Top Gear challenges

The car, dubbed "Anne Hathaway's Cottage", featured a wood-burning stove, kitchen chairs, a flagstone floor, and wood with a cement base (weighing approximately two tons), even plastering the door trim.

Series Eight, Episode Five Sir Jackie Stewart claimed that he could cut down any of the presenters' driving time around a race circuit by 20 seconds, so James took him up on the offer and they used a TVR Tuscan at Oulton Park.

Clarkson chauffeured Chris Moyles using a greatly lengthened, dual rear axle 1993 Fiat Panda, which as originally engineered had not been road legal, and arriving with only half a car after it split in two before reaching its destination.

Clarkson and May used a specially adapted Toyota Hilux pick-up truck, while Hammond used a sled pulled by a team of ten Canadian Inuit dogs, driven by American explorer Matty McNair.

The Hammerhead underwent a number of safety tests at the Motor Industry Research Association, with the Top Gear trio attempting to fool the examiners by using simple camera trickery.

They converted a 1990 5.3 V12 Jaguar XJS to work on the railway, before building carriages from old caravans for the varying classes of passenger (first, second, "scum") and a buffet car using wheels from Permanent Way[vague] trollies.

The presenters split into two teams, with Clarkson taking the Jaguar and promising to build a "Train GTI", later referred to as the "TGV12", and Hammond and May converting a four-wheel-drive 2001 Audi S8 to pull the existing carriages.

Meanwhile, the buffet car on Hammond's and May's train had caught fire, and after stopping short of Loughborough, the "scum class" carriage was hit and destroyed by passing diesel locomotive D123 Leicestershire and Derbyshire Yeomanry.

May made an electric wheelchair and Hammond created his machine from a mobility trike and a petrol powered builders' wheelbarrow, with a single wheel at the front and crawler tracks at the back.

First, they headed for the local beach where they had to beat a rival holidaymaker in a Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG estate; McGuinness claimed that he scored a moral victory due to the hearse's cheap price.

Joining Harris and Flintoff in Blackpool, he presented his creation, dubbed "Mr Nippy", where McGuinness came up with an idea of serving ice cream for warmer months and a mash cone with pea and gravy for winter.

In the main race, he managed to impress Harris and Mike (his instructor) before switching drivers; but Flintoff reported that the Ginetta started misfiring at the top two gears, putting their stint to a premature end.

Series Thirty Two, Episode Five To celebrate the BBC's centennial anniversary, the presenters discovered what past motorsport was like by participating in a trials race with an Invicta A-Type that McGuinness brought.

A test of ride comfort was then carried out; each presenter drove their car at 30 mph over a cobbled road with a bowl of water in their lap, losing points for every ounce spilt.

The challenges included a lap of the Castle Combe Circuit, changing the oil and sparkplugs of their cars and driving from Chippenham to a "gentlemen's club" in Slough on a set amount of fuel.

Hammond won most of the challenges, and May's Urraco was a constant source of problems due to its poor electrics - it arrived in Bristol on the back of a tow truck, and broke down on almost every leg of the trip.

Hammond went over the budget to get a 1974 Triumph Dolomite Sprint for £1,250, Clarkson got a 1981 Rover 3500 SE for £1,100, which consequently lost two doors in unrelated incidents (one was during the 'water test' after only ten yards), and May spent £1,000 and acquired a 1978 Princess 2200.

The next challenge featured the lorries speed limiters removed in a race around the two-mile bowl of Millbrook to see which was fastest; Hammond won with his lightweight ERF hitting 90 miles an hour.

Series Twelve, Episode Eight The three presenters went on a trip to Vietnam where they were each given 15 million Vietnamese đồng (about US$900) to buy a "set of wheels" able to drive 1,000 miles from Ho Chi Minh City in the south to Halong Bay in the north.

Clarkson's malfunctioning gauges made calculating his speed difficult, May had to cope with Welch's initial lack of interest and navigating experience, and Hammond's Lanchester proved unreliable, breaking down several times per stage and overheating constantly.

Series Sixteen, Episode Two[10] The three were given £3,500 to buy a two-door convertible sports car, find their way to the birthplace of Jesus, and provide Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh like the Three Wise Men.

Finally the presenters decided to form a stunt driving team in front of a live audience at the Essex County Fair (this did not count towards the points challenge), they all collided almost immediately.

The next morning, LeBlanc fitted a custom crash bar made out of steel pipes to protect his damaged back end, and Reid set a challenge of who can reach the closest top speed to its original factory claims.

LeBlanc returned to a salt bed he previously passed through (where his silencer and makeshift crash bar fell off), Harris went into town to look for an airfield to race around, while Reid jacked up the back wheels of his cab and put it in gear to run up easy miles.

Their next challenge was a handling test based on the classic buzz wire children's game at the Daytona Tamworth go kart track, where each presenter received an electric shock if they nudged the barriers.

Harris' Dodge lost its clutch, prompting him to abandon the car, while McGuinness' Oldsmobile blew a fuse (causing its horn to ring at times) and removed its driver side door.

Their first challenge was an economy run in a quarry, where they had to beat The Stig's record of eleven laps in just over 6 minutes in a Vauxhall Corsa - one of Britain's most popular first cars, using £1 worth of petrol.

Next, they headed to Davidstow Circuit for their next test: getting as close as they could to 50 mph while having their entire cars' interior covered with plastic wrap and sanitary materials and themselves wearing personal protective equipment.

Afterwards, at the water splash test, McGuinness went first and cleared the obstacle, but Harris got stuck and needed a push from Flintoff, whose Volvo in turn refused to start in the middle of the pond, requiring a tow back to the surface.

Then, Harris and McGuinness continued their journey from Bangkok, now heading north near the border with Laos with bales of grass on their trucks' bed; at this point, Fintoff underwent isolation after contracting COVID-19, forcing him to abandon the rest of the trip.