Gearing up for more motoring madness
It’s season 25 of Top Gear and although it took some time for presenters Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid to warm up to each other, they look pretty comfortable this season. Season 25 was filmed in locations including Japan, the US, Portugal, Italy and just outside Guildford. ALYSSIA BIRJALAL speaks to Chris and Rory to find out what viewers are in store for.
LAST season things were quite epic. Has there been a big focus to up the ante for season 25?
Chris: I think the focus has always been for Top Gear to be visually spectacular, to be hugely ambitious in terms of the places it travels to and the way it presents the vehicles it features. However, if you define your success by only being more and more “epic” than the previous series, you very quickly have to probably fly yourself to Mars because you can’t keep “out-epicing” your previous efforts.
So I think Rory, myself and Matt trust the production team and especially Claire (Pizey, executive producer) and Al (Alex Renton, series editor) to always push things as far as we can but to not define ourselves by always being more outrageous than before. Suffice to say the things we do are remarkable and it’s amazing to be a part of.
What has been the most exciting stunt you have filmed for this season?
Rory: I think fear often becomes one of the dominant emotions you feel. So you’re in a car, you’re about to do something – you don’t necessarily feel excited by it but you certainly feel apprehension. I often ask myself, have they triple checked that this is 100% safe? And they definitely do. They often ask you to drive at a certain speed over a certain object which will obviously upset the car in a particular way but you always go into it with a sense of trepidation.
What was one of the toughest locations to film in this season?
Chris: I think a Top Gear shoot is always challenging, even Dunsfold, our Surrey home, on a cold January day.
Which car would you consider the best from this season?
Rory: The Suzuki Ignis. It’s a small hatchback. It’s not as fast as some of the McLarens and Ferraris that my esteemed co-hosts might have enjoyed this season, but wait until you see what we do with it and where we put it.
It’s a very capable little car and I think it will surprise many people.
Chris: I want to mercilessly make fun of Rory for saying that, but actually the Ignis is a cool little car – it’s one of those cars that only the Japanese could make. Small, funky and it doesn’t conform to a previous template of a car.
It’s fresh thinking and I’m a big fan of it. Obviously it’s nothing like as exciting as a McLaren 720S so he’s wrong, and this is Top Gear after all and not some white goods show so it’s a worthy statement but wrong.
You all have kids, would you ever allow them to do some of the crazy stunts from the show?
Chris: You’ve seen what the average child can do to itself if left in a room with no objects at all, so their lives are on a minute-by-minute basis more hazardous than anything Rory and I could do with a supercar and 12 long spikes.
Rory: I don’t think I have much of a choice. My little boy is absolutely obsessed with cars and I think the moment he gets his driver’s licence he’ll be unstoppable.
He’ll find himself in situations I’ll be absolutely terrified of, but I won’t have any choice in the matter. They already have their little electric cars they drive around on in the neighbourhood and I have no control over that. They just go pretty much wherever they want to go, on their own little adventures, . Catch Matt, Rory and Chris on Top Gear on Wednesdays at 8pm on BBC Brit (DStv Channel 120).