Top Gear - Series 12

The 12th series of Top Gear contained eight episodes, and premiered on 2 November 2008, with the usual presenting team of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and The Stig. Clarkson was injured while filming the series, after crashing a lorry through a brick wall at 56 mph in the first episode's HGV challenge. The running joke regarding the Dacia Sandero continues from series 11, with the alteration that Clarkson is now the one making the announcement with feigned enthusiasm, to utter indifference from May. Each news segment also features one of the hosts wearing something unusual, like slippers or a garishly patterned shirt. The only reference to this is that one of the other hosts will, at some point in the segment, ask if they're wearing it for a bet. The Stig, instead of listening to music during power laps, now listens to morse code. The final episode, the "Top Gear: Vietnam Special", aired two weeks after the rest of the series as part of the BBC's Christmas line-up. The series was followed by four "Best Of Top Gear" specials, charting the best moments from Series 11 and 12.

8 Episodes

Episode 1

Season 12 - Episode 1

Jeremy, Richard and James buy second-hand lorries and set about discovering how easy it is to become an HGV driver. The Porsche 911 and Lamb...

Episode 2

Season 12 - Episode 2

Jeremy, Richard and James travel to the US to take a road trip from San Francisco to the heart of Utah in three new-generation muscle cars, ...

Episode 3

Season 12 - Episode 3

Clarkson, Hammond and James take on the challenge of making an ordinary second-hand car lap the test track as fast as a brand-new, purpose-b...

Episode 4

Season 12 - Episode 4

Jeremy, Richard and James are challenged to drive from the heart of Switzerland to the north-western coast of England on just one tank of fu...

Episode 5

Season 12 - Episode 5

Richard celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Ferrari Daytona by taking one back to its spiritual home - the Italian Riviera - before tryin...

Episode 6

Season 12 - Episode 6

Jeremy asks whether the Eastern bloc countries ever made a good car, and Richard assesses the performance of new German sports model the Ver...

Episode 7

Season 12 - Episode 7

James visits California to learn about the hydrogen-fuelled Honda Clarity, and Jeremy assesses the performance of Tesla's battery-powered su...

Vietnam Special

Season 12 - Episode 8

Arriving in Vietnam, Jeremy, Richard and James have to travel the entire length of the country in just eight days. But first they have to bu...