The water is a couple of feet deep or so, but the drivers cut corners, actually running on the bank for half an hour or so. This however, is not so they can get past the boat in front. I was saddened to learn that the jet boats go out there all alone, racing purely against the clock — until I heard the reason.
This is that the jet units are so powerful that they use all the water in the river. Peer through the spray from that outlet pipe and you’ll see that the channel behind the boat is actually bone dry, so if you come up behind another boat, you just… stop.
Driving the boat is hard because you must forget everything you ever learned in a car. You lift off in the micro straights so that you can engage full power and thus have full turning ability through the corners.
It sounded all right in theory but from the passenger’s seat, I don’t ever remember going in a straight line. It was simply a case of turning left, left, left, right, left, right, right… that quickly and constantly.
To get a feeling for what it’s like you must imagine that God has hold of the back end and is trying to shake your teeth out. At the same time, he is also trying to rip your head off by shaking it from side to side. And all this is going on while you are inside the sound system at a Metallica concert.
Now, you may be wondering why God would want to smash these boats, and I think I have the answer.
He’s jealous because man has invented something wonderful — and something He never thought of.
About the Author
Jeremy Clarkson made his name presenting a poky motoring programme on BBC2 called Top Gear. He left to forge a career in other directions but made a complete hash of everything and ended up back on Top Gear again. He lives with his wife, Francie, and three children in Oxfordshire. Despite this, he has a clean driving licence.
Picture Credits
Italy: Tony Waite;
Cuba: Morris Carpenter/Insight;
Detroit: Andy Wilman;
Iceland: Andy Wilman;
Japan: Peto Seaward/Tony Stone Images;
Switzerland (2): Morris Carpenter/Insight;
Vietnam: Norman Lomax;
Australia: Oliver Strewe/Tony Stone Images;
Texas: Andy Wilman; Monaco: Andy Wilman;
India: Alain Evrard/Robert Harding Picture Library;
F-15: copyright © George Hall/CORBIS.
Copyright
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi — 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
www.penguin.com
First published by BBC Books (to accompany the BBC television series) 1996
This edition published in Penguin Books 2004
Copyright © Jeremy Clarkson, 1996, 2004
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
EISBN: 978–0–141–90136–7
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Motorworld Page 16