Mention you’re driving a hydrogen-fuelled car, and you can see it on people’s faces. Their eyes narrow, their forehead furrows, and their lips silently form the phrase “Hindenburg disaster”. Or “hydrogen bomb”. That the hydrogen-fuelled car could be a safe and clean journey to the future is, to put it mildly, a difficult sell. Top Gear decides to face the matter head-on. You want explosive? We’ll give you explosive. Let’s take the Toyota Mirai and stuff its hydrogen-filled backside with fireworks, then drive down the motorway, replenish its tank to 10,000psi, then proceed into the capital to deliver the fireworks to a bonfire-night display.

Photos: Barry Hayden

This feature was originally published in issue 277 of Top Gear magazine