As you all know last week the Veyron went around the Top Gear test track, after waiting 2 years! Shock and horror it was in 4th place, being beaten by the Gumpert, Ascari and Koenigsegg. Only then to be trounced by the Pagani Zonda F Roadster.. so what went wrong? My personal belief is that they Veyron's weight attributed its slowness, its a hefty 2,000 kg! And also the fact that it took so long to get onto the track, 2 years in-fact. If it would have been on the track instantly it could have been the leader, but ah well!

Top Gear was launched in 1977; it was a 30 minute program that was produced by BBC Birmingham. The 3 original presenters were Angela Rippon, Noel Edmonds, and William Woollard. Later on Jeremy Clarkson joined Top Gear through making a "test" documentary about the Citroen 2CV; sadly that video is lost and cannot be found in the BBC's archive. Also, other famous names such as Tiff (Timothy) Needell, Chris Goffey and Tony Mason. The theme song used for Top Gear throughout its whole life is Jessica by the Allman Brothers. In 1988, views went through the roof as Jeremy joined Top Gear, it became much more humorous, then Vicki Butler-Henderson joined in 1997, the second female presenter of Top Gear to date, after Michele Newman. Jeremy Clarkson left Top Gear in 1999 to make other shows such as "Clarkson's Car Years" and "Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld" which weren't that good. But, thanks to this, the views rolled down from 6 million to under 3 million, so, to replace him, James May came in, so it wasn’t in "new" Top Gear that he was first introduced to Top Gear, James reviewed cars such as the Rover 75 and Lexus IS etc, and after his departure, 2 presenters remain, Quentin Wilson and Kate Humble, the 3rd one, Brendan Coogan, left because of conviction of drink driving. But, because of low viewing figures in 2001, the program was cancelled. After this, everyone retired to Fifth Gear, wanted to be called Top Gear, but the BBC still made the Top Gear magazine. This Top Gear is now known as "Old Top Gear", since it wasn't studio based and was only 30 minutes long.

Only a year after Old Top Gear was axed, 2002 was the year for today's Top Gear, and hour long studio based program. The theme tune stayed the same, and 2 new presenters joined Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe, who was replaced by James May in the second series. And, not to forget, The Stig joined Top Gear as their Test Driver. Also, new features were added, the track for instance, then the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car, Car News, Cool Wall, and Power Laps. At first, the tickets for Top Gear were free for the 400 people who applied per show. But, during the filming of series 8, the crash happened, making a huge delay. Also, in series 7, the Top Gear Dog, a Labradoodle, joined, but was lazy and was, ironically, car sick. Then for Red Nose Day, Top Gear of the Pops followed the demise of Top of the Pops, and was the only Top Gear episode ever to be shown live on air. The next series will start in October 2007, people say it would return in the summer, but, Top Gear need 4 months of filming to make enough material to create a 6 episode series. But, their biggest viewing where 8 million, BBC 2's biggest in 10 years, bigger than the Big Brother Finale (after the racist happenings). In November 2005, Top Gear won an international Emmy in the non-scripted entertainment category. But, Jeremy Clarkson also made a lot of bad comments, i.e., a sat nav from Germany, that only leads to Poland, and has managed to create and Anti-Clarkson campaign, and there is now a petition on the Downing Street website, until April 2008, that Jeremy Clarkson should be the next Prime Minister.

The Stig, black Stig known as Perry McCarthy, who was killed off in a stunt with the HMS Invincible, but wasn’t "killed", just an excuse for him to leave. We now have the White Stig, who is much quicker around the track, i.e., Black Stig went around in the Liana in 1; 46 and White Stig went around in 1:44.4. Then, Big Stig was featured in the American Show of Top Gear.

So that’s the history up to now, thanks for reading.

Info from Wikipedia, Written by Llyr Owen Jones

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