Why Top Gear is still the best summer watch

The summertime is nigh. It’s a time of rest, relaxation, and if you’re lucky, travel. For as long as I can remember, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May’s Top Gear has been my favourite television show, and one that has recently inspired my summertime travels to the United States. Here are three of the trio’s most memorable trips to the ‘Land of the Free’: 

U.S. Special (series nine, episode three)

Broadcast all the way back in 2007, I have rewatched Top Gear’s first feature-length special well over a hundred times. 

The three presenters were tasked at sourcing and buying a car for less than a thousand dollars in Miami, before undertaking a humid and humiliating 800-mile road trip to New Orleans. Clarkson opted for a murderer’s Chevrolet Camaro, Hammond for a pickup truck à la Brokeback Mountain, and May an ancient Cadillac Brougham sedan. 

This episode was defined just as much by its soundtrack as it was its narrative

Like all Top Gear specials, this episode was defined just as much by its soundtrack as it was its narrative. The carefully curated, charmingly American music from the likes of Nina Simone, Rascal Flatts, Tom Petty, and Cher, only complements the trio’s escapades. 

En route to Louisiana, the presenters visit all the must-see sights of the southern United States: the alligator-infested, now-disused Moroso Motorsports Park; Bagdad, Arizona; and the hard shoulder of an Alabaman freeway, desperately scrubbing offensive slogans off their vehicles. 

The infamous ‘Alabama incident’ was one of the show’s first major controversies, but there is something so cathartic, in light of recent times, at seeing May’s Cadillac flaunting the words “Hillary for President” in bright pink through deep backcountry territory. 

Despite their shenanigans, the U.S. Special ends on a rather poignant note. Upon arriving in a New Orleans still very much devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the presenters give their cars away to a Christian mission for families who had lost theirs during the crisis. 

The presenters can never stay too far away from trouble

Muscle Car Road Trip (series twelve, episode two)  

In this episode, the presenters return to the United States for the first time since their southern road trip. Unfortunately, given the controversial, visa-breaching, manner of their previous visit, the American government only let them film so long as they promised to be factual, not entertaining. 

On this occasion, the presenters investigate whether America has finally made a car that would work in Europe, and do so by making the pilgrimage to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah from San Francisco (“the fourteenth most populous city in America”). 

Despite the government threat, the presenters can never stay too far away from trouble: Chrysler refuses to lend Hammond a Dodge Challenger for use on the film, fearing (correctly) the trio will make fun of its build quality; while Clarkson ‘meets’ a policeman in Reno, Nevada. 

As was the case in their last trip, the presenters make no secret of some of their objections to the American way of life. The reviews of their cars don’t begin too positively, either, as May loathes the ride quality of his brand new Cadillac and Clarkson mocks the secondary double glazing on the bonnet of his Chevrolet Corvette:  

“The Ferrari is made by craftsmen in Maranello, this is made by two fat blokes in Kentucky.” 

Despite their shenanigans, the U.S. Special ends on a rather poignant note

Yet, the film ends in such a warm and gooey manner – the presenters all falling deeply in love with their American cars at Bonneville – that it makes them forget about all of America’s little foibles. 

East Coast Road Trip (series fifteen, episode seven)

The presenters returned to the United States a couple of years later, this time cruising from North Carolina to New York City in three supercars. 

A charming encounter with a local mayor and tire shop attendant that, to Clarkson’s amusement, ends with “Boss Hogg” rocking to Steve Earle’s ‘Copperhead Road’, always reminds me that it is such chance encounters that makes travel in the United States so enjoyable.   

Naturally, the trip ends in typical Top Gear fashion. When they arrive in New York, the presenters learn that the winner of the following morning’s race to a Manhattan television studio will earn themselves a guest appearance on an American breakfast chat show.  

Top Gear’s adventures were television at its very peak

Unfortunately for the victor (May), he does not appear on Good Morning America or the like – instead, he is forced to partake in yoga practice live on national television.  

Clarkson, Hammond, and May’s globetrotting Top Gear adventures were television at its very peak. Above all, though, their American road trip encounters remind us that it is ordinary people that define a nation – not the person in charge. Similar encounters have made my own travels stateside so rewarding.