25we needed something tough and fast and modern.
34:28Something more suitable for a teeming metropolis like London.
34:31What the city needed was a bus that would tempt people out of their cars
34:34with the promise of speed, efficiency and comfort.
34:37Public transport with a hint of luxury, perhaps.
34:40Their prayers were answered with the Routemaster bus.
34:43But who do you turn to to design the best-ever bus?
34:47Luckily, we'd just had a World War,
34:49so we were knee-deep in tank designers.
34:52Douglas Scott and Arthur Durrant turned from building state-of-the-art killing machines
34:56to redesigning the No. 38 last-stop Piccadilly via King's Cross.
35:01The pair led a team of designers
35:03and proved that if you can build a brilliant tank,
35:05you can build a brilliant bus.
35:07Independent front suspension,
35:10power steering, power brakes,
35:12and a fully automatic gearbox.
35:15These were bits of automotive engineering
35:17which were almost unheard of in those days
35:19and have only now become standard in modern vehicles.
35:22The Routemaster was lightweight but stable
35:25with a brilliant turning circle.
35:27It was fast, comfortable and amazingly reliable and durable.
35:31The only thing they forgot was a big gun turret on the top.
35:35The Routemaster bus hit London's streets in 1956
35:39and, along with policemen's helmets and Nelson's Column,
35:42quickly became a symbol of the capital.
35:45It was a massive hit.
35:47Every small boy had to have a little red model Routemaster.
35:51It was given its own TV series.
35:53This is the bus we have to thank for Reg Varney and Olive and Blakey.
35:57And, of course, the Routemaster bus.
36:00This is the bus we have to thank for Reg Varney and Olive and Blakey.
36:04And, of course, Britain's Elvis, Cliff Richard,
36:06had to choose a Routemaster to ride across Europe,
36:09proclaiming the joys of male celibacy.
36:16One small boy, Travis Elbera, fell so in love with the Routemaster,
36:20he wrote a book about it.
36:22Can you remember your very first meeting with the London Routemaster?
36:25I think my first reaction to them was when I first moved to the capital
36:29and was just travelling around on them each day to get into my job in Islington.
36:33And I just kind of fell in love with them, these kind of beautiful objects.
36:37You grew up on the south coast, I grew up in Cornwall.
36:40I don't know if it's the same for you, but it was such an image of London.
36:43The red Routemaster bus crossing Westminster Bridge, usually,
36:47was something of London.
36:49What I liked about them, which I miss most,
36:52is being able to get on and get off whenever you like.
36:54I think it's a form of transport in a way
36:56which treats you a certain degree of dignity, in a way.
36:58It treats you as an adult.
37:00It allows you the idea that you can get off this thing when you want to.
37:03I was on one Holloway Road on Saturday and you couldn't get off.
37:06I was stuck for about 20 minutes waiting to get to the stop and it was so irritating.
37:10And I was saying to my boy, in the old days, in the Routemasters,
37:13we could have jumped off now and been run over by a taxi.
37:18Upstairs at the front was a big thing.
37:20If you get upstairs at the front on a double-decker bus,
37:22and you could pretend you were driving it.
37:24But also the fact that you have the entrance at the back
37:26rather breaks up the pattern of bus travel,
37:28where you don't have the cluster of the hard lads at the back.
37:31That's right, but I still used to feel a bit naughty going upstairs,
37:34because that's where people went to snog or to have a fag,
37:37or to throw up, all those things that people did.
37:39One very important question I must ask you, Travis,
37:42is have you got any cash?
37:44It's just that I've got nothing on me.
37:46He's going to come and ask you in a minute, isn't he?
37:50So between 1959 and 1968,
37:532,760 buses were made for London transport.
37:57Now, one of these buses can do 700 miles a week.
38:00That means over 50 years, that's well over a million and a half miles.
38:06In the golden age of the Routemaster,
38:086,500 of the things were buzzing round Britain,
38:11carrying a mind-boggling 6 million people every weekday.
38:17For many years, Britain ran on Routemasters.
38:24Now, we've come to Norwood Garage in South London
38:27to look at one of the very last Routemasters
38:30that was in active service in London.
38:32And, of course, we're going to meet the god of buses.
38:36Colin Curtis is the last surviving member
38:38of the A-team of designers and engineers
38:40who created the Routemaster.
38:42Who better to champion the world's most famous omnibus?
38:47Now, Colin, I spoke to someone earlier
38:49who described you as a living god.
38:51Some people call me Mr Routemaster,
38:53but I think that's going a bit too far.
38:55Mr Routemaster, that's great.
38:57What we users of the bus love so much,
39:00hop on, hop off.
39:02Well, yes.
39:04It was a joy to run along the road like this and then jump on.
