Topgear

The boys are back! After their LOCHdown special, which aired back in July, this year’s next Grand Tour Special, which is also their Christmas Special dubbed Carnage A Trois, dwells a little deeper into French cars. Owing to the lockdowns which would have been in place when this film was made, the Grand Tour team really couldn’t venture far to some exotic locales like Brazil or Namibia. So instead, they had to stick within the confines of the U.K. Nevertheless, the trailer does look pretty darn exciting.

This is a big one. Yes, yes, it’s that time of year when you have the Annual Top Gear Mega test. Chris Harris got a chance to check out this year’s lineup of cars where he along with his team were giving the task of deciding the best performance car for 2021.

Long before Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May made Top Gear the global phenomenon that it’s become, there was an era of the show that had Clarkson going solo. That era ran from 1988 to 2000 and, believe it or not, Clarkson looked nothing like the pot-bellied, salt-and-pepper-haired, denim jacket-wearing host that we had gotten used to in the second iteration of the show.

Fortunately, Clarkson was as good at his job in the early 90s as he was during his second run at Top Gear with Hammond and May. If you need proof of that, check out this old Top Gear segment from 1993 with Jezza doing a spot-on review of the 1993 Mazda RX-7, Mitsubishi 3000GT, and Jaguar XJS.

The 28th season of Top Gear has arrived, and the boys are ringing in the new season the only way they know how: car bungee jumping. For a show that has a long track record of insane stunts, this one takes the cake.

As if bungee jumping isn’t nuts enough by itself, Top Gear’s Freddie Flintoff decided to do it inside a car, specifically a Rover Metro, with the goal of getting the benevolent Metro to go from 0 to 60 mph in two seconds. I don’t suppose using gravity to achieve that goal counts as cheating, but to even sign off on this stunt is indescribably nuts. We don’t know what you’re thinking, Flintoff.

The recently announced marriage between LEGO and Top Gear has given birth to its first child. No, it’s not a LEGO Stig - it’s the Top Gear GT Rally Car, and it’s not your typical LEGO set. It’s a creation of LEGO Technic, which means that you can expect it to be trickier and far more complicated than your run-of-the-mill build. The Top Gear GT Rally Car is the first of what should be a series of kits that will be co-created by LEGO and Top Gear. There’s no word on what the future products will look like, but you can expect this set to go on sale at the end of the year.

LEGO’s lineup of car sets is about to get juiced up now that the toy company has announced a partnership with British motoring show Top Gear to develop a lineup of car toy sets. Naturally, a partnership of this nature will draw a lot of attention, in part because of the kind of sets that will come out from this new partnership. There’s no word yet on what kind of cars will feature in the collaborative sets, but it’s easy to imagine the possibilities given Top Gear’s long and rich history as the most popular motoring show in the world. For what it’s worth, look for the cars from some of the show’s most memorable episodes to prominently feature in the collaboration. As far as what those cars are? We have a few in mind already.

The Stig of TopGear took the new 2020 Toyota Supra around the TopGear test track. The results are in, and yes, we have underestimated the Toyota Supra. It is extremely fast.

Toyota Supra managed to lap the TopGear test track in 1 minute and 23.1 seconds. This is, honestly, astonishing. It makes the Toyota Supra quicker around the TopGear test track compared to cars such as the Lamborghini Murcielago, Ferrari F430 Spider F1, and, most surprising (at least for me), the Maserati Gran Turismo MC Stradale. In fact, the GT MC Stradale achieved the same lap time eight years ago despite two cylinders and 110 horsepower extra.

Top Gear’s 26th season is coming up soon, and ahead of the show’s launch, which could happen sometime in late February or early March, the BBC has released a new trailer of what we can expect from Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris, and Rory Reid in their last full season as the show’s main hosts. The first trailer is what you’d expect from a Top Gear trailer. There’s plenty of intriguing action involving all three hosts, including what looks to be a fun polo match with tuk-tuks serving as substitutes for horses. The trailer also shows the three hosts in a number of competitive environments, and, of course, there are the cars, of which there are many delightful ones in the trailer, including the Bentley Continental GT, Ferrari GTC4 Lusso, and Porsche Panamera.

