Man drives $160,000 Bentley Continental GTC convertible to test theory that driving it at 150mph will stop wind from ruining people's hair

A while back on Fifth Gear, legendary automotive journalist Tiff Needell tested the first Bentley Continental GTC.

It doesn’t sound like a big deal but the review was interesting because it included a strange test that people with nice haircuts might be interested in.

It all started when Needell shared a theory about speed and aerodynamics.

The test didn’t go as planned, though.

A brief history of Fifth Gear

Fifth Gear began as a continuation of the original version of Top Gear.

In the early 2000s, after the demise of the first edition of Top Gear, Channel 5 hired most of the presenters and staff of the original Top Gear, including Clarkson’s colleague, Tiff Needell.

They pretty much copy-pasted the format and the spirit, but they couldn’t use the name.

They couldn’t call it Top Gear because the BBC still owned the rights, and so they settled for Fifth Gear, which back then was indeed the ‘top’ gear in almost all cars.

The show was never as successful as Top Gear, but it still enjoyed a decent run with 29 seasons and 271 episodes.

Why the Bentley Continental GTC test went wrong

In an old Fifth Gear episode, Needell reviewed the first Bentley Continental GTC, a $150,000 convertible at the time, to find out if it could work as a James Bond car.

Aside from performance and design, Needell wanted to do the hairdo test.

There’s an old theory that says increasing speed can significantly improve cabin comfort by pushing wind over the car.

In Tiff’s view, it was technically possible for the car to create a large air hole, like a cocoon, which would cause the wind to flow over the passengers head, sort of bypassing the cabin completely.

It didn’t work.

When the car reached 150 mph, the cabin was a riot of noise, wind, and currents, and nope, the passenger’s hairstyles didn’t survive the trip intact.