39:07Well, I think that's an advantage from an operator's point of view.
39:11Passengers that get on that way save time, don't they?
39:15Passengers that get on that way save time, don't they?
39:19And, again, this gap here was to meet the emergency requirements.
39:24If a bus turns over, theoretically, you could get out this way.
39:27Oh, I see. Of course.
39:30Fortunately, it's almost impossible to turn one of these buses over.
39:36The Routemaster drew on advances
39:38made in technology and design in World War II.
39:41Following the example of the Spitfire,
39:43the bus was built out of aluminium,
39:45which was light and malleable,
39:47so they could give the thing its distinctive curvaceous body.
39:53Inside, the designers created a light, elegant, friendly space,
39:57making amazing use of a very small area.
40:00We were trying to encourage them away from the cars.
40:03So this is to entice drivers away from the car.
40:06Now, these are different because it started off with leather seats.
40:09It's got down the pillow inside
40:11and I think it takes to your behind.
40:15It does, actually.
40:17Yes. And the other thing that we may not know about,
40:20the seating used to have leather edging to it.
40:23I remember.
40:24That was to allow people to slide in silk stockings and all that sort of thing.
40:28I do remember that. I never, ever once snagged my silk stockings.
40:31Honestly.
40:32We Routemaster fans, what we love,
40:34is the fact that you work the bell with a piece of string.
40:36You probably don't call it a piece of string.
40:38You've probably got a technical name for it.
40:40No, I don't have any technical name.
40:42But it's not just rope, it's got a steel lining inside.
40:45Oh, quite posh rope.
40:46Yes.
40:47We love it.
40:48And if you're watching, Mr Livingstone...
40:50Oh, I'm not ready.
40:51Now, cut that out!
40:54You have to be fairly fit to drive one of these things.
40:56No, not really, no.
40:58So I could drive one.
40:59I think so, yes.
41:01Except, of course, that it would be illegal.
41:03I wonder how Cliff got away with it.
41:06This is so exciting.
41:08It's still exciting.
41:09You don't have to be a little boy.
41:11It's great to be upstairs at the front of one of these buses.
41:14Fantastic view.
41:15I mean, you drive around London and you never see anything like this.
41:18This is the best way to see London,
41:20the upstairs at the front of a bus.
41:22And, of course, the great thing is you can pretend you're driving it,
41:25which is what I always used to do, you know, driving it.
41:29In fact, you're just obscuring my wing mirror there.
41:31Thank you.
41:32Thank you.
41:34Bloody pedestrians.
41:36The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost.
41:37A car.
41:38The Mallard.
41:39A steam train.
41:40The Brough Superior.
41:41A motorbike.
41:42The Routemaster.
41:43A bus.
41:44E-Type Jaguar.
41:45A car.
41:46All very different, but they have something in common.
41:48Engineering.
41:52Let's see what Claire has to say.
41:55A mixed bunch in Land Transport.
41:57My favourite, the Routemaster bus.
42:00I like the Routemaster as well.
42:01There's fantastic engineering behind that and design.
42:04But...
42:05It's time, Mr Routemaster.
42:06You don't think that's an old bus or a new bus.
42:08That is just the bus.
42:10It's the buses.
42:11It is the unit of bus-edom.
42:14But what about Mallard?
42:15Mallard, it's a steam train.
42:18It's a steam train that's pretending not to be a steam train, isn't it,
42:21but having that nice smooth front, and it's painted a lovely Bugatti blue.
42:24Beautiful.
42:25Unlike the Brough Superior, which is more of a chugger.
42:28I think you have to be a motorbike enthusiast
42:30to appreciate how good that is compared to any other motorbike.
42:33Rolls-Royce?
42:34Rolls-Royce.
42:35Looks beautiful.
42:36It's very, very ungainly to drive.
42:38It really is a big lump.
42:39That's horrible.
42:40But it's not a driver's car.
42:42That's not what it's for.
42:43It's a chauffeur-driven car, isn't it?
42:45Jaguar?
42:46Would you kick it out of the garage?
42:47Yeah.
42:48It looks nice, and it's iconic.
42:49The shape is iconic.
42:51The R-E-Type Jaguar.
42:52They did get it right, though.
42:53The styling and the engine all together.
42:55The dual overhead camshafts.
42:57Or whatever they're called.
42:58Bring them on.
42:59No, Routemaster for me.
43:03The Mallard for me.
43:04The engineering as well.
43:05Out of all of them?
43:06Yeah.
43:07Routemaster, almost, but Mallard.
43:10That steam train streaking through the countryside,
43:13that's just a bigger symbol of England.
43:17Routemaster for me.
43:18Steam train.
43:26Steam train.