Top Gear’s 27th season will have a pair of new faces sitting in hosting chairs after the BBC unveiled Paddy McGuinness and Andrew Flintoff as the show’s new hosts alongside Chris Harris. Matt LeBlanc is leaving the show after the 26th season while Rory Reid is returning as the face of the spin-off show Extra Gear. Harris is expected to inherit the main hosting role from LeBlanc. Filming for the 27th season of the show starts in late 2019.

Matt LeBlanc’s departure from Top Gear opens up arguably one of the most desirable jobs in all of television. Some of the world’s biggest celebrities have openly expressed their desire for the job. Unfortunately, it’s one thing to aspire to host the show; it’s another thing to actually sign up for it and work the schedule. If the latter wasn’t an issue, LeBlanc would still be the host of the show. But alas, his departure opens up a number of possibilities on who could fill in as his successor. We take a look at five good candidates that can do it. They’re not necessarily in the running, but they could fill the void left behind by Joey Tribbiani.

For the third time in three years, Top Gear is losing its frontman as Friends and Man with a Plan star Matt LeBlanc has announced plans to leave the show at the conclusion of the upcoming season. His included “extensive travel” and “time commitment” as the biggest issues behind his decision to leave the show behind. Just like that, the show’s hosting lineup is being thrown into turmoil.

Top Gear is on the verge of losing its test track and principal shooting studio after Sajid Javid, England’s Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, finally approved plans to turn the Dunsfold Aerodrome into a residential area as part of the local community’s goal to establish affordable housing in the area. With its iconic race track set to be demolished to make way for 1,800 homes, the show is going to have to find a new home for its studio segments and track tests.

We all know what happens when we get a sudden rush of news and teasers about Top Gear. A new season is around the corner — February 25, to be exact — and the promotional bits for the 25th season have gone into fifth gear (no pun intended). A week after dropping the first trailer for the new season, a new teaser has arrived. This one is called “Milk Run,” which is really more like a traditional promo spot than a spliced part of an actual segment.

The ad starts off with Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris, and Rory Reid huddled over in the Top Gear cafeteria when The Stig reveals that they’ve run out of milk. As quickly as the Stig could finish his sentence — he didn’t, really — the three hosts storm out of the cafeteria into a field of waiting cars where LeBlack takes the all-new Aston Martin Vantage, Reid picks the Mercedes 4x4 G-Wagen, and Harris chooses a Skoda Fabia R5 for a traditional milk run the likes of which we never see anymore. All three hosts arrive at a far-flung farm together where LeBlanc and Harris coax Reid into doing the dirty work of milking the cows because, according to Joey Tribbiani, Reid has “the softest hands.”

The ad succeeds in reminding everyone that the 25th season of Top Gear is two weeks away from premiering. But as far as entertainment value goes, the commercial falls flat, at least for my expectations. It’s not going to ruin my excitement for the new season, though, because I like the chemistry these three men have. Here’s to hoping we see more of that when the season starts on February 25.

A car catching fire on Top Gear isn’t a new occurrence. A few years ago, a Zenvo ST1 burst into flames during filming. That prompted a bitter back-and-forth between presented Jeremy Clarkson and Zenvo. Fast forward to this year and it’s deja vu all over again for the hit motoring show. This time, the unwitting victim is a pre-production Renault Alpine A110 that was being driven by Chris Harris and Eddie Jordan.

You might have forgotten about it because of how good The Grand Tour has been in its second season, but Top Gear is actually still around. The hit British motoring show has been off the air for a year, but it’s ready to return with a vengeance. The show will have the same hosting crew from the last time we saw it. That means we can expect a lot of fun and good times from Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris, and Rory Reid.

