HOW IT STARTED:

How It’s Going: Richard Hammond tried the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, Yangwang U9, and the Maextro S800 in Shanghai.

According to someone posting at the Pistonheads forum, “So this is essentially bootleg Top Gear. Videos made by a guy that started out by adding Chinese subs to official (but illegally downloaded) Top Gear episodes that were never officially available in China…Then all these years later Hammond is their guest star!”

I started watching this with raised eyebrows but they seemed like genuine car guys and were totally honest with RH when he asked about the habit of copying the west — and various other questions about the turning tide of car manufacturer supremacy..

I’m genuinely impressed that RH’s interest in cars was sufficient for him to do this, given that he’s getting driven around by the guys that illegally provided his Top Gear content to the entirety of China. The local car culture guys clearly adored Top Gear and to be fair there was no way they could have ever had it legally.

Got to admit, the cars are very impressive — despite being a bit bootleg, although it’s hard to argue with the lap times at the Nurburgring. Every last thing about this video is bootleg though, and RH seemed entirely at peace with that.

Bootlegging? The Chinese are extremely good at that: