RAPID RESPONSE

Ever had a long wait for a recovery van? Not any more. TopGear is about to come to the rescue. With a slightly reduced toolkit...

- OLLIE MARRIAGE

First call out of the day and I’m first on the scene. That was the plan of course, and it’s worked a treat. Now, what had Dominic told me it was likely to be? Ah, that’s right, it’s a Land Rover, therefore... almost anything: blown turbo, glitchy electrics, belts, water pump, front diff, front wheel hubs, air suspension, cracked engine block...

I open up the MC20’s toolkit. It contains a towing eye. Nothing else. Hmm. Hang about, Dominic shoved a chunky battery starter pack in the Maserati’s footwell earlier, seeing as battery issues account for about 20 per cent of callouts. I connect it up. Much clicking, no life. And that’s me done, out of ideas. All I’m good for right now is tea and sympathy. My shoulders sink as I realise I left my flask at the hotel this morning. I smile wanly at the beleaguered Disco driver, “At least the sun’s out...”

We've all heard the horror stories, people waiting for hours for the recovery services to turn up, stranded on the hard shoulder of the M40 for two hours (that'll be me), broken down in roadworks on the M4 after a piston went through the block (also me). How to solve this? Get to people faster, duh. Where some would suggest more patrol vans, TopGear suggests speed. We've built the AA a rapid response vehicle.

Well, I say built, but what we've actually done is livery up Maserati’s 620bhp mid-engined supercar, sucker some lights on top and headed off to help one of the UK’s most remote patrols cover his Highland patch. My thinking was that he must have a huge area to cover and on these corking roads I could get from one end of the Highlands to the other a mite faster than a 113bhp Ford Transit. True though that may be, it’s not how it works. Instead a 62 mile radius is drawn around the patrol’s front door and that, literally, is their sphere of influence.