Top Gear Star in a Car

During most programmes, a celebrity 'usually of British fame' is interviewed by Jeremy Clarkson. Discussion is normally amusing, and focuses on car-related matters, such as the celebrity's car history. Then Clarkson, the guest and the studio audience watch the guest's fastest lap on the Top Gear test track.

Suzuki Liana
For the first seven series of its current incarnation, the car driven was a Suzuki Liana. The car used is stock, except a roll cage and racing seats have been added as safety measures. Each guest first practises with The Stig and is then allowed a number of attempts to make his or her way around the test track in the fastest time. However, the star doesn't learn of his or her lap time until they are interviewed, and guests are often visibly anxious awaiting their results while in the studio. Practice laps, crashes and the drivers' facial expressions are also shown for amusement.

The two slowest laps on the Liana celebrity list are held by Terry Wogan and the late Richard Whiteley, both of whom were beaten by completely blind Bosnia war veteran Billy Baxter, who wrenched the Liana through the track under directions from Clarkson in the passenger seat.

The fastest non-professional driver was Ellen MacArthur, which was particularly impressive as she does not drive much due to her career as a long-distance yachtswoman. Unlike most contenders she made no comments to the camera during her lap.

The Liana endured considerable abuse from the stars when undertaking their laps, often to the delight and amusement of the hosts and the audience. In one famous incident actor Michael Gambon clipped the final corner almost rolling the car. It was done in such a spectacular fashion that the corner was henceforth named "Gambon Corner". When Lionel Richie drove the car, one of the front wheels fell off. Trevor Eve also lost a wheel, invoking Clarkson to coin the term "pulling a Lionel." British transport minister Stephen Ladyman added further injury to the Liana by denting the boot when he lost control during practice and slid backwards into a tyre wall. David Soul managed to destroy the clutch of two Lianas during his time on the show due to his unfamiliarity with manual cars. Christopher Eccleston was the only celebrity to use a Liana with an automatic transmission, because a hesitant Eccleston admitted he was "only qualified to drive an automatic." To accommodate his needs, Top Gear succeeded in borrowing an automatic Liana, of which only 40 existed in the UK. As a reference to his role in Doctor Who, the automatic Liana was shown materialising onto the racing track, with a TARDIS materialisation sound effect played over it.

The Liana has also been modified on several occasions. David Soul's Lianas featured a red police light and a white stripe in reference to his Starsky and Hutch days. Johnny Vegas was provided with 'L' plates as he hadn't passed his driving test at the time. When Justin Hawkins came on the show, the Liana he drove had flame decals pasted on it. Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar had an ornate tissue box placed in the back, as a homage to Asian drivers.

In its service, the Liana covered 1600 laps of the circuit, and its tyres and brakes were changed 400 times.

No secret has been made that there is more than one Liana used on the show (in case of breakages). However, eagle-eyed viewers will, on occasion, spot both Lianas apparently being used during one lap (both GX52 HFN and GU03 WLC).

In July 2005, Formula One driver Damon Hill appeared on the show for the first time as the star. This was kept a surprise to the audience and the viewing public, and when Nigel Mansell came on the show, it was covered up in magazines and on the internet by saying that the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car would be Alan Titchmarsh. All Formula One drivers are put into their own list with regard to lap times because of their exceptional skill level. In addition, the Liana was pulled out from retirement to allow Jenson Button to make a time, and Clarkson noted that the Liana would be pulled out for use by Formula 1 drivers in the future.

For some of the laps more than one person has been present in the car. This was the case for Clarkson's run when he had both Hammond and Dawe in the car. Trinny and Susannah were both in the car for each other's runs. Denise Van Outen was in Johnny Vaughan's when he did his lap, Van Outen never did a lap driving the car. Clarkson was also present as a navigator for Billy Baxter's laps.

Chevrolet Lacetti
The start of the eight series marked the start of a new car for �star in a reasonably priced car� in the for of the Chevrolet Lacetti. A new scoreboard & format was released. The new format would see the starts having five practise laps, with a final sixth lap being the timed one.

As a starter for the new car and format, an open day was held for any celebrity who wanted to take part. Seven stars recorded times that day: James Hewitt, (whom the presenters claimed not to recognise, his name on the board is "Well Spoken Man"), comedians Alan Davies and Jimmy Carr, rock stars Rick Wakeman and Justin Hawkins, footballer Les Ferdinand, and actor Trevor Eve who topped the time at 1 minute 47.0 seconds. Jimmy Carr, who held second place in the Liana behind Ellen McArthur, spun off while doing his timed lap and got the slowest time ever around the track at 2 minutes, 8.91 seconds.

On 28 January 2007, Jamie Oliver posted a time of 1:47.70 in melted snow and standing water. Given the rivalry Oliver felt towards fellow celebrity chef, and then-lapboard leader, Gordon Ramsay, Oliver asked that the 4-second allowance normally granted for wet laps be used to put him at the top of the leaderboard "just for a day".

Doctor Who star Billie Piper posted a time of 1:48.3 but was deemed by The Stig to have failed to complete a lap properly, as she failed to negotiate some corners. The Stig suggested a three second time penalty, but after Clarkson consulted the audience, it was decided to let the time stand, which her co-star, David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor himself), tried to overturn on the 23 December 2007 show, at the end of the following series. Clarkson remarked that if Tennant had worn a see-through top (like Piper for her interview), he "would have been faster than Simon Cowell".

In the 11 November 2007 episode, Simon Cowell retook his status as the holder of the fastest lap with a time of 1:45.90 - the Stig apparently claimed that the consistency of his lap times, on both appearances, marked him out as someone who had a natural ability. However, Cowell was knocked off the top spot in Series 11 by Jay Kay, who now holds the fastest time in the Lacetti.

Clarkson has referred to the part of the board with times of 1:51 and over as the "Thespian Zone" due to the propensity for classically-trained actors to post slow times.

Series 11 featured a slight change to the format, with two "Stars" per episode instead of the previous one (although there had been a couple of editions in previous series' with more than one guest). Each of the pair are professionally associated with their fellow guest, usually both either act in or present the same TV show.

The one exception to this was the series finale, where Jay Kay (who once topped the Liana laptime board) managed to knock Simon Cowell off the top position by a tenth of a second. In this instance, however, Jay Kay performed 9 laps, as opposed to 6, and was allowed to use his best time (which in this case was his penultimate lap) rather than the final attempt. Whether this means the rules have been changed permanently or were just ignored to allow Jay Kay to beat Cowell has not been explained on screen.

Top Gear Star in a Car

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