Top Gear 11

Accessible to everyone and full of stunts, challenges and special segments, it's irreverent, witty, self-deprecating, inclusive and passionate. The charisma and enthusiasm of the show's presenters have helped make Top Gear a worldwide megabrand attracting a global audience over 500 million in more than 20 countries. This season's highlights include a car chase in presenter-chosen old bangers for traffic cops, a race in the French Alps against extreme skiers, a race across Japan (a Nissan car versus public transport), a cross-country fox hunt (with Jeremy as the prey), and a Brits versus German Top Gear challenge. Of course, this season includes serious car journalism too, with exhaustive road tests of the latest models, man versus machine experiments, weekly power-tests featuring the world's most exotic supercars and all the tried-and-tested Top Gear favorites also return.

Episode 1
Jeremy, Richard & James look at fuel economy. They find out how far five supercars can go on one gallon of petrol (the answer? Not very) and Jeremy compares the Toyota Prius with the BMW M3 to show that driving style can make a big impact on how much fuel you use. The presenters are challenged to make their own police cars from old bangers and put them to the test in a chase situation. Jeremy reviews the awesome lightweight Ferrari Scuderia. Alan Carr and Justin Lee Collins are the ‘Stars in a Reasonably Priced Car'.

Episode 2
Jeremy tests the new Mitsubishi Evo X against the new Subaru Impreza WRX STi on the Top Gear track; Richard races the new Audi estate against two skiers in the Alps and Jeremy road-tests the new Mercedes CLK Black ("Imagine drinking a pint of hemlock, setting yourself on fire and then jumping out of a plane when it's directly overhead a combine harvester... That's what the Black feels like. Exciting beyond words. ... I'm not sure that anyone's life is quite complete unless they have one"). Actors Peter Firth and Rupert Penry-Jones (famous for playing spies in the BBC drama series Spooks) are the ‘Stars in a Reasonably Priced Car'.

Episode 3
Jeremy tests the new Brooklands Bentley Super Coupé on the Top Gear test track. The Producers set the Presenters a challenge: each is to buy an old Alpha Romeo for £1000 or less and put them through a series of feared Top Gear tests, including a track day, featuring them in calendars and showing them at a concourse day where the motto is ‘a passion for perfection'. Actor-comedians Rob Brydon and James Corden (currently enjoying much success in the BBC's multi-award-winning Gavin & Stacey) are the ‘Stars in a Reasonably Priced Car'.

Episode 4
In a race across Japan, Jeremy Clarkson tries to prove that the technical tour de force that is the Nissan GT-R is faster than Richard Hammond and James May travelling on the ultra-efficient Japanese public transport, including the 200 mph Shinkansen Bullet Train. Jeremy also tests the beautiful new Alpha Romeo 8C on the Top Gear track. UK newsreaders Fiona Bruce and Kate Silverton are the ‘Stars in a Reasonably Priced Car'.

Episode 5
Jeremy and James show off and compare their Rolls Royce Corniche and the dictator-chic Mercedes ‘Grosser' - ageing but massive luxury limos they bought for the price of a new Ford Mondeo. The Nissan GT-R wondercar gives Jeremy a thorough working over around Japan's legendary Fuji circuit, and entrepreneurs Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis venture out from the Dragons' Den to become the ‘Stars in a Reasonably Priced Car'.

Episode 6
Jeremy, Richard and James take on three German motoring rivals (including Nurburgring legend Sabine Schmidt) and face their toughest challenge yet. James chauffeurs some exceedingly large sumo wrestlers in some exceeding strange Japanese cars, and Richard attacks the test track in Mazda's remarkable Furai concept car.

Jeremy Clarkson
An acclaimed broadcaster and journalist, Jeremy Clarkson has hosted "Top Gear" since 1988. Born in the decade of the hippie, Jeremy has shunned free love and peace, preferring instead to drive around corners very fast, yelling "POWER" at the top of his lungs.
Jeremy has been accused of some amazing things in his time, including destroying a mountain, destroying the environment and destroying Rover cars. In his defense, the mountain is still there, we can all still breathe and Rover would still be here if their management hadn't been so terrible.

Richard Hammond
Affectionately known as Hamster, Richard Hammond is one of the U.K.‘s most popular broadcasters. He began his career at BBC local radio and first graced British TV screens on the cable channel Men & Motors. He proceeded to work on a number of different motoring and lifestyle programs on cable before realizing his dream of cohosting "Top Gear" in 2002.
A versatile presenter, Richard has hosted TV shows from a variety of genres, including science and nature, children's and sci-fi. Women the world over adore him, something about his puppy dog eyes, and wanting to protect him from the nasty Mr. Clarkson. Richard's hobbies include buying hopeless cars and attempting to restore them.