Are you ready for the new season of Top Gear? Well, you better be, because it’s charging up your rear-view mirror in a cloud of tire smoke, mechanical abuse, and slapstick comedy. This will be the 25th season for the British motoring program, and as evidenced by this 30-second clip, it looks to offer viewers plenty of sliding, lots of airborne antics, and a generous heaping of gratuitous displays of speed. The clip looks as though it’s set in an abandoned industrial center, which is set up in perfect Gymkhana-style with dirt, jumps, and several heavy things to run into. Making their appearance is the trio of new hosts, Matt LeBlanc, Rory Reid, and Chris Harris, who are piloting a Shelby Mustang GT350, Jaguar F-Type SVR and McLaren 570S, respectively. Making a cameo is long-time friend of the show, Ken Block, who’s looking to take a little time off from nearly sliding off mountains to issue some high-performance justice to the TG crew as some kind of deputized speed sheriff behind the wheel of a custom off-roader. Of course, the boys aren’t taking it sitting down, and you can guess what happens as a result...

The BBC should release Episode 1 of the new season of Top Gear sometime early next year. Stay tuned to TopSpeed for updates as we get them.

11 years after the Bugatti Veyron took its rightful place on top of Top Gear’s hypercar mountain, it’s successor, the Bugatti Chiron, has equaled that feat. The all-conquering supercar took home the “Hypercar of the Year” award on the strength of possessing one of the most impressive credentials of any performance car in the world today. On that front alone, the Chiron boasts an 8.0-liter quad-turbo W-16 engine that produces a staggering 1,500 horsepower and 1,180 pound-feet of torque. That translates to a sprint time to 60 mph of just 2.3 seconds and a limited top speed of 261 mph. Take out that limiter, and there’s no telling what the Chiron is capable of. Rumors have even suggested that it can reach 300 mph on a good day. It’s no wonder then that in declaring the Chiron as the “Hypercar of the Year,” the jury highlighted its incredible performance capabilities. “The thrust from rest to 100 mph (161 km/h) is insane but the way it bulldozes its way through the next 100 mph is spooky, and it just keeps going.” Hard to argue against that assessment.

If you’re a resident of the U.K., or simply happen to be passing through, and you love all things Top Gear, then head over to Hampshire for a chance to get up close and personal with some of the show’s automotive stars at the World of Top Gear in Beaulieu. For those of you unaware, Beaulieu is a family visitor center in Hampshire, offering attractions like estate grounds, a palace house, and the National Motor Museum, not to mention several cars featured in the popular British auto show. The World of Top Gear just got a revamp with several new attractions, and was recently re-opened by Chris Harris, co-host of the new post-Clarkson show, alongside The Stig and Lord Montagu. During the opening ceremony, Harris also put in some time behind the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG C63 S, showing his skill in a flurry of RWD shenanigans.

According to the press release, new additions include the “Ssangyacht, the longest limousine selfie opportunity ever and a marine feature displaying boat challenge vehicles. While the Enormodrome boasts a brand new studio in keeping with the style of the latest series with presenters Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid.” All told, the World of Top Gear chronicles four decades of the show’s history, including the Clarkson era with the indestructible Toyota Hilux, the Reliant Robin space shuttle, the Hovervan, and the Snowbine. Check out a brief video clip of the opener.

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Just because the names and faces have changed doesn’t mean Top Gear has changed with the times. It’s still a magnet for controversy, and just as sure as summer months bring unbearable heat, the show’s latest dive into hot water has found itself on the naughty list of the Norwegian government. According to The Drive, representatives of Norway’s Public Roads Administration revoked the show’s permit to go past speed limits in the country after magnetic loop speed sensors embedded in the road captured instances of cars used by Top Gear doing speed runs well beyond what was allowed in the permit. The show’s permit required it to not go past 87 mph on public roads, but these same speed sensors caught separate instances of cars from Top Gear going as fast as 151 mph. Oops.

The issue is currently under investigation by police authorities in the country, so said Møre og Romsdal police inspector, Anne Berit Lian, who told local news outlet TV2 that it’s natural for law enforcement officials to “investigate whether these speed overruns have been committed in the period when the road has been closed and has been used for filming.” For its part, the BBC has also come out with a statement of its own, telling The Drive that the network and the show are “fully cooperating with the police investigation into the matter.” It is worth noting, too, that neither Matt LeBlanc nor Chris Harris were in the area where the alleged speed infractions occurred.

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