As the 26th season of Top Gear continues on its merry way, presenters Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid decide to see what happens when they let their luxury sedans do some autonomous 'hands-off' driving down a runway.

Even with today's less-than-perfect self-driving systems a straight-line race shouldn't pose much of a problem, unless of course they are decades old luxury cars that were built when even traction control was considered impressive.

With Chris driving a '90s Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Matt piloting an even older Bentley Mulsanne and Rory sitting in a positively ancient Rolls-Royce the scene is set for what could be a very large insurance claim.

Adding a Dacia Sandero into the mix adds a touch of rationality to the proceedings, with the Stig on hand to show how ridiculously inept a decades old luxury car can be. As Chris pronounces at the beginning of the clip, the no-hands drag race is possibly at the top of the list of bad ideas, and things definitely do not go as planned almost as soon as the flag drops.

The old stagers spear drunkenly off the line, Rory's Rolls-Royce immediately clipping the rear of Matt's Bentley which is then almost involved in what could have been a massive crash with Chris's Merc. In the end, slow and steady wins the day with the Stig crossing the line first merely because of the fact that his car managed to keep heading straight.

The rest of the crew are scattered across the terrain, Rory having made a break for it across the field. While some viewers still miss the old trio headed up by Jeremy Clarkson, the current team have definitely developed a good rapport with each other in the last few episodes. However, with Matt leaving at the end of this season we may be back to square one again.