Season 11
Join Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May for the eleventh series of the multi-award-winning Top Gear.
Quite simply, no other car show comes close to reaching the unparalleled heights of Top Gear's success. Consistently one of the BBC's most watched programmes, the UK version of Top Gear is now broadcast to millions all around the world, and after recently licensing the show's format to international broadcasters there are now American, Australian and Russian versions of the series in production.
The eleventh season sees the irreverent hosts attempt to build a better police car for just £1,500 and test it out in a car chase. They race across Japan in a Nissan GT-R, break down a few too many times in three sub-£1,000 Alfa Romeos, and invent a new sport; fox-hunting with a Daihatsu Terios 4x4.
Joining Jeremy, Richard and James throughout the season are a number of celebrity guests in the regular "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment, including Spooks stars Peter Firth and Rupert Penry-Jones, and Rob Brydon and James Corden from hit comedy series Gavin And Stacey.
Format
The show often features the following segments, amongst others:
Races
The show has featured a number of races where Jeremy Clarkson races a car against other forms of transport, usually involving Richard Hammond and James May taking the same journey by any combinations of plane, train, ferry or bus.
Reviews
Top Gear normally reviews one new car, or group of cars, each week. It's became hugely influential with motor manufacturers, since a critical word from the Top Gear team could have a severely negative effect on sales.
The Top Gear reports are not based on facts or figures, but the opinions of the presenters. Group tests normally involve the three presenters debating the merits and weaknesses of each car.
Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car
In each programme, a celebrity is interviewed by Jeremy Clarkson, and focuses usually on car-related topics and often on cars owned by the celebs themselves.
The guest is whisked off to the Top Gear race track where he/she tries to get the fastest lap time in a Chevrolet.
The fastest lap time is held by The Stig, and guests who have attempted to beat his time have included Simon Cowell, Jamie Oliver and Sanjeev Bhaskar.
Power Laps
In the Power Laps segment, The Stig completes a lap around the Top Gear test track to determine the performance of various cars. The car tested is usually the car that's been reviewed in that episode, but occasionally it can be a car from a previous episode.
The Cool Wall
The Cool Wall is a board where Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond decide which cars are cool, and which aren't, and has nothing to do with how good or bad a car is. The categories are Sub Zero, Cool, Uncool and Seriously Uncool.
Initially, part of that "coolness" factor rested on the extent to which the presenters believed each car would impress English actress Kristin Scott Thomas.
BBC newsreader Fiona Bruce replaced Kristin as their notional judge, after Kristin stated in an interview that she owned a Honda, which was deemed to be "Uncool".
Broadcast Notes
Season 11 premiered on SABC3 on Sunday 21 August 2011, at 18h00. It changed timeslot to Sundays at 17h00 from Episode 3 (which aired on 4 September).