When it comes to alternative fuels, it seems there are more possibilities out there than ever dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio. We all know about ethanol (basically fuel made from sugar), hydrogen and electricity, but how about running your car on vegetable oil? Yes, ordinary cooking oil.

It sounds crazy but apparently lots of people in the UK are doing it. It only works with diesel engines but there are plenty available over there and the low cost alone is enough to make it a tempting proposition.

Don’t believe me? Have a look at this Top Gear clip then. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

And when you hear that it works best with used cooking oil, preferably from a Mexican restaurant, well, I guess all those fiery chillies were bound to make a difference…

How often have we watched motor racing on the television and thought that everything seemed pretty slow? The braver of us may even have ventured that we could do better in our tuned-up road burners with the go faster stripe. It is hard to judge speed when watching it on a screen without peripheral vision to give us a reference point.

The Top Gear team performed a revealing test, however, pitting a standard but sporty car against a rally car and a Formula 1 racer - and the results are even more staggering than we can imagine. Have a look at this clip and be amazed at the speed of the F1 car.

In October last year I wrote of the Ferrari 250 GTO, the classic GT car that sets the standard for all the others. At the time, I was unaware of YouTube but have been digging around and found several clips that enable us to experience the GTO more immediately.

Listen to the sound of twelve cylinders working in sweet harmony in these clips, the throaty voice of six twin-choke Weber carburetors, the awe-struck voices of the onlookers. It may be a forty year old design now but it still reigns supreme.

Tuning a 250 GTO with a little road test afterwards.

Just a GTO - it’s enough!

And this is what it sounds like in its natural home, the track.

And here’s an interesting little clip:

The Ferrari 250 LM, the mid-engined car that replaced the 250 GTO. Almost as desirable…

One of the ironies of the fast sportscar is that most of us cannot afford to buy one until we’ve become somewhat of a classic vintage ourselves. And that means that inescapable facts like receding hairlines and the creeping grey invasion tend to cramp our style as dashing young men in our sporting machines.

The obvious answer is to seek artificial assistance in the guise of a wig or hairpiece but there are problems inherent in this - how much speed can you risk before wind velocity overcomes your wig’s ability to hang on to your balding pate?

Naturally, the Top Gear team have had the foresight to road test the various wigs available and you can see the result in this clip from YouTube. But spare a thought for the stoicism of their tester, Barry…