'Top Gear' Season 29 Episode 5: Paddy steals the show with eco-friendly ice cream van that sells sausage and mash
Spoilers for 'Top Gear' Season 29 Episode 5
The final episode of the season goes out with a bang just as Paddy McGuiness promised it would. This time, it's not fast cars or some wild stunts like the wall of death, but a hilarious, yet effective invention from Paddy himself. He decides the traditional ice cream van that used to merrily run around the streets of Blackpool was in dire need of a makeover. So he reinvents it like a monster truck painted in white and pink with some additional features— it's electric and also cleans the streets along the way.
Not just that, in addition to cones and popsicles, Mr.Nippy makes winter work to its advantage by delivering sausage 'n' mash cones as well. Yankee ingenuity, but the real test comes when the producers set it up against a traditional Mercedes van. The challenge is to deliver three ice cream cones to firefighters while also maneuvering around a race track. Freddy Flintoff drives the Merc and manages to deliver the cones to the firemen putting out a blaze in 2:25 while Paddy runs off the track and has to restart.
The second attempt doesn't really go all great either as Mr. Nippy is not built for tarmac and Paddy finally manages to deliver the popsicles (the firemen say no to the melted ice cream cones). It takes a good five minutes and quite easily lost to the Merc. It is a fun segment set in Blackpool and with the social distancing protocols in place, the episode does as much as it can to make it a fun chapter as it sees Chris Harris and Flintoff have a bit of fun with the people delivering them ice cream.
Up next is Paddy trying to make up for the poor outing on track with some solid offroading, or shall we say beach-roading? The van bobs up and down over the beach and that's not all, Paddy even has an idea to deliver ice cream to the people in the sea. He uses inflatable mini-rafts calling it Mr. Shippy. Except, he topples over unable to ride the waves. The final part is strapping paintball guns to the van to takeover "Hamburger Hill" from a group of "baddie" fast food vans.
Paddy and Chris drive Mr. Nippy, while Freddie takes charge of the evil food trucks. Just when we think the electric ice-cream van is winning it, Freddie brings out an actual tank to sink the truck, except some shoddy driving does it in. It's hilarious, but it's typical 'Top Gear'. It has been a fun season 29 and while it had just five episodes, each of it had its brilliant moments.
'Top Gear' Season 30 will mostly debut in 2021.