FUEL FOR LOVE

A candid conversation with new Top Gear frontmen Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc

M ATT LeBlanc strides into the room, beaming like a Cheshire cat. He waves to me. “Hey, how are ya?” he says, and such is his effusiveness that for a moment I think I’ve run into an old friend. Which I suppose I have.

We are in a wood-panelled dining room at the glorious Langham Place Hotel in London. Sitting across the vast mahogany table from me is Chris Evans and a nervous BBC producer who keeps looking at his watch.

Chris and Matt almost hug each other. Brothers in arms — which the new faces of Top Gear had better be if they’re going to get out from under the long gargoyle shadow cast by Jeremy Clarkson.

Matt plunks down next to Chris and beams at the bare-fang-grinning press pack. A British reporter jumps in right away — no holding back there, mate. “Are you nervous?” he asks. Matt: No. Chris: It’s like making a movie. You’ve got to be focused but that takes away the nerves.

Matt: Most nervous for me was Monday night, having to do a burnout in that Mustang. I didn’t want to run anybody over.

Chris: My TV shows are live. It makes me feel sick, like when you get called to see the headmaster. You don’t care if he hits you, just f ****** do it! When we were sat in the Mustang, I was nervous then. Matt: Yeah, because I was driving.

Another British reporter chimes in with quavering voice: “Is it a show about cars or is it a show for a certain type of man?” (Water gurgles into a glass, gloop-gloop-gloop; Chris thuds the jug down, right in front of my mic).

Matt: Hopefully it’s a show for a certain type of everyone. The cars will still be the stars of the show. And we’ll have a few laughs and the show travels around. It’s kinda like a travel show, we get to experience a bit of culture from here and there. Hopefully there’s a bit of something for everyone.

Chris: Yeah. The car will be more of a star than it has been for the last few years (he pronounces his a’s in that lovely Northern way, as in “at”). The cars go back to the centre of the story. People are always interested in the cars — what they look like, how fast they go, how much they cost, how economical they are . . . The raw material is different cars every week. When Matt’s show was being written, you had to create this heat every week, which is why there are so many writers. On

Top Gear we go in to the studio to meet the writers and all you can see on the computer screens are maps or visa applications, because it’s a logistics thing.

Matt: The hard bit for me is getting a shot for this and a shot for . . . typhoid and hepatitis. Where are we going? Why do we keep getting jabbed with needles? This was supposed to be fun, do a little driving.

The reporter is not satisfied. “When I say type of man,” she says, “I mean . . . the criticism from the previous incarnation is that it was very much a male-orientated and male-dominated show. It was about cars, but cars for blokes.”

Chris: Is that an opinion or is that actual statistics?

Reporter: It was a lot of comment . . .

Chris: Comment-schmomment. I’d like to know what the demographics are. I think a lot of women watch Top Gear.

Producer: It was enjoyed by families as well . . .

Matt: This is not a show about statistics of cars — that one is so many horsepower and this pulls so many Gs in a turn and is this quick through the slalom. I mean, we go to these far-off places and do these reviews. It’s almost like being able to travel from the comfort of your couch. That’s got a unisex appeal to it.

Chris: When it’s announced that you’re doing Top Gear you don’t have to ask anybody’s opinion because people just come and tell you. The people who come to talk to me tell me who’s watching. And that’s a lot of women. And loads and loads of children.

Matt: I was just coming back from LA and Cate Blanchett stopped me on the jetway and said: “Is it true you’re the new host of Top Gear? Can I be on the show?” (The press pack cackle as one). So there’s your answer.

Reporter: Will she be? Matt: I hope so. Chris: He texted me straight away.

German reporter: What other dream guests have you got on your list?

Chris: I want Beckham on. He loves his cars, Becks, and we love him. We asked him what his three favourite cars were. No 1 is his Land Rover Defender — he always gives the right answer, Becks. Then a 1976 Aston Martin Vantage, and then his Audi RS6. The car he bought with his first real wages was a purple VW Golf.

There follows a lengthy explanation from Chris about meeting Alex Renton, series editor and one of the few survivors of the old team, at home in Primrose Hill. “How do I make Top Gear?” asked Chris. So Alex popped round to tell him. It took weeks.

Alex hired a team while Chris sat down with all the past episodes of the show and watched how it had evolved. As he tells the story, Chris brims with the happiness of someone who, while out for a ramble in the woods, has tripped over a gold ingot. As he talks, I remember watching him on TV in 1995 on his show called

Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush, on which participants could win an all-expenses-paid trip to Greece or Grimsby.

Me: On your show in 1995, you drove a dish of chicken korma (with a golf club) into a live studio audience and I remember thinking that was inspired television. What kind of insanity have you got in store for us?

Chris: You can’t start with the insanity. Matt, explain the lowhanging fruit theory. Matt: Yeah, the rule for us [on Friends] was low-hanging fruit is off limits. You can’t pick the

WHEN WE WERE SAT IN THE MUSTANG, I WAS NERVOUS THEN