Top Gear

TV, Movie, Comic & Character

Top Gear has been a BBC motoring magazine show since 1977. The earlier shows were hosted by Angela Rippon, Tiff Needel, Noel Edmonds, Quentin Wilson et al. This iteration was cancelled by the BBC in 2001 when ratings fell off a cliff. At the time there was a motorbike reviewer on the show called Steve Berry, who turned up recently on Wheeler Dealers, his wife worked in one of the fashion shops I was at the time Area Manager for - stick with it - she used to come to work in the cars he had been given to test and once she let me have a go in one, a Jeep Wrangler which was nothing like my company Vauxhall Cavalier and a whole lot more fun.

In 2002 it was revived by Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman and stopped being a string-backed driving gloves type motoring show and became edgy, fun and anarchic, and not always mostly about cars. Clarkson was supported by James May and Richard Hammond, with an anonymous test driver called 'The Stig'. The show was carefully made and cleverly scripted and became must-watch TV. By 2015 it was running out of steam and new ideas and after Clarkson reportedly punched a production assistant he was removed from the programme, May and Hammond resigned.

Since then the presenters have been shuffled a couple of times and at the time of writing it still limps along, but the post Clarkson drivers of the show failed to get what it was that he did that made it so good. It looked off the cuff and improvised, but it was actually well plotted and scripted to look like three blokes acting the fool. Three blokes just acting the fool does not work so well - or at all. Mostly though, by the time the Clarkson team left the story had been told and the show had simply had its day. It was great while it lasted though.

Three notable features are shown below, The Stig's Power Laps, where he tested just how fast a performance car would go around the track, the unbreakable Toyota Hi-Lux pickup and the time they tried to make floating cars that would cross the English Channel.

 

Oxford Diecast TG01; Top Gear Amphibious Car Challenge; Dampervan Oxford Diecast TG02; Top Gear Amphibious Car Challenge; Triumph Herald Sailboat Oxford Diecast TG03; Top Gear Amphibious Car Challenge; Nissank   Oxford Diecast TG04; Toyota Hilux; Top Gear Indistructible Hilux, The Toyota That Wouldn't Die
The Dampervan Triumph Herald Sailboat Nissank   Toyota Hilux

The Power Laps:

01:16.1 01:16.2 01:18.3 01:19.5 01:19.5
Minichamps 519 436200; Porsche 911 GT3 RS; Top Gear Power Lap; The Stig Minichamps 519 101330; McLaren MP4-12C; Top Gear Power Lap; The Stig Minichamps 519 431100; Bugatti Veyron; Top Gear Power Lap; The Stig Minichamps 519 436630; Porsche 911 GT2; Top Gear Power Lap; The Stig Minichamps 519 431030; Lamborghini Gallardo; LP560-4; Top Gear Power Lap, The Stig
Porsche 911 GT3 RS McLaren MP4-12C Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Porsche 911 GT2 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4

01:19.8 01:21.9 01:23.0 01:23.9 01:28.2
Minichamps 519 436260; 2003 Porsche Carrera GT; Top Gear Power Lap; The Stig Minichamps 519 438420; 2004 Ford GT; Top Gear Power Lap; The Stig Minichamps 519 433820; Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series (R230); Top Gear Power Lap, The Stig Minichamps 519 431376; 2007 Aston Martin DBS V12; Top Gear Power Lap; The Stig Minichamps 519 431200; 2003 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione; Top Gear Power Lap; The Stig
Porsche Carrera GT Ford GT Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series Aston Martin DBS V12 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione

01:32.2        
Minichamps 519 438810; Ford Focus RS; Top Gear Power Laps; White        
Ford Focus RS        


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Last Edit: 12/06/2024   Page Added 09/10/2022