Season 1
Top Gear: Polar Special is a British television special which serves as an episode of the motoring magazine show Top Gear which follows Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May as they attempt to be the first crew to drive a motor vehicle to the 1996 location of the Magnetic North Pole.
The special aired in the UK on BBC Two on 25 July, 2007. It is an hour long.
Top Gear: Polar Special originally aired in South Africa on BBC Knowledge on Wednesday 19 November 2008, at 21h30. It later aired on DStv's BBC Entertainment channel and on SABC3. See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Synopsis
It's the ultimate test of man against machine or should that be dog against machine? Either way, it's Top Gear's most ambitious and arduous challenge to date.
Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond attempt to race from the town of Resolute in Northern Canada to the Magnetic North Pole, 450 miles away.
The terrain in between is some of the toughest on Earth - a mix of mountainous land masses and jagged sea ice where temperatures can drop to a mind numbing minus 65 degrees centigrade. And then there are the Polar Bears. The Arctic is home to 80% of the world's population and when it comes to lunch they really don't care if it's seal or human.
This being Top Gear, the three presenters' modes of transport are a little out of the ordinary. Jeremy and James drive a specially adapted pick up truck whilst Richard travels on something a little less high tech - a sled pulled by a team of ten Canadian Inuit Dogs.
Pitting dog power against horse power may sound like a one sided contest but given the nature of the terrain there's no telling who will make it to The Pole first.
In fact, there's no guarantee that either team will reach the finish line at all.
Seasons
Season 1
Channel: BBC Knowledge | Aired: 19 November 2008 | Wednesday, 21h30
Channel: BBC Entertainment | Aired: 4 November 2009 | Wednesday, 18h30
Channel: SABC3 | Aired: 8 July 2012 | Sunday, 17h00