All3Media indie North One, producers of motoring magazine show Fifth Gear, are releasing four YouTube videos to celebrate twenty years of the brand.
Using its shoot-out format – where one presenter pushes two like-minded cars to the limit to find out which was quickest around the track – Fifth Gear’s long-standing presenters, Jason Plato & Vicki Butler-Henderson, put cars featured on the series back in 2002 up against their modern alternatives, to see how far they have come in the last twenty years.
The first video hits Fifth Gear’s YouTube channel today, November 21st, with long-time Porsche fan (and owner) Jason Plato behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 Turbo (996) – which was first featured on the show in October 2002 – against the modern Porsche 911 Carrera (992). In the following weeks, the channel will also host Jason putting the latest GR Yaris 1.6 from Toyota up against a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII, the latter being the exact same car featured on the show in 2002. Vicki’s also behind the wheel of a 2002 Ford Focus ST170, which she road tested in the first series, up against a modern Ford Focus 2.3 EcoBoost ST and a 2002 Nissan 350Z against a Toyota GR Supra 2.0 Pro.
To watch all the videos, head over to Fifth Gear’s YouTube channel.
A new series of Fifth Gear: Recharged is due in early 2023 on both Quest and discovery+, commissioned for Quest by Victoria Noble, VP Commissioning, Factual.
Of the brand’s long-standing success, Neil Duncanson, ceo of North One, said: “In the modern television world, longevity is a genuinely elusive quality. Fifth Gear has been successful for 20 years because of the ingenuity, hard work and imagination of the production team. It has always moved with the times but always maintains that critical familiarity for audiences who love their cars and simply want to know more about them. It’s a really entertaining car show, not an entertainment show where cars are merely the props.”
Pippa Considine
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