James May
When James was first introduced on "Top Gear," Jeremy claimed he was "clearly a blithering idiot." The reasoning behind this slightly harsh critique was that James' car at the time was a Bentley T2. His first film on "Top Gear" was him telling people how great it is to own a 25-year-old classic luxury car while at the same time admitting it cost a small fortune to run and fuel.
James admits he was once fired from a job with a well-known magazine for putting a secret message in a supplement. It's exactly this kind of fooling around that makes him perfect for the U.K.‘s favorite motor show. James also has his own pilot's license, which has come in handy on "Top Gear" once already (although it would help more if he was allowed to fly at night).

The Stig
Some say he was forged out of steel and fire in the devil's own pit garage, or that he trickled to the surface of an oil pocket deep in the Earth's crust. What do we know about him? Well, he's a seriously sick driver. He posts the lap times for cars on the Top Gear test track, trains celebrity guests to race in the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car feature, and performs any other crazy tasks asked of him. But all we really know is, he's called the Stig.

"They've been doing it so long now that it's easy to become complacent about the miracle that Top Gear has wrought: taking what should be one of the most tedious trials the human experience has to offer - ie, petrolheads banging on about cars - and turning it into one of the most consistently amusing and interesting hours of any given week's schedule." Andrew Mueller, Guardian

"Like most Top Gear fans I couldn't care less about cars. Why is BBC2's motor show such a hit? Because Jeremy Clarkson gets away with saying things like: ‘Sarah Jessica Parker looks like a boiled horse.'" Kevin O'Sullivan, Sunday Mirror

"...preposterous petrolhead fun." Mike Bradley, Observer

"...the appeal of Top Gear Mk II - its bonnet buffed to a populist sheen after its astonishingly successful 2002 refit - has been universal: nerds like the technology; autophobes appreciate its anarchic approach to the industry's pomposity; while women - previously backseat drivers on the television motoring circuit - are handed an oily rag and expected to muck in with the rest. Now, with the arrival of its 11th series, we are provided with further proof that there are few sights as galvanising as that of three middle-aged men in low-grade leisurewear behaving like characters out of Wacky Races."Sarah Dempster, Sunday Times

"...it's not hard to see why it is so popular with its target audience, which it hits with a crackshot accuracy. Jeremy Clarkson always strikes me as the sort of person who would swerve to hit a kitten, but there's no denying the brio with which he maintains his brand image ... The team's persistent implication that they are the naughty boys of the BBC is, incidentally, ridiculous. They are golden boys,
in terms of foreign sales and audience figures, and probably wouldn't be expelled even if they drove a
Hummer across Mark Thompson's lawn and in through his front door." Thomas Sutcliffe, Independent

"I love Top Gear, a supercar of a show ... Clarkson is great television ... Clarkson's ‘Boudicea Battering Ram' was definitely the funniest thing on television last week. Classic!"David Stephenson, Express on Sunday

"Clarkson is worth every penny."
Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail (Clarkson is now one of the BBC's highest-paid hosts)

"Watching the first episode of the new series it dawned on me that Top Gear is the middle-aged Top of the Pops for the generation that grew up on Top of the Pops ... There's the same set-up of a cut-out audience brought into the studio to add atmosphere, the same badinage between Jeremy Clarkson and his sidekicks as that between Tony Blackburn and the Hairy Cornflake in TOTP's heyday. And, of course, the cars are the bands. It's a winning formula." Andrew Anthony, Observer

"In the face of rising petrol prices, the ‘new' Top Gear is doing its utmost to stay in touch with the ordinary motorist who stares wistfully at the family car in the garage each weekend remembering those halcyon days of going for a drive in the country just for something to do. Now, we just live vicariously through Top Gear... ho, hum." David Stephenson, Express on Sunday

"The first episode of the 11th series opened with Clarkson fighting back against the carbon-footprint brigade. To that end the hybrid Toyota Prius was driven as fast as it could go to show that it was less fuel-efficient than a large-engined BMW at 17mpg. I'm not convinced about the real-life scientific relevance of this research. As it happens, I've got what Clarkson calls a ‘horrid eco-box' and a couple of weeks ago I drove it to and from Dorset at standard motorway speed - i.e. between 80 and 90mph. And I averaged just below 60mpg of petrol. So I reckon they must have been flooring the poor Prius at about 120mph on Top Gear." Andrew Anthony, Observer