Year 11 student Matthew Watson (11/JN) won a luxurious Top Gear excursion just by entering a competition on Facebook.

At 11.00am on Friday 2 November, Top Gear Australia sent out a driver to take me to redeem the competition prize at the Top Gear Australia Office. But the bright orange Lamborghini Gallardo covered in EA Games ‘Need for Speed’ livery was no ordinary ‘Taxi’. The car had already received huge social media attention and I couldn’t believe it was here when it rolled into the gates of Newington College. Discreetly between Period B and 3, members of my mentor group as well as Mr Mountain and Mr Pyke all took photos with the car before I hopped in and was driven off. We cruised down to the Top Gear Australia office for an interview and photo shoot, before spending the remaining hour and a half driving down to Bondi Beach and around the city.

Every intersection we stopped at, there were at least 10 people around the car taking photos and yelling out “Taxi!”. I felt sorry for the driver who had to say the same thing over and over again “It’s not a real taxi, it’s for a promotion”. Despite this though, he picked the best roads to drive along and the stopover at Bondi Beach couldn’t have been better. Recalling the whole day, I think we were lucky to get out of first gear when driving through the congested city streets, but at least I was able to let my ears soak in the V10 engine ticking over at high RPMs. Pulling into school at lunchtime, we were swarmed by kids as we found a path down to Centenary Hall and finally parked the Taxi. Every corner of the car was surrounded by boys eagerly wanting to get a photo, but it was short lived as the driver had to get the car back to the Top Gear office. A few bursts of the throttle provided a great conclusion for the day, with some of the younger kids chasing the car up the driveway as it left. All this just from sharing a post on Facebook, it will be an experience I’ll never forget.

 Matthew Watson