WinnipegFord5.com

The British car show Top Gear is one of my favourite shows. I had a lot of fun appearing on it this summer. Like every guest, I had to compete as the Star in the Reasonably Priced Car. That means trying to lap a track round an old airfield as fast as you can.

For my new show, modestly called The Jay Leno Show, we have what is a bit of an homage to Top Gear. It is called the Green Car Challenge. It's a little different, though. We are asking guests to set a time around a track in the NBC parking lot in an electric Ford Focus and see who is the fastest green celebrity. Celebrities can save the world and race at the same time.

I even have a proper Englishman to help me show the celebrities how to go fast in an electric car. He is Justin Bell, a former Le Mans winner and TV host in his own right.

Justin is handsome and he knows how to communicate. Teaching Hollywood celebrities should be easy compared with rich idiots who think they know how to drive. Everybody wants to do well, so they will listen to him. We'll have people like Tom Cruise, who has racing experience, and so won't need as much guidance.

Hopefully, the biggest names in Hollywood will come and have a go. Cruise called me a few weeks ago, saying he wanted to try it out and could he come in and practice. I said "No, practicing is cheating."

First up we had Drew Barrymore. I think whoever you can think of will want to do this. The beauty is that everybody can drive. If it was asking them to play guitar, then people would run away, but everyone can drive, even a little bit. So it will be good to see how they do.

I think the women will do better than the men because they take direction. Having said that, I think Cruise will do well. He is pretty competitive whenever we do something like this. He always tries to kick my ass. So I think he will do good. We will also have a lot of athletes, and athletes being athletes, they will adapt pretty well. But I cannot make any predictions.

The track is 1,100 feet long and they will be timed over two laps. Ninety-seven NBC employees had to give up their parking spaces for us to put the track in the parking lot, but, hey, the walk to work will be good for them.

We will probably name the corners as incidents happen. Some celebrities will crash and burn, so we will then name the corner after them.

There are certain obstacles, like a wobbling Al Gore set up around the course. Hitting one adds a second to your time. Our attention span is so short in the U.S.; we need to have other distractions like hitting an Al Gore or having peanuts thrown at the drivers!

I've done a few practice laps and it's not an easy track. At some point, I'd go for a time. It's more fun to let everyone else do it first, though. And, then, if I am not up to the task, it's funnier.

As I said, the car we are using is an electric Ford Focus. I wanted an American manufacturer and the only one with anything ready to go and viable was Ford. GM is like a government company now. It's a little tricky to get anything done.

We wanted to show that electric cars can be fun and something you can race. In the U.S., electric cars have the same cachet as golf carts. To see an electric car skidding around a track has the scope to change peoples' perceptions of eco-cars.

I think this electric Focus is as fast as the gasoline version of the car. It doesn't have the top-end speed, but with all that torque and on a short track, I think it will be almost as quick.

Driving it is bizarre. It's eerily quiet. You press the button and it starts. You have your energy usage meter and your speedometer but no rev counter. It is so quiet all you hear is the tires screeching. After a while, you forget there's no gasoline.

We tend to think of electric cars as vehicles for seniors who need to nip down to the store. This is something else. It has rally suspension and Ford had its tech guys work on the chassis. The only difference is it has an electric drivetrain. This, I think, is the future.

I hope the show will do a little to change people's perceptions of eco-cars. Ford is making other fuel-efficient vehicles and this car will, in some form, be available soon.
It also shows that Ford is in the game, on the cutting edge. American cars have this reputation for being great for big horsepower, gas guzzling and fast but not necessarily fuel efficient. By doing this, Ford can change its image a bit.

Not that eco is uncool. Electric or hybrid cars are a form of hot rodding for a lot of young people. I meet guys who are hypermiling their Priuses and getting 100 miles per gallon or adding extra batteries, increasing tire pressure, doing whatever they can. Miles per gallon is the new horsepower.

Right, enough chat. Let's go see if we can hit an Al Gore.