Top Gear (series 13)
| Top Gear (series 13) | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster
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| Starring | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 7 |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Original release | 21 June – 2 August 2009 |
| Series chronology | |
The thirteenth series of Top Gear aired during 2009 and consisted of seven episodes, beginning on 21 June and concluding on 2 August. Despite forced budget cuts, the series featured more foreign travel and more races, as well as newer challenges and power tests.
If Top Gear had been aired in 1949, there would have likely have been a debate as to whether the car would be the fastest way to get from London to Edinburgh, Scotland, or if it would be either the motorbike or the train. The trio decide that they will find out exactly which would have been best in 1949 with a race to the north, with Hammond riding the fastest bike at the time and his boyhood dream, the Vincent Black Shadow, and May driving the "Bugatti Veyron" of the time, the Jaguar XK120, while Clarkson finds himself shovelling coal into the boiler of an LNER Peppercorn A1 4-6-2 locomotive no 60163 Tornado. Starting from King's Cross, Hammond and May find themselves sticking to the A1 Road (because motorways have not been invented yet), while Clarkson deals with soot and heat, as the train thunders him to victory, with all three vying to be first to reach the finish line at the bar of the Balmoral Hotel. Elsewhere, Clarkson is testing out the Lotus Evora around the track, while the Stig takes the Ferrari FXX for a power lap before coming into the studio and finally revealing who he is.
The presenters find themselves going out and buying a car that would be perfect for 17-year-olds, as well as their parents and the insurance companies, with a budget of £2,500 to cover their purchase plus the insurance for it. For Clarkson, he believes the perfect car is the Volvo 940 Turbo Estate he bought, yet Hammond argues that it is the Hyundai Scoupe he picked because of it being a coupé, while May reasons that the small and cheap Volkswagen Golf Mk III he chose is the best. To find out who did well, the trio face a series of challenges, including modifying their cars in the way that 17-year-old would do to attract girls, packing up a camp site and leaving, sneaking back to their parents' house without making too much noise, repairing their cars after they have been rolled over, and then completing a speed challenge while both smashing into things a teenager would hit and performing a handbrake turn. Elsewhere, Stephen Fry is the latest star in the reasonably priced car, while Hammond is in Abu Dhabi to see if the new Lamborghini Murciélago LP670-4 SV is a hypercar in a race against a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Edition, before taking on the Stig in a drag race to see which car of their decade, is the fastest in the world - the McLaren F1 (driven by The Stig) and the Bugatti Veyron (driven by Hammond).
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