The special sees hosts, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, travelling across to Botswana with a car that each had bought in Africa for less than £1500, to prove that they can be better than SUVs for driving up "leafy country lanes".

To see if people in Surrey can get up "leafy lanes" with something other than a 4x4 SUV, the producers challenge Clarkson, Hammond and May to drive across Botswana in the used cars bought within Africa.

On the second day, the trio learned that they would encounter a dust storm, which presented a major issue for May and Clarkson, as exposed to it, they were forced to re-dress themselves to avoid choking; much to their annoyance, Hammond had no need to take such measures.

Whilst waiting for it to cool down, Clarkson discovered a new problem—both the Lancia and Hammond's Opel ran on leaded fuel, and the reserve supply of it they were carrying had been used up.

Because the cars of the film crew ran on diesel fuel, the only option left for the trio was to cut as straight a line as they could through the Kalahari towards the town of Maun.

Despite this, the trio ended their day by taking a moment to observe a number of animals at a watering hole, before camping for the night with James servicing his Mercedes and a bush mechanic clearing out sand from one of the Lancia's carburettors.

The next day, after Hammond had to fix the Opel's steering after the underside of the car hit a tough tree root on the road, the group found themselves encountering a river that they had to cross over.

While Hammond opted to find a crossing point further along the banks, his colleague chose to wade across where they were; one idea the trio had for getting across, which was not shown in the TV broadcast, was to wrap the cars in some tarpaulin, inflated it with air, and then float them across the river, but this was abandoned after the group spent three and a half hours trying it.

Due to the water damage it had received, Hammond was forced to spend the second night fixing his car's engine and electrics with the aid of the bush mechanics from the support team, while the others went ahead to make camp.

Heading off for the final push towards the road to the border crossing, the trio managed to make it across the Delta, but by now, new problems emerged—Hammond's Opel wouldn't properly brake unless he de-clutched and used the handbrake, while the Lancia was now veering off to the right and could not be corrected.

[6] Following the end of filming, Hammond decided that, as he loved his car so much, his Opel would be returning home with him, and began procedures for having it restored and shipped back to Britain.

Both are identified as the originals; the Lancia because of "Lite Bite Cafe" written on the left side of the car and the Mercedes because of the five-speed knob on a four-speed gearbox.