Top Gear (series 12)
| Top Gear (series 12) | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster
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| Starring | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Original release | 2 November – 28 December 2008 |
| Series chronology | |
The twelfth series of Top Gear aired during 2008 and consisted of 7 episodes, beginning on 2 November and concluding on 14 December. It was subsequently followed by the "Top Gear: Vietnam Special" two weeks later, on 28 December as part of the BBC's 2008 Christmas line-up, and was later followed in 2009 with four "Best Of Top Gear" specials throughout January and the beginning of February.
Like the previous series, the News segment of Series 12 featured two running jokes. The first was a return of the previous running joke regarding the Dacia Sandero, with Clarkson making the announcements about it with feigned enthusiasm, much to utter indifference from May. The second was that one of hosts would often turn up on the segment wearing something unusual, with one of the other hosts asking if they were doing it for a bet.
Clarkson, Hammond and May see how easy it is to be an HGV driver, by each buying a second-hand lorry cab within a budget of £5,000 - May buys a Scania 94D, Clarkson buys a Renault Magnum and Hammond gets an ERF EC11. Heading for the "Top Gear's Secret Alpine Test Location" (in Bedfordshire), the trio undertake a series of challenges, including power-sliding their lorries, tackling the Alpine course while transporting a trailer with a valuable piece of (unsecured) cargo, seeing how fast their lorry is and attempting a hill start without breaking something precious to them. For their final challenge, they return to the test track, where they find how quickly they can brake after ploughing into an "obstacle" at high speed. Elsewhere, Clarkson is testing out the Porsche 997 GT2 and Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 on the track, and chat show legend Michael Parkinson is in "t'reasonably priced car".
Clarkson and May can't decide if imported Chinese-made cars will be any good, which got them thinking about whether the Communists ever historically built a good car, and are soon taking a look at a range of them, including the Lada Riva, Moskvitch 408, the East German Wartburg. Elsewhere, Clarkson decides to a proper road test like in the old days in response to a complaint, and does a "serious" review of the Ford Fiesta, while Hammond is seeing if the new, German built Veritas RS III is a better track-day car than the Caterham 7 Superlight R500, and Mayor of London (at the time of broadcast), Boris Johnson, tries to drive fast in the reasonably priced car on a wet track.
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