10 Best Top Gear Moments

    With the exception of Lost, I'd have to say that Top Gear is my favorite series on television right now. Top Gear doesn't sound like anything special at first, I mean, it's a car show hosted by some old British dudes. Nothing exciting about that... Except that's not the whole story. Somehow the BBC managed to get the perfect cast of commentators to host this show. James May, who is the newest member of the cast (even though he's been on the show nearly ten years), is your stereotypical British gentleman. Richard Hammond, the young guy who gets crapped on because he is short. And then there is Jeremy Clarkson, the real star of the show. Clarkson is tall, loud, opinionated... almost sounds like an American, doesn't he?

    I first saw Top Gear probably around 2003 when I happened across a few episode online and decide to download them. One was a review of an Aston Martin and the other was a BMW M5 trial. These first few videos were enthralling... they were funny, informative and just simply beautiful. There is something about the combination of these presenters, with these cars, with this soundtrack and fantastic camera work. With out any one of these elements Top Gear would still be worth watching, but it just wouldn't be the same. Car shows are only so interesting on their own. Top Gear is something different, it has that added X factor, or should I say X factors. The combination of all the aforementioned elements add up to what is arguably the best car show known to man.

    Top Gear is more than just awesome camera work and sweet cars, each show has a feature segment in which there is usually a challenge of sorts. Sometimes it's a Vauxhall versus a frogman crossing a river, or a Seat versus a kid on a BMX. But then there are the crazy match ups like a Bugatti Veyron versus a Eurofighter Jet... Most of my favorite moments are the distance races like the times when they raced across Japan, pitting a Skyline versus the bullet train. Or the Bike/Boat/Car/Subway race across metro London. There are too many to mention so I've compiled a list of my favorite all time moments. Some of which are challenges, some of which are simple reviews, all of which are awesome...    So without further ado, I give you the ten best Top Gear moments:

10. Audi RS4 Versus Speed Climbers

    In this clip Jeremy Clarkson takes an Audi RS4 to the south of France and races to the top of a clip against a pair of speed climbers. This is one of Top Gear's signature challenges. The climbers have to go straight up the side of a cliff while Clarkson races around the gorge and up the backside of the cliff. The gorge is full of narrow winding roads that have no guard rails and hang perilously close to crags and sheer drops. Not only do you get to watch an insane race in a beautiful setting but you get to listen to Clarkson's quips all the while.

9. London to Oslo in One Day

   Not my favorite race but still a good bit of fun. Clarkson takes a Mercedes SLR McLaren through the Chunnel and across northern Europe to Oslo. meanwhile Hammond and May take a series of boat rides to Norway. This race takes about a full 24 hours to make it 1320 miles. The best part of the trip are all of the awkward dining scenes on the boat between Hammond and May.

8. Europe's Best Driving Road

    The premise of this episode was to find Europe's best driving road. The guys drive through Italy, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria trying to find the best public road for holiday driving. Each of the roads they find are breathtakingly beautiful, nearly all of which are set in the Alps. In the clip above you see them drive through a Swiss pass in the alps flanked by mountains, waterfalls and streams. The road itself looks pretty tame compared to the stretch they encounter after crossing back into Italy. To make the drive even better the hosts are all in super cars of course. Clarkson is in a Lamborghini, Hammond is in a Porsche and May is in an Aston. The Aston is a racing car, which leads to a number of funny realizations during the segment because it lacks creature comforts like air conditioning, a radio, and an interior...

7. Race Across Japan

   The guys race across the breadth of Japan, pitting the bullet train and Japan's public transport system against Nissan's new R35. Hammond and May continually have hilarious problems navigating the train and subways system once they reach Tokyo while Clarkson motors through the city and under the bay on some pretty remarkable bridges and tunnels.

6. American Road Trip

   Top Gear went to America in 2006 and road tripped from Miami to New Orleans in cars they bought for $1000. The episode is full of stereotypes and jokes about how stupid/violent Americans are. The clip above comes from the Alabama leg of the road trip in which everyone writes insults on their cars in order to offend the natives. Everything goes well enough until they have to make a refueling stop off of the highway... "NASCAR SUCKS" "Country and Western is Rubbish" "Hillary for President" Things go pretty bad pretty quickly.

5. £1,500 African Car Challenge

   The fourth episode of the tenth season was shot entirely in Africa. The episode consisted of a challenge in which the guys had about $3,000 to buy a car to drive across Botswana. This clip comes from about halfway through the episode when the presenters are driving out of the Makgadikgadi salt flat. They had to strip down their cars in order to avoid getting stuck in the flats. The rest of the episode involves a rally race, , and a river crossing. These are the episodes I enjoy the most; when the whole show centers around one hour long adventure.

4. Lotus Exige Versus Apache Helicopter Gunship

   How many other shows could even conceive of doing this segment? This is what makes Top Gear so awesome. Some how they manage to get the Royal Army to play along and send an Apache Gunship to their taping... I don't know how they've pulled this off but it's just remarkable, and it makes for fantastic television. How better to prove a point than to set up a ridiculous challenge. In this instance, the wager is that the Lotus is so nimble that an Apache can't lock-on to the car within a stone's throw distance.

3. Peel P50

   With all the talk of small cars and hybrids, Jeremy Clarkson dusts off an old Peel P50 micro car and drives to work. The car is so small that he can actually drive it into the BBC offices and through the halls. "I've seen the future, and it comes from 1963."

2. Bugatti Veyron Versus Cesna Across Europe

   This is by far the best Top Gear challenge episode that has aired thus far. In this episode Jeremy Clarkson races James May and Richard Hammond from Alba in Italy to London. The catch this time around is that Clarkson is driving while May and Hammond are taking a small airplane. Clarkson's vehicle this time around is the Bugatti Veyron, a 1001hp super car. This episode is fantastic because it's full of technological info, probably more than you want to know, but it's made interesting because you can see the results on the screen as the Veyron screams through the Alps and as the Cesna struggles to get airborne. All other car shows could learn a thing or two about makings good television by watching this episode of Top Gear.

1. Extreme Make Over: Victorian Mercedes Benz S-Class Edition

    This is my favorite clip from Top Gear. This comes from 2005 when Jeremy Clarkson decided to redesign the interior of the Mercedes Benz S-Class. Clarkson wants to give the S-Class a classic and quintessential British feel to it. He guts the car and throw a lot of plaster, wood paneling and stone flags into the cabin. To top it all off, Hammond and May have to take the car around the Top Gear track. Best segment ever.