Top Gear 13

Season 13 of this BAFTA-winning show skids, roars and explodes its way back onto DVD, with man versus machine experiments, exhaustive road tests of the latest models, a look back at the history of motoring, weekly power tests featuring the world's most exotic super-cars... and a surprise revelation.

Hot on the heels of their epic challenge in Vietnam, Jeremy, Richard and James are no less ambitious for Season 13. James goes for a ride with stunt-driving legend Ken Block; Richard travels to Abu Dhabi to test the new Lambo Murcielago LP640-4 SV; the boys buy three £1,500 rear-drive sports cars and somehow find themselves entered in a terrifying French ice race. Elsewhere, Jeremy and James attempt to understand what makes a great Volkswagen advertisement - and then try to film one of their own. Rather predictably, it doesn't go well. And in a television-first, the mysterious Stig takes off his helmet to reveal just who he really is...

The Stig continues to put the rich and famous through their paces out on the test track in ‘The Star in the Reasonably Priced Car'. Celebrities include Michael Schumacher, Olympic Gold sprinter Usain Bolt, actress Sienna Miller (who has just passed her driving test), AC/DC's singer Brian Johnson and ‘the biggest petrolhead in the world' Jay Leno.

Episode 1
Series 13 hits the road running with an extraordinary race as Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May set out to discover what Top Gear might have been like 60 years ago. To this end, James grabs himself a gorgeous old Jaguar XK120 sports car, while Richard chooses to torture himself on the brutal but rather fantastically named Vincent Black Shadow motorbike.

Meanwhile, in an almost unprecedented move, Jeremy decides to take the train. But not just any old train; he is on the footplate of the Tornado, a brand-new Peppercorn A1 Pacific Class steam locomotive built to the original blueprints used to create some of Britain's finest locomotives back in the heyday of the railways. Jeremy has to feed the boiler with a constant supply of coal, without which the whole train will grind to a halt.

The challenge behind this race is simple - the first one to get from London to Edinburgh is the winner - but what happens along the way adds up to one of Top Gear's most incredible and epic races to date.

Also in the program, Formula One racing driver Michael Schumacher is interviewed by Jeremy (and is revealed as The Stig!) before doing a lap to power test the Ferrari FXX.

Episode 2
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May attempt to find the perfect car for 17-year-olds, negotiating insurance companies, accident repairs and a very muddy music festival car park in the process. (Richard Hammond buys a Hyundai S Coupé, James May buys a Volkswagen Golf and Jeremy Clarkson buys a Volvo Estate.)

Plus, Richard goes to Abu Dhabi to test the new Lamborghini Murcielago SV and stages the world's first-ever race between the 1000 horsepower Bugatti Veyron and the mighty McLaren F1.

Back in the studio, the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car is English actor, writer, comedian, author, presenter and director Stephen Fry.

Episode 3
Jeremy tests the mildly insane Mercedes SL Black on the track. Jeremy, Richard and James confront the credit crunch head-on as they attempt to find three sensibly priced small cars that will not make you miserable.

English stand-up comedian Michael McIntyre is the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, and James travels to America to spend a day with stunt-driving legend Ken Block.

Episode 4
Jeremy Clarkson gets chased by the British Army in some of their latest and most deadly toys.

Meanwhile, Richard Hammond and James May compare the new Porsche Panamera against a small envelope, a 39p stamp and the logistical might of the Royal Mail in a race from one end of the British Isles to the other.

Plus, Olympic Gold Medal-winning sprinter Usain Bolt is the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.

Episode 5
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May seek petrolhead heaven in three 1500-pound rear-wheel-drive coupés and somehow find themselves entered in a terrifying French ice race.

Jeremy reviews the Jaguar XFR, and award-winning actress Sienna Miller (Casanova, Mysteries of Pittsburgh, GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra) is the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.

