The image above was widely circulated on Twitter. It was originally published to the Argentine version of the website Autoblog. It was taken several days before the crew arrived in Bariloche.
In September and October, 2014, one of Top Gear's biggest and most high-profile controversies erupted while the crew was filming for an episode of the show in Argentina, eventually leading to the production team being forced to flee the country. The incident was sparked over a number plate that was displayed by one of the cars used during the shoot, which was interpreted as being a reference to the Falklands War.
Background[]
On the 19th of September, 2014, the Top Gear crew arrived in the Argentinian city of Bariloche to begin filming the show's Patagonia Special, which would see the team of presenters drive to the Argentinian town of Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego.
Upon arrival, photos of the team's cars were published to the internet. Argentinians took to Twitter in the days following to protest the use of a number plate of Clarkson's Porsche 928 that read 'H982 FKL'. This was interpreted as being a reference to the Falklands War of 1982, a conflict between Britain and Argentina for control over the Falkland Islands.
The conflict over the Falklands is a controversial subject for many Argentines, especially residents of Tierra del Fuego due to their close proximity to the islands and heavy losses in the conflict. As such, anti-British sentiment is strong among Argentines in Tierra del Fuego.
On the 2nd of October, 2014, the crew arrived in Ushuaia. By the time they had arrived, the Top Gear crew had become aware of the online backlash over Clarkson's plate, and were said to have replaced it with a 'H1 VAE' plate, with plans to swap this out for a 'BE11 END' plate later on. However, checking the episode shows the original plate is on the car throughout most of the filming.
Events of the 2nd of October[]
Earlier on the 2nd of October, 2014, the crew had been filming at a nearby ski resort just out of town. There, they encountered a group of local protesters who warned that men from a local trucking union were going to arrive if the crew did not leave the country immediately. At the advice of their local guides, the team left the ski field and retreated to their hotel in Ushuaia. There, they encountered more protesters and local police officers, who attempted to defuse the situation. As the day continued, the number of protesters swelled, and the local police force advised the production crew to leave the country, saying that they could not guarantee their safety. Talks with the leaders of the protests yielded no results, so the crew agreed to leave that evening.
Clarkson, Hammond, and May, as well as some female members of the production crew, were flown out of Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, while the rest of the team were given a police escort to the Chilean border at San Sebastian.
In the evening, the crew left Ushuaia and headed towards the border with three police cars as an escort. Along the route, the crew noticed local drivers pulling up alongside the convoy, checking for the Porsche and its number plate and taking photos. Upon arriving in the Argentinian town of Tolhuin, the convoy was blocked by a lorry that had been placed across two lanes of traffic. As the convoy slowed down, protesters gathered by the roadside began throwing rocks and eggs at the crew, breaking several windows and injuring crew members. Police were unable to diffuse the situation, and the crew were forced to flee. Later, the crew were informed that a sizeable crowd had formed in the much larger town of Rio Grande and were awaiting the convoy. The production team decided to pull over, repair what damage they could, and ditch the three 'star cars' at the side of the road. The team elected to leave the road and off-road to a river border they had crossed the day before. At the time, the border was closed for the day, so the crew were forced to cut through the fence and illegally cross into Chile.
Fallout[]
The Top Gear team, including executive producer Andy Wilman, defended the use of the Porsche's number plate, and their handling of the situation. Though the team later proved that the plate had been registered to Clarkson's Porsche since the early nineties, many in Argentina and Britain were not convinced that the car had not been chosen on purpose for its registration. Whether or not the team was aware of the plate and its possible inference before filming commenced remains a controversial issue, though the BBC, Top Gear, and Clarkson stand by their statements that the plate had not been chosen on purpose, that they were clueless as to its interpretation, and that they were only notified about the issue once filming was already underway.
The Porsche, Ford, and Lotus that were abandoned were later seized by local police. The Top Gear team later tried unsuccessfully to recover them; their current whereabouts is unknown.
In late October, the Argentine Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Alicia Castro, met with the Director General of the BBC to demand an apology for Top Gear's stunt in Ushuaia, which the BBC refused. The BBC announced that it would air the footage of the incident regardless.
Courts in Argentina have attempted to try Clarkson and the team for the incident, with no success.
The team referenced the incident throughout the twenty-second series of the show, notably during the show's first episode when Clarkson offered a faux apology for the incident, during a road-trip in the Northern Territory where the trio mocked the plates on their cars as being offensive to the Australian Republican movement, and during an interview with Margot Robbie and Will Smith, who had recently filmed a movie in Argentina. As a sign of gratitude for the assistance of local Chilean diplomats during the incident, the trio hid Chilean imagery throughout episodes of the twenty-second series, including wearing Chilean flag pins, drinking from Chilean mugs, and displaying a photo of Chilean footballer Alex Sanchez with no context.