Top Gear's top eight high-speed saves

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All’s fair in love and touring cars, including giving stalwart racer and television presenting enthusiast Jason Plato a tap into Brands Hatch’s Paddock Hill Bend. JP caught the moment by nailing the gas. A Chevy Lacetti has rarely looked cooler.

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Thirty-six seconds after leaving the paddock on his attempt to break the Isle of Man’s TT car lap record, Mark Higgins is wrestling a 150mph tank-slapper. From lock to lock, he gets it back, grinning and labelling it “the biggest moment of my life...”

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Dutch wunderkind Max Verstappen has built quite the reputation for daring overtakes twinned with youthful shrugging. Catching his broadside RBR12 from a 90° slide on Interlagos’s sopping wet pit “straight” was a season highlight.

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Yannick Dalmas, the four-time Le Mans winner, still insists his monster drift in the Audi R8 V10 Plus safety car was deliberate, to “check how much grip there was off line” as rain hammered La Sarthe. Either way, the finest piece of pace-car driving ever.

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Racing at Spa is brave. Racing there in the wet is heroic. Being 19, and spotting a stricken car in the spray at almost zero visibility is superhuman. Zamparelli races past the obstacle, missing by inches, and catches the rear as it skates onto the grass. Class.

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Redefine your understanding of the phrase “maximum attack” by enjoying this clip of Vatanen thrashing an Opel Manta across the Manx. Best bit? He’s so broadside through a farm gate his co-driver exclaims: “Dear God!”

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Somehow, this clip makes drag racing into art. A beautiful, slow-mo dance. Watch Doug Kalitta’s tank-slapper in a 300mph Top Fuel dragster ten times and you’ll still not understand how he saved the car, let alone hold on the win the race overall.

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Most of the cars at the Goodwood Members Meeting are permanently sideways. Crossply tyres, no driver aids and a who’s-who of handy drivers has obvious consequences. Props to Chris Ryan for rescuing this overtake gone wrong.