Four of Top Gear’s Best Christmas Moments

For Top Gear fans, Christmas always comes a little early (or a couple of days late) in the form of the Top Gear Christmas Special. Each year the presenters James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond venture to some exotic climes, from Bolivia to Bethlehem, for a festive extravaganza of cars, challenges and utter chaos.

Here are just four of LK Performance’s favourite moments from the Top Gear Christmas Specials – do you have any more to add? 

When the team ‘do a Ganesh’ on their cars in India

The 2011 Christmas Special saw Jeremy, James and Richard travel to India to visit a trade reception, and to celebrate Anglo-Indian relations they adorn their cars with Indian-style decorations– which James describes as ‘doing a Ganesh’ to ensure they start auspiciously. From incense sticks and elephant statues to a toilet seat fitted to a car boot lid – for when the Delhi Belly hits, of course – their Indian-inspired embellishments leave much to be desired. Especially as Richard, instead of painting the Indian flag on the hood of his Mini, accidentally paints a Mexican flag instead.

When the Three Wise Men travelled to Bethlehem

What better way for the Top Gear boys to immerse themselves in the Christmas Story than to drive to Bethlehem in second-hand convertible two-seater sports cars? That’s exactly what they did in the 2010 Christmas Special, overcoming numerous logistical challenges to re-enact the Three Wise Men’s journey across the Middle East. A highlight is when Jeremy and James disconnect the stereo in Richard’s Fiat Barchetta and rig up a second, secret stereo that plays Genesis on loop, and which he cannot switch off. 

When the Christmas gift news got out of hand 

In the 2007 Christmas Special, the crew discuss potential car-related Christmas gifts instead of their usual news segment. However their festive picks were a far cry from steering wheel covers and roof racks; among the items were £1500 Bugatti aftershave, a ‘bobble-head model of the former president of Nissan USA’, Lamborghini Christmas tree baubles and, ahem, a car cigarette-lighter powered sex toy. Richard Hammond sums it up well at the end of the clip: “That was a proper Christmas Day, I think. Everything’s broken.”

When the team took on Bolivia’s Death Road (and survived)

With a name like the ‘Death Road’, it’s no surprise the Top Gear trio were anxious about travelling this narrow, high road during their trip through Bolivia, Chile in the 2009 Christmas Special. Expletives were flying as they peered over the edge of El Camino de la Muerte to see the sheer drops that claim over 300 lives every year, and despite moderate car crashes, engine troubles and fraying nerves, our heroic television team lived to tell the tale. 

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