Chapter one:
The weather on the Top Gear Test Track was fairly nice; it was cool and cloudy, with the occasional gentle breeze. When he spotted the other presenters, he rolled up his window and parked his car next to the camera crew's big, black Range Rover. He opened the door and stepped onto the grass. The Test Track was built on an airstrip; it was very wide, but there were many tricky twists and turns, and the track even crossed over itself. Rob eyeballed the huge Boeing 757 that was parked on the other side of the track. Did they even use it?
He quickly joined Jeremy, James, and Richard as the camera crew got ready to begin filming. He was greeted by a nod from Jeremy and a smile from James.
"Are we ready to begin filing?" The camera man got ready as the sound man held the microphone up in the air near the presenters.
"Um... yes." Jeremy looked at the other three presenters and nodded at the camera man.
"3... 2... 1... GO!" The camera man gave a thumbs up.
Jeremy: We weren't on the track for five minutes when we recieved... a challenge!
Rob watched as a man in a lab coat delivered a golden colored envelope to Jeremy. The man silently walked away, his coat flowing behind him in the breeze. What a strange person. The other three didn't seem to react so Rob simply watched as Jeremy pulled a black card out of the envelope. The card was black and had the Top Gear logo on the back. Jeremy flipped it over and began to read aloud.
"You have enough money to buy any car your heart desires," Jeremy began.
"Well... that's not half bad!" Rob knew Richard enough to know that the small man obviously had a shining, sleek, powerful Porsche 911 in mind. He was likely fantasizing about humiliating Jeremy by defeating him with the car's sheer power.
"...provided it was built in the 1970s." Jeremy lowered the card and looked around at the others. "well... I guess we can still pull this off. I mean... how hard could it b-"
"provided it was built in the 1970's," Jeremy lowered the card and looked at the others. "well... we've all done this before. Except for Rob, that is. Still, how hard could it-"
"Don't say that, you idiot!" Richard wailed.
The camera man gave another thumbs up before shutting off the camera. He nodded at them before walking away with the sound man.
"So, now we're going to go back to the office, do a bit of research and all that... and we're going to buy ourselves some cars!" Jeremy clearly thought that he would be able to defeat them all in whatever challenge that the producers had planned for them. But Rob would make sure that Jeremy didn't get the victory that he had in mind.
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Rob busily searched the internet for a good, used car from the 70's, as he had been doing for the past few hours. There were many good and bad cars to choose from, and he was finding it difficult to make a decision. The Plymouth Superbird looked impressive, but it was a little bit on the expensive side. Even though he wasn't spending his own money, he still wanted to be a bit more practical. He searched for a while longer until he found a car that wasn't too expensive, but it still managed to catch his eye. Its paint was a fun, vibrant orange and it seemed to have quite a bit of character. It was a 1972 Datsun 240Z. Rob was really liking this car, but he continued his search just to be sure.
In the meantime, Jeremy was hovering over Richard, attacking and picking on the small man like a vulture. He was laughing at Richard's screen like a drunken hyena. "R-Richard... p-lease... you can't be serious!" Jeremy kept cracking up as Richard began to boil with anger.
"Shut up, Jeremy!" Richard rolled his eyes, "I've used a Challenger before, and it worked! Don't you remember our US road trip?"
"But that was a completely different car! This thing is just..." Jeremy was now laughing too hard to continue taunting Richard. He gave in and made his way toward Rob. Jeremy seemed to loom over Rob like a tall building, making him feel more nervous by the second. "Now, please tell me that unlike Hamster over there--"
"I am not--" Richard stabbed, but Jeremy didn't react. Richard growled under his breath and turned back to his computer screen.
"--and buy something that isn't going to break?"
"Well... I... I'm still looking..." Rob noticed Jeremy looking at the tabs he had open in Firefox.
"Well, what exactly... is this?" Jeremy grabbed Rob's mouse and moved it toward the other tab that had the 240Z in it. Rob grabbed Jeremy's arm and tried to stop him from clicking the tab. He knew that no matter what vehicle he was choosing Jeremy would still be just as aggressive as always. "Woah... wait a second... oh my god, you're getting a DATSUN?! Please tell me you're joking!" Jeremy started cracking up again as he strutted back to his own desk, plopping back into his own chair and putting his feet up on the table. Rob tried not to act angry, but he could tell just by the look on Jeremy's face that he wasn't doing very well.
"Well, Jeremy, since you're so interested in our vehicles," James spoke calmly, unlike the other two, "what exactly are you going to buy?" James leaned back in his seat, and pretended to care about Jeremy's choice of vehicle.
"I'm buying... this!" Jeremy turned his screen around, revealing a photograph of a 1979 Mercedes-Benz SL 450. "Ahhhwww yeah..."
"That?" Richard, lost for words, just shook his head. "Oh, Jeremy..."
Jeremy threw his hands into the air. "What? It's a Merc, you can't go wrong with that. I mean, it could be worse. You're getting a garbage dump on wheels, the new guy over there's getting god knows what, and James... okay, James, don't tell me what you're going to buy, because frankly, I really don't want to know."
Rob quietly drummed his fingers on the desk as he carefully examined the image of the Datsun on his computer screen. Maybe Jeremy was right - but then again, this was Jeremy. He hadn't stated what was so bad about the vehicle, so the idiot was just probably trying to throw him off. Even if he wasn't, at least Rob had a way to bug Jeremy. There was something about this car that threatened to push Jeremy over the brink of insanity.
He was going to buy it.
