A tribute to the old Top Gear, the greatest car show by far.

Before you guys say that this is the wrong section, I am referring to the OLD Top Gear, the one with Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond. They have moved into The Grand Tour now, sadly, leaving the Stig. I know the good old Top Gear will fade away into nothingness in years, so I made this tribute blog post for the preservation of what would be one of the most famous car shows, and the greatest of all time.

1977: Where it all started

22 April 1977 marked the birth of Top Gear. The old Top Gear episodes were at least 30 minutes long. At that time, it had a lot of presenters, about 35. Some notable names were Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Tiff Needell. It aired a total of 35 series, the most series that Top Gear made. But it will soon be broken by the continuation of the new Top Gear, hosted notably by Chris Evans and Matt Leblanc.

The first program was broadcasted on 22 April 1977, on BBC 1 Midlands at 10:15pm. It was presented by Angela Rippon and Tom Coyne, who was front man of the local evening news programme, Midlands Today. In the first edition, Angela Rippon drove from Shepherd’s Bush in London, to the Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham, reporting on driving conditions en route. Other items covered in the first program were speed traps, fuel economy, strange new road signs and an interview with the transport minister. There were nine programs in that initial series.

Sadly, the 1977 Top Gear died out in the year 2001. Top Gear audience fell from a peak of 6,000,000 views to 3,000,000 views, losing almost half it’s audience. Almost everybody from the old team resigned from the 1977 Top Gear. It’s final episode was supposed to be an episode featuring Jason Barlow, but was cancelled by BBC officials.

2002-2015: The greatest period of time for the show.

After the 1977 Top Gear died out, two new car shows were launched, one significantly greater than the other. Fifth gear was born, featuring the 1977 Top Gear’s former hosts, Tiff Needell, Quentin Willson and Vicki Butler-Henderson. And the Top Gear we all know and love was born, featured by the trio, Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond.

In it’s early days, it was hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe. Dawe was then replaced by May in the 2nd series. Top Gear was known for it’s great car reviews, challenges, and it’s “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car” part, where they put world famous stars in commoner cars to set lap times. Matt Leblanc, with a lap time of 1:42:10, holds the record for the fastest lap around the track to date.

A well known challenge is the “Destroying a Hilux” challenge, where Clarkson pushes a Hilux to the limits by leaving it in the beach and let it sink by tide rise, setting it alight, crashing it into some makeshift buildings, and put it on top a building that was about to be demolished. The Hilux still lived after all that torture, and there is a rumor that it still runs until today.

Top Gear was famous for lapping reviewed cars around it’s test track, which is a part of Dunsfold Aerodrome’s runway. The fastest of which is the Pagani Huayra, with a lap time of 1:13:80, followed by the BAC Mono, with a lap time of 1:14:30. The driver of all the reviewed cars is the Stig. No one knows who the stig is right now, but some say… he was once Ben Collins. (See what I did there)

Top Gear was also famous for making some “Cars” for challenges, out of existing and built cars of course. Some notable cars were Geoff, an electric car based on a milk delivery vehicle, the Renault Espace Convertible, the “Police Cars”, based on a Fiat Revenge Coupe, Lexus LS, and a Suzuki Vitara (I was corrected), and most notably, the Hovervan, a makeshift hovercraft based on the Ford Transit. There were some controversy though, as some say that it was staged.

Top Gear was so successful, that it won an Emmy Award for the best non-scripted television show.

2015-2016: The fall of Top Gear

Sadly, that success only lasted 23 seasons, when Clarkson was involved in a “Fracas” with Oisin Tymon, a Top Gear producer. Why it happened you ask? He was in a restaurant, and he ordered steak. But the chef went home and Tymon could do nothing about it. So he punched Tymon in the face and called him a ‘Lazy Irish C—-.’ That costed Clarkson’s job as a presenter on the BBC. It’s final episode, aired on 28 June 2015, caused saddening in the petrolhead community. Its end credits credits were accompanied by no music or sound, but by eerie silence instead.

Hammond and May refused to present further without Clarkson, and that lead to the idling of Top Gear. People were complaining about the BBC, because of their decision of firing Clarkson, leading to the resignation of the Trio. It was until the BBC assigned Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc, accompanied by Sabine Schmitz, as the new hosts. That lead to another fall of Top Gear, mainly because of Evans. He was really annoying, and looks like he is trying to hard to be the next Jeremy Clarkson. The crew knew NOTHING about cars, which led the magazine team to assist them. The first episode aired on May 29 2016, after a year of inactivity. The BBC didn’t earn profit from it, as they lost a lot of views, along with loyal fans.

But not the entirety of the new Top Gear was bad. Rory Reid and Chris Harris led “Extra Gear.” Everybody loved it. In fact, the viewers wanted Reid and Harris to appear more in the main Top Gear show!

2016: The Birth of The Grand Tour

Meanwhile, Clarkson Hammond and May are currently in Amazon Prime. They were hired last year, in 2015.

Its first trailer came out on 8 April 2016, with the twitter hashtag, #TheStillVeryMuchUntitledClarksonHammondMayAmazonPrimeShowComingAutumn2016 (What a mouthful!) Another short trailer was posted by Clarkson on Facebook, yet again portraying the trio attempting to conjure up a suitable name. In the end, they end up getting distracted and completely forgetting the task at hand. Shortly afterwards, the trailer was released on the Amazon Video UK YouTube channel.

After a LOT of brainstorming, the trio finally came up with a name for it’s new show. The Grand Tour. It will be lead by Top Gear’s old producer, Andy Wilman, and will be produced by W. Chump and Sons. It is said to take place in various locations, in a tent that will probably go around the globe. It said the first location will be in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Sadly, the Stig can’t go with the Trio, as he will be staying over at Top Gear with Evans…