Episode 6
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May immerse themselves in the world of classic cars to find out if they really are, as the anoraks claim, more fun than modern machinery. Setting out in pre-1982 cars they pick up at an auction, the trio are in Majorca to take part in one very big challenge - a seemingly unfathomable classic car rally.

Also in the show, Jeremy drives with dinosaurs in the new BMW Z4, and interviews rock god Brian Johnson (English singer/song writer and lead singer of rock band AC/DC) in the studio.

Episode 7
Jeremy Clarkson and James May unleash the fateful Top Gear mantra ("How hard can it be?") on car advertisements as they are set the task of creating a memorable TV ad for Volkswagen. Despite vowing to work together to deliver a classic piece of advertising, the boys quickly fall out on set, as James tries to fill every second of airtime with immensely complicated information about fuel economy, while Jeremy just wants everything to explode.

Out on the track, Richard Hammond looks for an alternative to boring Germanic sports saloons and discovers the HSV Maloo R8 is an interesting and practical motor for those of a rural persuasion, while Clarkson reviews the Aston Martin V12 Vantage.

Plus American chat show legend Jay Leno is the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.

Jeremy Clarkson
An acclaimed broadcaster and journalist, Jeremy Clarkson has hosted "Top Gear" since 1988. Born in the decade of the hippie, Jeremy has shunned free love and peace, preferring instead to drive around corners very fast, yelling "POWER" at the top of his lungs.

Jeremy has been accused of some amazing things in his time, including destroying a mountain, destroying the environment and destroying Rover cars. In his defense, the mountain is still there, we can all still breathe and Rover would still be here if their management hadn't been so terrible.

Richard Hammond
Affectionately known as Hamster, Richard Hammond is one of the U.K.‘s most popular broadcasters. He began his career at BBC local radio and first graced British TV screens on the cable channel Men & Motors. He proceeded to work on a number of different motoring and lifestyle programs on cable before realizing his dream of cohosting "Top Gear" in 2002.

A versatile presenter, Richard has hosted TV shows from a variety of genres, including science and nature, children's and sci-fi. Women the world over adore him, something about his puppy dog eyes, and wanting to protect him from the nasty Mr. Clarkson. Richard's hobbies include buying hopeless cars and attempting to restore them.

James May
When James was first introduced on "Top Gear," Jeremy claimed he was "clearly a blithering idiot." The reasoning behind this slightly harsh critique was that James' car at the time was a Bentley T2. His first film on "Top Gear" was him telling people how great it is to own a 25-year-old classic luxury car while at the same time admitting it cost a small fortune to run and fuel.

James admits he was once fired from a job with a well-known magazine for putting a secret message in a supplement. It's exactly this kind of fooling around that makes him perfect for the U.K.‘s favorite motor show. James also has his own pilot's license, which has come in handy on "Top Gear" once already (although it would help more if he was allowed to fly at night).

The Stig
Some say he was forged out of steel and fire in the devil's own pit garage, or that he trickled to the surface of an oil pocket deep in the Earth's crust. What do we know about him? Well, he's a seriously sick driver. He posts the lap times for cars on the Top Gear test track, trains celebrity guests to race in the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car feature, and performs any other crazy tasks asked of him. But all we really know is, he's called the Stig.

"It is somehow glorious to watch three middle-aged men tackle these crazy challenges as if they're more important than life or death ... what was so extraordinary about this race was not just the white-knuckle excitement but how much the three stars wanted to win. Thanks to skilful editing, the race had drama, humour and even a touch of pathos as the shell-shocked Clarkson arrived at Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel - only to buckle at the knees as he realised he'd been beaten by May. Frankly, the Top Gear race wipes the floor with the humdrum show parades that are routinely served up by Formula One."
Bill Coles, Daily Express

"Top Gear is my favourite TV programme." Sun

"Good value." Mike Bradley, Observer

"We're cool enough to admit that we regularly tune into this blokey car show - it's not just for fellas you know!" Daily Star