The “ambitious but rubbish” antics of Jeremy “Jezza” Clarkson, Richard “Hamster” Hammond and James “Captain Slow” May are watched by 350 million people worldwide.
In the Top Gear motoring playground cars are rated on the Cool Wall and celebrities challenged to laps in the reasonably priced car and the tricky final “Gambon” corner. The boys race the world’s greatest supercars across continents and even to the North Pole, rise to challenges on a shoestring and try impossible stunts (remember Reliant Space Shuttle?). Meanwhile the mysterious Stig tests dream cars on the Top Gear test track.
The Cool Wall rates cars on the simple scale of Seriously Uncool to Sub-Zero. These are the rules but remember this is not a democracy and Jeremy Clarkson has the final say:
1. All Alfa Romeos are automatically cool
2. Small European cars are cool however the Fiat Panda is Seriously Uncool because James May owns one
3. 4x4s and SUVs are automatically Uncool, though the Hummer is cool because of its size and political incorrectness
4. Supercars are almost always Uncool, though Aston Martins have an especially cool “DB9 Fridge”
5. The Chris Bangle-designed BMWs are considered uncool
6. Convertibles are usually cool, with some exceptions of which the Chrysler PT-Cruiser convertible has to be one
7. Owners make cars uncool too - footballers, particularly Cheshire footballers and their wives turn a car uncool – this was the fait of the Bentley Continental and Audi RS4
8. Cars owned by the three presenters are automatically Seriously Uncool (that is Hammond’s Porsche 911 and Morgan, May’s Boxster and Panda and Clarkson’s Mercedes AMG Black)
Follow the Top Gear team in books and magazines.