Top Gear’s Stig Roasts Drivetribe’s New Purchase- A Cheap ’90s Performance Car
The Drivetribe crew is always up to something with used cars and just recently, they revealed a new used car that Mike Fernie bought- a 1999 Rover 620Ti for £1500. The first thing you’ll notice about the car is that it looks pretty unexciting to drive. However, there are a few points that the presenter lists, trying hard to convince Ben Collins- The Stig from Top Gear, that his new purchase is rarer than a Ferrari 599!
Collins clearly isn’t impressed by the car in any way despite Mike saying that this is one of the 38 registered on the road in the UK since he is aware that the others are scrapped. But Fernie just wants to prove that his Rover is a rare understated gem that the world missed out on. And weirdly, he wants to re-paint it in ‘Kingfisher Blue.’
Fernie, for some reason, has been bowled over by the car as he compared it to the legendary Sierra Cosworth, just because it churned out 220 HP whereas the Rover produced 200 HP. Luckily, Collins clarifies that the Cosworth came with a chassis, the suspension, and the dynamics that made it what it is. Fernie’s Rover came with a Gen-5 Honda Accord chassis underneath but paid an additional £1200 to make it road-worthy.
Collins did agree that this particular model with the Ti badge was niche as it stood for the 2.0-liter turbo engine. With Fernie behind the wheel, he revealed that this was his first Turbo car purchase and the first car to have a functioning sunroof. He then revealed how he desired to do up the interior with a tartan that would match the Kingfisher Blue on the exterior, as Collins raised his eyebrows.
James May style, Fernie was so taken over by the car that he spoke highly of it all the time, blabbering his way through as to why it was such an important car, which caused Collins to doze off in between. He even boasted of hearing the turbo whistle but wasn’t brave enough to take it to the redline, fearing that the engine would blow up.
Meanwhile, before Collins took to the wheel of the Rover, he gave an honest, unsurprising opinion about the car:
“Honestly, it’s a bit of a reach.
I mean I’m trying to embrace your passion for this car and I’m never going to get my head around the form of this machine.”
The exciting bit starts when Collins takes over the wheel in Stig mode and gets to business straight away. With the engine revving hard in the background, Fernie in the passenger seat can be heard laughing with surprise as he begs the Stig to not break his car. The Stig revealed that there was a lot going on with the heavy front end that had no amount of grip. He then summed it up in one line:
It’s hilarious! You were comparing this to a Sierra Cosworth, I’m sorry it’s just not in the same League.
Pointing to the gear lever that kept rising up by itself in fourth gear, Collins added:
“Look at this hardening penis here though. This is disconcerting to me.”
Funnily, Fernie replied that he’d seen Rovers where the lever goes further than that. like in his Rover 25.
The new owner aims to restore and modify the Rover with Japanese underpinnings instead of scrapping it, with the hope of the car becoming a classic. This got way more nerdy than James May’s standards. Collins then offered some closing advice:
“Well, I think if you can protect the engine and restore the rest, and you don’t go crazy with this whole lowering business, then then yes, you could make a pretty cool car.”
I’ll try and help you, if I can just guide you and try and resist that temptation to go nuts and create something that [is crazy] you know because you’ve got…there’s a lot going on here with the way this car handles. I think how you tune it will be really important.
