fifth gear(5/8)
20.00–21.00

Continuing its 12th series this week, Fifth Gear presents the usual mix of stunts and challenges that push cars and presenters to their limits. Tonight, Vicki Butler-Henderson compares Audi TTs; fuel additives are subjected to the Fifth Gear test; Tom Ford reports on the new Fiat 500 and Tiff Needell takes the £225,000 Gumpert Apollo supercar to the track.

Vicki Butler-Henderson takes two, virtually identical, Audi TTs to the track for a shoot-out. The only difference between them is that one has a manual gearbox, while the other has a semiautomatic one. Traditionally, automatic gearboxes are slow and ponderous, blunting outright performance, but the new breed is meant to be much slicker. So which will be faster? Vicki finds out against the clock.

After a six-year wait, there is finally a chic rival to BMW’s Mini – the new Fiat 500. It is so new that the official UK launch is not due until early 2008, but Fifth Gear have obtained one. Tom Ford puts the vehicle to the test –is this the car to be spotted in next year?

The Gumpert Apollo is a supercar with a striking name and verystriking statistics: 650 brake-horse power, 0–62 in three seconds and a 224 mph top speed. Tiff Needell takes it to the track to find out if the car is worth its £225,000 price tag.

Elsewhere in tonight’s show, a look at the Bowler Nemesis –a 500 bhp extreme off-roader designed to tackle the world’s toughest rallies, such as the Dakar. And do fuel additives really work? Can a few squirts in to your fuel tank really act as a wonder drug that transforms your engine’s performance? Four leading brands are scientifically tested to find out.